HistorY of the lugger "our boys"

The "Our Boys," was ordered by George Pengelly of Looe. He wanted a faster, bigger boat to replace his then lugger the "Vera". Named after his seven sons, she was to be 42' x 13'6" x 6', built of Norwegian red pine planking on oak frames with a white pine deck, built by Dick Pearce, a Looe shipwright. When launched in 1904 she cost £100, sails by the local sail maker Charlie Maven were extra, and their costs I don't know.

She joined the fleet of sixty luggers which comprised the Looe fleet, working the winter seasons drift netting for pilchards and herring and in the spring, she would go long lining for conger, ray and turbot. During the summer months she would be layed up while the family worked their forty foot seine boat "Teddy Bear" encircling mackerel shoals in the big sandy bays around the coast.

Her sailing rig was Cornish dipping lug, a powerful rig that needed a very skilled crew to handle it. In a fresh breeze on a broad reach with a couple of tons of shifting ballast in the weather water ways speeds of ten and twelve knots were obtained. In a calm she would be rowed with four twenty foot sweeps, the speed was two knots.

Her first engine was installed in 1912, and was a seven HP petrol paraffin Kelvin. With this they could now leave and enter harbour easily and make good headway in a calm. This same engine was taken out of her in the summer time and transferred to the seine boat, and then put back in the lugger for the winter.

Alongside a now very much reduced Looe fleet she fished through WWl making a very good living, which paid for her sister boat to be built, named the "Our Girls" after George’s three daughters. By this time all the luggers had engines installed and the "Our Boys" and the "Our Girls" had two each, a thirteen H.P main and a seven H.P ‘wing’, a petrol/paraffin by Kelvin of Glasgow. The sails were by now reduced to a mizzen and a small fore lug.

Five of George Pengelly’s sons became fishermen, spending all their working lives on their two luggers with extra men employed to make up the six hands per boat that were needed to work the nets and lines.

By the late 1930's the boats were sporting a twenty six H.P main engine and a thirteen H.P wing engine, still petrol/paraffin by Kelvin. They could now do eight knots under power and sails were now a gaff mizzen and a leg of mutton fores'l. This was enough to steady her up out and back from the fishing grounds, or to help her along should an engine refuse duty.

During WW11 the "Our Boys" was guard ship for the Looe fleet, mounting a heavy machine gun on the fore deck. When I crewed on her back in the late sixties I remarked to Bill the skipper about the big steel plate that was bolted to the deck, and he told me the story of the gun.
"Never had to fire it in anger, thank god" he said "But we used to open up with it once a week for practice, shooting at the shags"

In the early 1950's two new diesel engines were installed, a twenty one H.P Lister and a thirty six H.P Russell Newberry, the fore mast was now removed, her only sail being the gaff mizzen, vital when working up to the nets and lines. By 1960 the fishing was in decline, the Looe lugger fleet now numbered six boats and the "Our Girls" was sold away as most of the brothers were by now, too old or too poorly for work at sea. The "Our Boys" soldiered on until Bill the skipper retired in 1972, by this time she was clapped right out, the hull was leaking badly, the decks were shattered and the engines could not be opened up beyond half throttle for fear of doing damage.

Two young fishermen, brothers Tony and Robert Chapman then bought her for a cheap starter boat, refastening the hull, laying anew deck, building a new wheel house and rails and installingtwo reconditioned 100 H.P diesels. By the autumn of 1973 she was back in Looe ready to begin her new life, mackerel hand lining in the winter and crabbing in the summer, when the engines were opened up she was the fastest boat in the fleet with a speed of ten knots. With the development of the mackerel fishery the Looe fleet had now increased again, numbering a mixed bag of twenty five boats. I was on an ex Scots trawler called the "Prosperity" and well remember the "Our Boys" going through the fleet like a dose of salts, cutting through a nasty SW chop looking like a WW1 destroyer. And so she continued until 1979 when the new M.C.A rules came out for fishing vessels of twelve metres and over.

Considering that it would cost too much money to get her through, Tony and Robert put her up for sale and invested in a smaller and much newer boat. Robert told me that a hippy sort of fellow answered their advert in the Fishing News and came down to Looe paying cash for her, cutting the money out of the lining of his coat. He didn't give his name but evidently his intention was to go oyster dredging in the Solent. What ever he did with her it didn't last long because by the early 80's she came into the ownership of a Mr M.G Webb, of Ashlake farm, Wootton Bridge on the Isle of Wight. He spent many thousands on her turning her into a yacht and reinstalling the dipping lug rig. After that, he lost interest in her and she lay in Cowes Marina for many years with the freshwater undoing much of the good work he had done.

In 1990, George Dart of Axmouth in Devon bought her and made her seaworthy once more, fitting the massive sailing rig that she sports today. For ten years George and his wife Sue, plus friends to make up the crew holidayed in her, racing at the west country and Breton regattas, doing very well, unless the "Guide Me" (another very famous Looe lugger) was there. Much to Georges chagrin he could never beat her, nor could anyone else for that matter. By 2000 George and Sue were having trouble raising a crew for the "Our Boys" and decided to go for a smaller boat, so they reluctantly put her up for sale.

Her next owner was Looe business man Mike Cotton, he brought her back to Looe, upgrading all her facilities and put her through M.C.A category two. She was now a fast powerful sailing boat and needed a good crew to handle her. Mike’s sailing mates although ready to tackle Cape Horn when stood safely at a pub bar, didn’t turn up often enough to get any real sea time in. This frustrated Mike beyond endurance and Maggie and Paul Greenwood happened to catch him at a low ebb one day when he was threatening to sell her. They had sold their charter lugger the ‘Ibis’ (which they had owned for twenty four years) just the year before with a view to retirement. But Paul wasn't happy and wanted to get back chartering and he talked Maggie into agreeing that they should go ahead and buy the "Our Boys".

A deal was done and they took her over in early 2003, doing a couple of seasons in her before Maggie put her foot down with a firm hand declaring that although she loved the sea and sailing she could no longer stick charter work. And that was that – the ‘Our Boys was sold and returned to the Solent to start a new chapter in her long life.

So it's now up to Richard Parr and his crew to write the next chapter in the long history of the lugger "Our Boys". When a boat reaches such an age you are not so much her owner as her curator, responsible for maintaining her in good order to pass her on to the next generation.

One thing is sure is that you will all get more pleasure and quiet satisfaction out of sailing the "Our Boys" than any other boat you have been on.