WORKING SAIL. A LIFE IN WOODEN BOATS / Luke Powell

Luke Powell has almost single-handedly revived the building of traditional pilot cutters in the UK. In Working Sail. A life in wooden boats he describes his rich, rather unconventional life, which he has enjoyed to the full. In doing so, he does not hide the fact that he had to struggle for a long time to gain acceptance for his wooden boats, which ultimately earned him his impeccable reputation.

Luke's interest in boats began when he climbed over the rotten wrecks that sank into the mud in the creeks of his childhood in Suffolk. At the age of nine, he set sail with his family to the Greek islands. From then on, the sea was his school. After an apprenticeship as a shipwright restoring Thames barges, he returned to the Mediterranean and the nomadic life of a journeyman boatbuilder. Over time, he gained a French girlfriend - the first of many long-term partners in his adventures - and "Charmian", a 75-year-old cutter. In 1990, with his young son on board, he sailed the "Charmian" up the Helford River in Cornwall, little suspecting that seven years later this would become the home of his boatbuilding business, Working Sail.

Luke's arrival in England coincided with a resurgence of interest in traditional boats. After stumbling across a book about dazzling pilot cutters, he vowed to build one from scratch. Risking what little money he had to buy wood, he built "Eve" himself - almost with his bare hands. Success came gradually, but to this day Luke is driven by a passionate belief in skills, craftsmanship and values that cannot be expressed in money.

Over the years, several boats have been launched in the Helford - "Lizzie May", "Agnes", "Hesper", "Ezra", "Tallulah", "Amelie Rose", "Freja" - whose names are a list of some of the most admired boats built in the UK in the recent past.

Luke Powell describes their creation with a very fine sense of good storytelling. Working Sail was first published in 2012. This third edition was printed in 2022.

Luke and his team's construction of the 65ft pilot cutter "Pellew" from 2017 to 2020 in Falmouth is pictorially described in another book, Christian Topf's "From the loft floor to the sea" (Article-No. 9225-003). See further down on this page under "Similar products".

240 pages. Hundreds of colour and b/w photos. Format 26,5 x 24,0 cm. Printed on good quality matt coated paper. Hardcover with sewn binding, matt laminated. In English.