Sampson Boat Co · video

What this video covers

Leo Goolden visits the Pellew build site in the UK for a progress update on what chief shipwright Luke Powell describes as the largest traditionally rigged gaffer under construction in the country.▶ 0:28 Pellew is a replica traditional English pilot cutter, and since Leo's visit six months earlier the crew has laid deck planks, installed interior bulkheads, fitted bulwark cap rails, and begun fabricating the mast and stern cabin.▶ 4:58 The mast is a 56-foot Douglas fir spar, 14.5 inches in diameter at the base, sourced from a single tree planted in 1903 at Gunners Lake near Plymouth on the Cornwall-Devon border; the tree's clean 60-foot stem yields a nearly knot-free mast.▶ 1:47 The 45-foot boom, 9 inches in diameter, and the 30-foot bowsprit are laminated from the same felled trees to prevent sagging — a technique Powell explains is necessary for horizontal spars but unnecessary for a vertical mast under compression.▶ 3:54 Powell discusses the project's training mission: apprentices work up through the smaller gaffer Agnes before taking the helm of Pellew, whose boom alone matches Agnes's mast in size.▶ 8:43 Philanthropist Brian Payne funds the charity-run yard, which plans charter work and a future community of start-up boatbuilding units for graduates.▶ 12:41

More from Sampson Boat Co

crossing the North Atlantic on my wooden boat day 6Jul 2026Tally Ho in Florida! ...preparing for our longest voyage.Jul 2026An update from the ocean - Cuba to the BahamasJun 2026Sailing into Cuba with half a ton of humanitarian suppliesJun 2026

From Sampson Boat Co — see the channel’s boat, crew, and every analysed video.