- Workboat becomes yacht
- "Jolie Brise" starts in the first Fastnet Race
- Highlight of the racing career
- Constant maintenance
- The "Jolie Brise" finds its last owner
- To experience
- The cutter has crossed the Atlantic six times with pupils
- The students learn more than just sailing on board
- Technical data of the pilot cutter "Jolie Brise"
Text by Sam Fortescue
In particular, her high, vertical stern and the wide overhanging stern, the strong, elongated lines and the cutter rigging that gives her her name bear witness to the grace and grandeur of a bygone era of boatbuilding. Nevertheless, the gaff cutter "Jolie Brise" is still as active as it is present in its 105th year of operation. A rather unusual operating model ensures the preservation of this sailing icon of British maritime history. The boat has belonged to Dauntsey's School in the landlocked county of Wiltshire in the south-west of the island since 1977. The pupils of the boarding school, which was founded in 1542 during the reign of King Henry VIII, sail and maintain "Jolie Brise" and use her intensively. They have already crossed the Atlantic on her six times, for example. This year, she will be in use for almost 200 days, with a full programme that will take her to Norway and Iceland in 2019.
"Jolie Brise" became famous after winning the first Fastnet Race in 1925, but began her life as a pilot boat in Le Havre, France, in 1913. She is considered to be the last pilot cutter to be built there. Tragically, she was basically redundant when she was launched at the Alfred Paumells shipyard.
Workboat becomes yacht
Steamships had replaced sailing yachts. So "Jolie Brise", at 17 metres above deck, the most powerful pilot cutter in the fleet, was reduced to smaller operations on the Seine and its estuary instead of serving large ocean liners and freighters in the much more profitable coastal areas. Although outdated, there were many things that were outstanding and forward-looking on this boat. She was designed by 33-year-old designer Alexandre Paris. He had studied the work of the legendary Norwegian Colin Archer, who in turn had reformed the design of many typical work and lifeboats.
Paris had previously carried out studies on pilot cutters and took the opportunity to give "Jolie Brise" an inclined keel and a rounder forefoot. Equipped as a gaff cutter, she could be sailed by just one skipper and two deckhands, even in the worst conditions. But after just four years, the boat was sold to a tuna fisherman. Here she proved her skill and robustness by surviving a storm that was reportedly capable of sinking five other "Thoniers".
In the meantime, "Jolie Brise" had attracted the attention of a passionate Oxbridge sportsman named Evelyn George Martin. He admired her "large freeboard forward and the full foredeck, her hull lines in general". He had "Jolie Brise" converted from a commercial vessel to a yacht - a rather streamlined process that involved little more than the addition of a toilet, a water tank and a chart table on the inside. On deck, it was more complex: the ship needed a spinnaker and a jib for more speed, which required different halyards, sheets and blocks. New fittings were needed, including modified backstays to support the topmast.
"Jolie Brise" starts in the first Fastnet Race
At that time, there were endeavours to create a new offshore race in British waters. Dedicated private individuals and the editors of the English sailing magazine "Yachting Monthly" devised the course that would come to symbolise offshore sailing, today's Rolex Fastnet Race: starting from the Isle of Wight, along the southern English coast, around Fastnet Rock in the Celtic Sea and back to Plymouth via the Isles of Scilly.
With a field of only seven competitors in that first year and the 605-nautical-mile course close to the coast, which offers hardly any offshore conditions, there were still some critics. But even then, "Jolie Brise" showed her potential as a racing boat when owner Martin crossed the finish line off Plymouth harbour after six days, 14 hours and 45 minutes, winning the race by a considerable margin - and ultimately on calculated time.
The boat was fast in the light winds that characterised the first Fastnet, and Martin felt that this was at least partly due to the larger wardrobe he had given "Jolie Brise". A brand new mainsail and a huge 102 square metre spinnaker will undoubtedly have helped too.
His second attempt at the Fastnet in 1926 was less successful. However, it still resulted in third place in a field of nine yachts. In the gale force winds that greeted the crew at Fastnet Rock, Martin had no choice but to tack, back the headsails and tighten the rudder. However, he was only partially able to make up for the lost time later in the light winds. The following year, Martin and "Jolie Brise" went their separate ways. She finished fifth in the Bermuda Race and won the coveted Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America.
Highlight of the racing career
Martin's attitude to ocean racing, however, was forever inspired by "Jolie Brise": "If a man doubts that his ship is capable of braving a heavy storm, he cannot set sail with confidence. On the other hand, there is nothing that gives him such a strong sense of pride and security as the experience of such a storm being weathered without mishap."
Under the joint ownership of Warren Ferrier and Dr Brownlow Smith, "Jolie Brise" was fitted with an engine and an additional cabin. In the Fastnet Race of 1927, the crew gave up within sight of the finish line. The boat kept drifting off in the counter-current. It is not known whether this experience affected the owners' enthusiasm for racing - but it is certain that "Jolie Brise" was sold again after this inglorious episode in her otherwise almost flawless existence.
Constant maintenance
Keeping the boat in shape is a seemingly endless task due to its age and even more so its intensive use. Toby Marris and weekend volunteers from Dauntsey's school sailing club will spend most of the winter sanding, painting and varnishing to get it looking good again. "We're doing everything ourselves, apart from complicated electrics and electronics," says the skipper.
Last year there were new sails made of yellow-brown Dacron. "We only expect them to last five years, but they have increased the boat's performance by around 15 per cent," says Toby in amazement. This winter, some wooden parts need to be replaced and they are considering moving the fuel tank from the engine room to the bilge.
