A lug-sailed yawl, Fleur is sixteen and-a-half feet in length and six feet in the beam.  On a GRP hull she was built by Alan Channel in Poole in 1988. With red sails & a loose-footed main she can catch anyone’s eye. The bowsprit and bumpkin astern stretches her to twenty-one ft overall. But it isn’t size that makes a boat, it’s her spirit, her pluck if you will. I have owned Fleur for more than 20 years and have yet to doubt her, though we have sailed many estuaries and coasts together as well as her home waters of the Bristol Channel. She is the very essence of small boat sailing.

Fleur has been a regular attender at Old Gaffers Association trailer-sailing events around the country. Together, we have been to the Lake District- Ullswater and Derwentwater, Chichester, Falmouth, Clywedog in mid-Wales, Holyhead, Milford Haven, Cardiff Bay and the Bristol Channel. And there is more to come methinks!

Over 2023 and 2024 Fleur has had a partial re-fit with a new layer on her bottom and a refit of the interior of the cabin. She will be sailing again very soon.