Wooden Drascombe

The famed Drascombe Lugger Beautifully restored daysailer takes to salt water

by Geoffrey Toye

Current builders

When Guillemot arrived, newly painted and jaunty, the wind had scrubbed the clouds from an ice-blue sky. Stewart Brown appeared first. Stewart is director of Churchouse Boats Ltd., the current Drascombe builders. He introduced Joan Swindells as Guillemot's owner. I asked how they felt about the sailing conditions. Stewart lifted his nose to the near gale, pronounced it a nice breeze and weren't we lucky the sun was shining? He then began to dress the Lugger in her working rig. I was to see that his confidence was entirely justified.

The Drascombe Lugger might be a contender for best known among the traditional open daysailers designed in modern times in the United Kingdom from lines that arrived from the north with the Vikings; she has a reputation for ease of handling and sea-kindliness beyond her modest size. Her provenance also lies in another part of England rich in maritime history and a tradition of seaworthy craft: the fiercely competitive counties of Devon and Cornwall pointing westward to the turbulent Atlantic approaches off Land's End.

The Drascombe Lugger we know today is the evolved product of a team of individuals drawing upon solid practical experience, much of it military. She was designed by John Watkinson, a veteran of naval service in World War II, who completed a distinguished military career and left the Royal Navy in 1958.

He had married Kate, a Signals Wren, in 1954. The two set up a boatbuilding yard, Kelly and Hall, in Devon, but sold the yard in 1964 to sail a 13-ton ketch to the Mediterranean. This was evidently not their most enjoyable adventure; they returned to England with firm thoughts of daysailers.

Last updated: 18 September, 2006

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