Boat builders over time

The art of gig building dates back centuries – and it’s still thriving today.

Andrew Nancarrow

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the building of the Pilot Gig ‘Energy’ in 1985, the Cornish Pilot Gig Association (CPGA) commissioned Falmouth Marine School once more to build a new Cornish Pilot Gig Epic Energy which was launched in 2020. Build was overseen by boatbuilder Andrew Nancarrow with the help of 40 Falmouth Marine School students who carry on the legacy of gig building to this day.

Ralph Bird was the Cornish craftsman boat-builder who took the fading sport of Cornish pilot gig racing from the pages of the history books and turned it into a thriving competitive pastime, claimed now to be the fastest-growing community sport in the West Country and further afield, even reaching international shores.

Here’s Ralph fitting a rib during the construction of the Cornish Pilot Gig, William Peters, in his shed near Devoran. William Peters was built for Roseland Gig Club and launched in 1987.

Boat Builder Nicholas Peters, of the Peters family of Freshwater Boatyard in St Mawes, was renowned for their innovations for the most efficient pilot gig whereby all subsequent gigs were and are built to that spec today, and responsible for the Cornish Pilot Gig. William Peters originally established the Peters boat building yard at Polvarth near St. Mawes in 1790 and gained a reputation for building high quality vessels from gigs to schooners. However, at the turn of the century he decided to concentrate solely on gig construction. The reputation of the Peters gigs rapidly gained the attention of the pilotage world, and in addition to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, other services ordered them - in 1812 three gigs were ordered for Bassein in Burma!

Nicholas is pictured by the stern of four-oared gig ‘St Mawes’.