St Ives Lugger

St Ives Lugger

The West Cornish luggers from the north coast, almost entirely based in St. Ives (or perhaps nearby Hayle) generally came to two sizes, the larger boats up to approximately 55ft in overall hull length were used for driving for mackerel. Prior to 1830 these craft were open boats, having half decks up forward built in after about 1832 and were fully decked by 1848. They sailed far and wide in search of shoals, joining in with the Irish mackerel fishery off the south coast, drift-netting for herring off the east coast of Scotland and England and, again after herring, fishing off the Isle of Man. So impressed were the Manx fishers with these craft that they adopted the design for themselves and referred to the Cornish craft as ‘nickies’, their own then becoming known as them. Most were double-enders.

These boats had accommodation, usually situated aft, for up to seven crew who might remain at sea for months on end. All were rigged with a dipping lugsail on the foremast and a standing lug on the higher mizzen and sheeted onto a long bumpkin. Sails were high-peaked and some set mizzen topsails to achieve speeds in excess of ten knots. The influence for the higher than normal peaked sails is said to have been imported from Brittany, first adopted by the St. Ives men and later taken to Mount’s Bay during a regatta in about 1850 when the boat won hands down.

Pilchard drivers were between 20 and 30 feet in length and many tended to be smaller versions of the mackerel drivers in hull shape though most were half-deckers with the smallest being open. They set a dipping lug on the mainmast and a smaller standing lug on the mizzen, again sheeted to a bumpkin. They rarely set topsails. Intermediate craft, called ‘half-‘n’-halfers’, filled the gap between the smaller and large craft, most of which were half-decked and thus only able to fish locally, though these followed the shoals of pilchards, mackerel and herring when in season.

St Ives was more open to the elements thus the boats, in adverse sea conditions, had withstand a heavy pounding as they grounded on the ebb tide. Legs were sometimes adopted but these commonly broke under the constant surging. Boats were therefore fuller bodied and flatter in the floors to sit upright on the hard sand and heavier in build to cope with the stresses.