Swale Pilot John Heasman - A chance meet-up on Rutland Water

John Heasman is an old friend of RCSSC member Eric Andrew and we all met up recently on a chance sail on a bright and breezy day - you may have seen the recent video on this channel. I asked John if he would like to tell us about his boat and provide a few more photos - these are his words. "My boat, 'Cerafina', is a Swale Pilot, a Gaff Cutter, built ( circa 2003 ) by John Pollitt of JEP Marine, on the Swale in Kent, a tide channel between the Isle of Sheppey and Kent. She is 5m boat length, 6m with bow sprit, with a 1.89m beam. An easy to use trailer sailer. Her hull design is taken from an old rowing lifeboat off a decommissioned Welsh lightship. A mould was made of the lifeboat hull, which John Pollitt bought. He then designed and converted the hull into a beautiful gaff cutter. They are clinker look, grip hulls, with cream internals and mahogany gunwales and seats. Sadly they are no longer manufactured. Quite a few were built in the late 1990's through to 2008 / 10. In 2020 there were three Swale Pilots based at RSC. Two have since sadly moved with their owners. Cerafina is currently the only one now left at the club. They do come up for sale fairly infrequently, one or two every couple of years, if you watch the usual boat sale websites. Cracking gaffer boat to sail, with the challenges of multiple sails, including a topsail.." Thank John and hope to see you out on the water again soon.