 | |
| Development | |
|---|---|
| Designer | Alexandre Pâris |
| Location | Le Havre |
| Year | 1913 |
| No. built | 1 |
| Builder | Albert Paumelle Yard |
| Role | Pilot Cutter |
| Name | Jolie Brise |
| Boat | |
| Displacement | 44,000 kg (97,000 lb) |
| Draft | 3.10 m (10 ft 2 in) |
| Hull | |
| LOA | 22.50 m (73 ft 10 in) |
| LOH | 17.06 m (56 ft) |
| LWL | 14.63 m (48 ft) |
| Beam | 4.63 m (15 ft 2 in) |
| Engine type | Gardner |
| Hull appendages | |
| Rig | |
| General | 1 |
| Rig type | Gaff |
Jolie Brise is agaff-riggedpilotcutter built and launched by the Albert Paumelle Yard inLe Havre in 1913 to a design by Alexandre Pâris. After a short career as a pilot boat, owing to steam replacing sail, she became a fishing boat, a racing yacht and a sail training vessel.
Bought byEvelyn George Martin in 1923 she was refitted and won the firstFastnet Race from seven starters in August 1925. In 1927 Martin soldJolie Brise, through an advertisement inYachting World to Captain Warren Ferrier and his partner Dr Brownlow Smith.
An engine and an additional cabin were fitted at Morgan Giles' yard atTeignmouth. Bobby Somerset, a founder member of theOcean Racing Club – as was Martin, purchased her in 1928. After competing in the Fastnet,Bermuda and Santander races he sold her four years later to Lt. John Gage, RNR.
His ownership was only for a year and it seems that in 1934 she was purchased by an American, Stanley Mortimer. Alterations, mostly to the living accommodation were made at a yard inPalma de Mallorca and aGardner diesel was fitted inMarseille. After cruising theMediterranean, and with war in the offingJolie Brise returned toSouthampton and was put up for sale.
She was bought by William Stannard but requisitioned by theRoyal Navy which laid her up on a mud berth atShoreham for the duration of the war. In 1945 she was bought by a syndicate headed by Lillian and Jim Worsdell and her name was changed toPleasant Breeze.
A voyage toNew Zealand was aborted and when she put intoLisbon she was acquired by a Portuguese syndicate headed by Luis Lobato. Repaired and refitted, she was once again listed asJolie Brise. For nearly 30 years her home port remained Lisbon but in 1975, partly because of the political situation inPortugal, she returned to theSolent, 50 years after her first Fastnet win.
In 1977 she was bought in a collaboration betweenDauntsey's School, theInternational Sailing Craft Association and theScience Museum to serve as the flagship of its sailing club and remains in that role.[1]
Between 1977 and 1991 she sailed extensively around European waters crewed by students from the School, including winningTall Ships Races in 1980 and 1986. The students were also involved heavily in the care and maintenance of her.[2]
In 1991 she entered a major refit atGloucester Docks, which was completed in 1993.[2]
The same year she entered the Fastnet Race again, sixty years after her first time in 1931. After a circumnavigation of the UK in 1994, she has sailed all over Europe, and beyond with crews from the School, hosting other schools and groups of young people and with commercial trainees. In 1996 she returned to Portugal to visit Luis Lobato, in 1997 she went north, venturing 200 miles inside theArctic Circle and in 2000, 2009 and 2017 she sailed across the Atlantic to the Bermuda, USA and Canada. In 2019 she visited Iceland and theFaroe Islands for the first time.[2]
In 2003 she was bought by Dauntsey's School outright.[2]
The boat is currently skippered by Toby Marris, and has the capacity to carry up to 12 students for local and international cruising and racing trips.[2]
Source:[3]
TheFastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race off the south coast of the United Kingdom, named after theFastnet Rock, which the race course rounds. It is considered one of the classic offshore races.
Jolie Brise won the inaugural Fastnet Race (then called the Ocean Race) in 1925 in a time of 6 days, 14 hours and 45 minutes as part of a fleet of seven boats.[4] At the post-race dinner at the Royal Western Yacht Club inPlymouth, the new Ocean Racing Club (later theRoyal Ocean Racing Club) was formed and its first commodore appointed, Jolie Brise's owner Lt Cmdr Evelyn G Martin.[4]
Jolie Brise won the Fastnet again in 1929 and 1930, again skippered by Martin. She is currently the only vessel to have won the race three times.
She also competed in the 2013 Fastnet Race on the centenary of her inaugural win, crewed by students fromDauntsey's School and theEllen MacArthur Cancer Trust,[5] finishing 277th in fleet of 294 boats with a time of 4 days, 19 hours, 11 minutes and 4 seconds.[6]
The prestigiousBlue Water Medal was inaugurated by theCruising Club of America in 1923 to reward "meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized".[7]
Jolie Brise's two Blue Water Medals were both awarded for her conduct in theBermuda Race.