The new owner Robert "Bobby" Somerset took her over, and it was to be the high point of her racing career: "Jolie Brise" won the Fastnet race again in 1929 and 1930. This was not only by time sailed, but also by the more relevant calculated time. This makes the decommissioned French pilot cutter the most successful ship in this offshore classic, which is still held today under the name Rolex Fastnet Race. No other ship, no other established name like "Dorade", no "Stormy Weather", no "Myth of Malham" has managed to achieve three victories.
"Jolie Brise" also brought home the Queen of Spain's Cup in Santander in 1929 and repeated this victory the following year. In the 1932 Bermuda Race, she turned back at great risk to save the crew of the schooner "Adriana" from a fire. All but the skipper were rescued. "Jolie Brise" escaped with slightly charred rigging. This operation earned Somerset the ship its second Bluewater Medal.
The "Jolie Brise" finds its last owner
Other owners followed. Sometimes they had regatta ambitions, sometimes they were purely leisure skippers. With the threat of war in Europe, the boat was confiscated by the Royal Navy and stored in a tidal harbour in Shoreham-by-Sea.
The next new enthusiastic but equally clueless owners changed the name to "Pleasant Breeze" and wanted to sail to New Zealand. However, they got no further than Lisbon. There, the ship was sold to a Portuguese family and used for sail training. It was not until after the Portuguese revolution in 1974 that the pilot cutter saw the waters of the English Channel again. Owner Luis Lobato received permission from the regime for a day trip, but extended this to London with his family on board.
To experience
Jolie Brise" usually sails with the pupils of Dauntsey School, but despite the rather full sailing programme, there are occasional opportunities to sail on the boat. Next year, the pilot cutter will not be taking part in the Fastnet race, so there will be charter opportunities in the summer. The route of "Jolie Brise" is as challenging as it is attractive, taking her along the Scottish west coast, northwards along the Caledonian Canal diagonally through Scotland and back southwards along the British North Sea coast to London.
Further information at https://www.dauntseys.org/life-at-dauntseys/adventure/jolie-brise or contact the skipper Toby Marris directly at t.marris@dauntseys.org.
There she served the Lobatos as a houseboat for several years, moored in St Katharine Docks in the heart of the city. After the children had graduated from school and university, Luis Lobato looked for a buyer to keep the cutter alive as a training vessel. The solution came from a completely unexpected corner. It brought "Jolie Brise" the longest and most solid period of her existence.
Dauntsey's School acquired the boat for its up-and-coming sailing division on a long-term lease. They finally bought it in 1977 for £75,000. The school reawakened the racer in the old cutter, winning the 1980 Tall Ship's Race over all and a leg of the 1986 race. Then, at almost 80 years old, she underwent a year-long refit at Tommy Nielson's yard in Gloucester. "Some of the frames were either doubled or replaced, and some planks were also replaced," explains Toby Marris, the skipper for many years. "This took place around the time that commercial vessels like 'Jolie Brise' had to be certified."
The cutter has crossed the Atlantic six times with pupils
This was followed by ambitious voyages across the North Atlantic from Spain and Portugal to the USA and Canada, as well as to the Baltic Sea. The pilot cutter became a sailing adventure playground for the 11 to 18-year-old students. It has sailed in the Arctic Circle, crossed the Atlantic several times and explored the Norwegian coast. Along the way, it took overall victories in the Tall Ship's Races in 2000, 2008 and 2011 and took part in the Fastnet again in 2013, its centenary year.
"My favourite moment was our 2017 Easter cruise to London," says one girl as we set sail between Cowes and Hamble in the spring. "We were preparing for the Tall Ship's Race, and it was great to sail up the Thames at night." Another student talks about a week's cruise from Quebec to Halifax in Nova Scotia "The sailing wasn't great because we had no wind," she says, "but we saw lots of whales on one watch, and on another night there were dolphins jumping around the bow." Skipper Toby nods vigorously and confirms that the sailing on this occasion was indeed "rubbish". But then he gets serious again. "Where else can students have this kind of experience - all for just 60 dollars a day?"
With her four-metre-long tiller and long keel, manoeuvring "Jolie Brise" around the harbour is quite a challenge. But under Toby's confident instructions, one of the girls does an excellent job - running across the deck with the long tiller while another student operates the throttle in batches. One of them jumps onto the jetty at the bow and sets the spring.
The students learn more than just sailing on board
Sailing itself is tedious without winches. The first step is to set the heavy gaff with the beep and the running halyard. Two youngsters fall backwards into the respective line, while a third pulls the slack through on the slip nail. With fun and spit, the process takes a quarter of an hour. Toby is satisfied, the luff has enough tension and the sail is standing up well. Another team of three repeats the process to set and trim the topsail as well, followed by the jib, foresail and cutter sail.
In a gentle breeze of eight to ten knots, "Jolie Brise" climbs to windward better than expected, maintaining a boat speed of five knots. Toby backs the headsails to push the bow around and at one point Jolie Brise moves backwards, although she is still turning through the wind. With a clear wind, she works her way up to seven to eight knots boat speed.
Toby is in his element, admonishing, praising and encouraging the pupils, who treat him with respect, just as he treats them fairly. Suddenly, however, chaos breaks out when a dozen children all want to tackle something at once. Toby takes it in his stride. And after the trip, he stoically prepares the boat for the next batch of Dauntsey's pupils arriving on the boarding school bus. "I'm very proud of what she does, this old lady - and of the children she's travelling with," says the skipper.
Technical data of the pilot cutter "Jolie Brise"
- Designer:Alexandre Paris
- Type:Le Havre Pilot Cutter
- Torso length:17,0 m
- Waterline length:14,6 m
- Width:4,8 m
- Depth: 3,1 m
- sail area:204 m²
This article first appeared in YACHT 13/2018.
