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The "Jolie Brise" gaff-rigged pilot cutter built by the Albert Paumelle Yard in Le Havre in 1913, arriving in Teignmouth May 2016

Jolie Brise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Development

 

Designer: Alexandre Pâris

Location: Le Havre

Year: 1913

Builder: Albert Paumelle Yard

Role: Pilot Cutter

 

Specifications

Sparred length: 22.50 m (73 ft 10 in)

Length on deck: 17.06 m (56 ft)

Load waterline length: 14.63 m (48 ft)

Beam: 4.63 m (15 ft 2 in)

Draught: 3.10 m (10 ft 2 in)

Displacement: 44 tonnes

Crew: Up to three

Trainees: Up to twelve

Hull appendages

Rig

Rig type: Gaff

 

Jolie Brise is a gaff-rigged pilot cutter built and launched by the Albert Paumelle Yard in Le Havre in 1913 to a design by Alexandre Pâris. After a short career as a pilot boat, owing to steam replacing sail, she became a fishing boat, a racing yacht and a sail training vessel.

 

1923-1977 Post-Pilot History

Bought by Evelyn George Martin in 1923 she was refitted and won the first Fastnet race from seven starters in August 1925. In 1927 Martin sold Jolie Brise, through an advertisement in Yachting World to Captain Warren Ferrier and his partner Dr Brownlow Smith.

 

An engine and an additional cabin were fitted at Morgan Giles's yard at Teignmouth. Bobby Somerset, a founder member of the Ocean Racing Club - as was Martin, purchased her in 1928. After competing in the Fastnet, Bermuda and Santander races he sold her four years later to Lt. John Gage, RNR.

 

His ownership was only for a year and it seems that in 1934 she was purchased by an American, Stanley Mortimer. Alterations, mostly to the living accommodation were made at a yard in Palma, Majorca and a Gardner diesel was fitted in Marseilles. After cruising the Mediterranean, and with war in the offing Jolie Brise returned to Southampton and was put up for sale.

 

She was bought by William Stannard but requisitioned by the Royal Navy which laid her up on a mud berth at Shoreham for the duration of the war. In 1945 she was bought by a syndicate headed by Lillian and Jim Worsdell and her name was changed to Pleasant Breeze.

 

A voyage to New Zealand was aborted and when she put into Lisbon she was acquired by a Portuguese syndicate headed by Luis Lobato. Repaired and refitted, she was once again listed as Jolie Brise. For nearly 30 years her home port remained Lisbon but in 1975, partly because of the political situation in Portugal, she returned to the Solent, 50 years after her first Fastnet win.

 

1977 onwards Current Role

In 1977 she was bought in a collaboration between Dauntsey's School, the International Sailing Craft Association and the Science Museum to serve as the flagship of its sailing club and remains in that role.

 

Between 1977 and 1991 she sailed extensively around European waters crewed by students from the School, including winning Tall Ships Races in 1980 and 1986. The students were also involved heavily in the care and maintenance of her.

 

In 1991 she entered a major refit at Gloucester Docks, which was completed in 1993.

 

The same year she entered the Fastnet Race again, sixty years after her first time in 1931. After a circumnavigation of the UK in 1994, she has sailed all over Europe, and beyond with crews from the School, hosting other schools and groups of young people and with commercial trainees. In 1996 she returned to Portugal to visit Luis Lobato, in 1997 she went north, venturing 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle and in 2000, 2009 and 2017 she sailed across the Atlantic to the Bermuda, USA and Canada. In 2019 she visited Iceland and the Faroe Islands for the first time.

 

In 2003 she was bought by Dauntsey's School outright.

 

The boat is currently skippered by Toby Marris, and has the capacity to carry up to 12 students for local and international cruising and racing trips.

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Uploaded on July 7, 2021
Taken on May 22, 2016