The first, in 1926, was to Evelyn Martin for "Double trans-Atlantic crossing, including Bermuda Race. LeHavre pilot cutter 56 feet oa. April 3, 1926 from Falmouth, July 27 to Plymouth."[8]
Her second was awarded in 1932 to Robert Somerset "Without Date" for "remarkable feat of seamanship and courage in rescuing all but one of 11-man crew of burning schoonerAdriana in the 1932 Bermuda Race."[9]
On the first night of the 1932 Bermuda Race, the schoonerAdriana was sailing into brisk southwesterly winds when the heat from the coal stove in her cabin ignited some oilskins. The uncontrollable fire spread so rapidly that the decision was made to abandon ship.[10]
Three miles ahead ofAdriana wasJolie Brise, owned and sailed by Henry Robert Somers Fitzroy de Vere Somerset, known afloat as “Bobby.” His crew included Herbert L. Stone and the famous American racing helmsman Sherman Hoyt.
In a feat of seamanship, Somerset, atJolie Brise’s long tiller, turned the engineless, heavy-displacement vessel around toward the burningAdriana, whose crew was struggling to launch a small boat and heave the spinnaker pole into the water to serve as an improvised float. AsAdriana’s helmsman, Clarence Kozaly, held position, Somerset broughtJolie Brise alongside under sail. The yachts’ rails banged together, their upper rigging tangled, andJolie Brise’s tarred deadeye lanyards were charred. Ten ofAdriana’s crew of 11 jumped across to the cutter's deck.
Only the dutiful Kozaly was left at the helm ofAdriana. The two yachts were several feet apart when he finally let go the wheel and made his leap, only to tumble into the gap. Sherman Hoyt desperately threw him a line, but Kozaly's heavy clothing drew him under. After helping to save 10 lives, he lost his own and is the only fatality in Bermuda Race history.
A part of her participation in the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009,[11]Jolie Brise sailed fromTenerife toBermuda. To commemorate the event, the Bermuda Post Office Philatelic Department issued a set of stamps depicting six[12] of the ships involved, including theJolie Brise.
Jolie Brise was one of a number of prestigious vessels to be moored along the route of theThames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, to celebrate theDiamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II on 3 June 2012. Due to her size, she was not part of the flotilla of vessels, and was instead moored with other vessels atSt Katharine Docks.
In May 2018,Wetherspoons opened a pub inTeignmouth and named it The Jolie Brise after the boat which had been refitted in the town before her first Fastnet win in 1923.[13]Jolie Brise visited the town for the opening of the pub.[14]
1913: Built in Le Havre by Albert Paumelle
1923: New owner, E.G. Martin
1925: Winner of the first Fastnet Race
1926: 5th in the Bermuda race and awarded Blue Water Medal.
1926: Finished 3rd in Fastnet
1927: New owners, W Ferrier & WB Smith
1927: Retired from Fastnet after reachingThe Lizard
1928: 2nd in the Fastnet Race
1928: New owner, H R S F de V Somerset
1929: Winner of the Fastnet Race
1929: Winner of the Queen of Spain's Cup (the first Santander)
1930: Winner of the Fastnet Race
1930: First across line in Santander but second toIlex on corrected time
1931: Competed Fastnet
1932: Competed Bermuda - retired after rescuing crew, save one, ofAdriana who abandoned because of fire
1932: New owner, J F B Gage
1934: New owner, S Mortimer
1938: New owner, W Stannard
1945: New owner, syndicate led by Lillian and Jim Worsdell
1946: New owner, L Lobato and partners (Vaz Pinto - principal owner)
1955: New owner, L Lobato - sole owner
1977: New owners, The International Sailing Craft Association in association with Dauntsey's School Sailing Club and theScience Museum
1980: WinnerTall Ships Race
1986: Winner Tall Ships Race Newcastle to Bremerhaven
1993: Refit complete -Jolie Brise's first Fastnet since 1931
1994: Circumnavigation of UK.
1999: Second in Tall Ships Race
2000: Overall winner of the Tall Ships 2000 Transatlantic Race
2002: Overall winner of the Tall Ships 2002 Transatlantic Race
2005: Participated in the Trafalgar 200 celebration
2008: First in Class and Fleet in Tall Ships Race Liverpool, UK to Maloy, Norway
2011: First in Class and Overall Winner of the Tall Ships Race 2011
2015: First in Class and Overall Winner of Tall Ships Race 2015
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