Luke Powell 44 ft Pilot Cutter 2008 - Vendido

TALLULAH benefits from being the 6th pilot cutter traditionally built by legendary Cornwall-based boatbuilder, sailor and educator Luke Powell for an owning couple who have quietly cruised this delightful and elegant creation under the radar - at least as much as one can in such a head-turning vessel - for the past 12 seasons. In her design Powell was able to "feed stuff in" from lessons learned in the design and build of five earlier sisters, and from sailing thousands of miles in the 2003 AGNES. TALLULAH offers simple, stress free sailing in great comfort aboard a vessel that can't fail to become a love affair - probably at first sight.

"TALLULAH was launched in April 2008. She took to the water like a greyhound, flew on her maiden voyage at 9.6 knots with no effort. She’s a good un! Her design takes the best from LIZZIE MAY and EZRA. Slim with a relatively light hull displacement of 20 tons, and a long fan-tail counter, slightly raked stem, a lean underwater body, she is the most elegant cutter to date. With a smaller rig than usual, making her very handy and easily driven. Designed for two, she has more emphasis on comfort with a large saloon and galley. On deck she remains as traditional as ever, with tiller, thwart and barrel windlass. Her owners keep her on the south coast of England from where they cruise to the Channel Isles, Brittany, and beyond."

“It was the robust construction of his boats and Luke’s attention to detail which led us to commissioning this boat from him. We looked long and hard at the various alternative builders but finally decided that this was exactly what we wanted. And she has certainly lived up to expectations.”

There came a point in Luke Powell’s long lifetime in boats when he realised that the wooden ones, and the skills to build them, were disappearing. He decided to do something about it the only way he knew - hands-on. Since moving to Cornwall from Kent in the 1990s, the result of this labour of love is a fleet of beautifully, traditionally built pilot cutters: EVE, LIZZIE MAY, AGNES, HESPER, EZRA, TALLULAH, AMELIE ROSE, FREYA, and presently in build at Truro, the largest yet, PELLEW, in which Luke has the time and the task to pass-on his accumulated knowledge to a future generation.

In preserving skills in this way, the wonderful by-product has been to create a desire for experiencing and owning these vessels. As Luke says: “There’s something quite profound about being on something that is not of our time... When you sail on a boat like this, it’s a time machine; it takes you back to another place; it’s not just an object of conveyance. Whereas a modern boat is like a car - just a factory made object that does no more than take you from A to B - this [TALLULAH and her like] takes you through time and space.”

Those who buy in to this philosophy tend to stick with it and so the opportunities to own one of Luke Powell’s beautiful creations are very rare indeed. TALLULAH offers an opportunity not to be missed.

©2022 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- European larch (below waterline) and oak (above) carvel planking
- Opepe keel, stem, sternpost and deadwood
- Oak frames
- Opepe deck beams and deck

Solid opepe strait laid deck
Varnished oak caprail and taffrail
Painted bulwarks and margin board
3 x Belaying cleats spanning bulkwark stanchions port & starboard

From Aft
- Galvanised mainsheet horse on lower taffrail
- Stern light
- Ash mainsheet and runner blocks
- Bronze capped and engraved rudder head
- Oak tiller
- 2 x Sampson posts each side of tiller
- Varnished helming seat athwartships
- On deck tackles for staysail and jib sheets
- Deck-mounted Morse engine controls
- Deck mounted engine instruments and ignition box
- Diesel and water filler caps
- Traditional compass binnacle
- Painted trunk cabin with raised oiled opepe companionway hatch
- 4 x Bronze opening ports
- 2 x Pairs of tackle tensioned running backstays: topmast and hounds

In way of mast
- Pinrails at deck
- Exterior chainplates
- Pinrail port & starboard
- Port: throat and topping lift
- Starboard: peak and topping lift

- Oiled opepe butterfly skylight lashed to painted coaming
- Raised painted hinged forehatch
- Traditional hand spiked barrel windlass
- Sampson posts port & starboard at windlass
- Panama fairleads port and starboard
- White painted bowsprit bits and Sampson posts
- Oiled retractable bowsprit; galvanised gammon iron to port of stemhead
- Bowsprit tackles
- Chain bobstay
- Galvanised & rope parcelled jib traveller
- 35kg CQR anchor in bow roller to stbd of stemhead
- Herreshoff kedge anchor
- 4 x Deck prisms at foredeck

Oak joinery
White T&G bulkheads
Cabin sole Douglas fir

Entry via companionway hatch
- Down 3 x steps to engine box; 3 x steps to sole
- 4 x opening ports

Galley - to port
- Brass sink
- Hot & cold mixer tap
- Extensive stowage space for -
- Plates; utensils; food
- Taylors 030L Paraffin cooker: 2 x burner hob; grill; oven
- Top loading air cooled fridge c30L
- Extensive lazarette aft of steps

Navigation area - to starboard
- Full size chart table
- Chart stowage under
- Chest of drawers
- Electronic nav instruments (details see below)
- VHF Fixed and handheld
- Engine instrumentation
- Ship’s isolator panel
- Radiator

Aft of chart table
- Hanging locker
- Double quarter berth
- Reading lights

Semi bulkheads port & starboard with turned oak grab columns

Forward to saloon
- Butterfly skylight over
- Settee to port
- Semi-enclosed pilot berth outboard
- Lockers outboard accessed via settee backrest
- Oak drop-leaf table on centreline
- Settee to starboard
- Locker outboard
- Refleks diesel stove at stbd fwd bulkhead
- Extensive shelving
- Large oil lamp on centreline
- 4 x Bulkhead lights
- 2 x Deckhead lights
- 2 x Bulkhead-mounted, gimballed oil lamps

Forward to passage offset to starboard of mast
- Open hanging locker to starboard
- Open sails and cordage bin to starboard
- Radiator
- 2 x Deckhead lights
- 1 x Deck prism

WC/ shower compartment to port
- Baby Blake toilet
- Thomas Crapper & Co ceramic sink
- Hot & cold taps
- Separate retracting shower head
- Towel rail radiator
- Mirror
- Hinged forehatch in deckhead
- Deep, cleverly designed shower tray in sole
- 2 x Lockers
- 1 x Deckhead light
- 1 x Deck prism

Forward to forecabin
- Double berth to port
- Open stowage locker under
- Radiator under
- Stowage locker to starboard & seat
- Hanging locker
- Shelving
- 3 x Bulkhead lights
- 1 x Deckhead light
- 2 x Deck prisms

Traditional gaff cutter rig with main, topsail, staysail and jib
- Douglas fir mast and spars
- Soft galvanised rigging
- Deadeye purchases to shrouds
- Profurl continuous line furler for jib
- Sails in 'Clipper' (faux) Canvas by Patrick Selman
- Mainsail and staysail covers

Mechanical
- Beta marine 75hp Diesel engine
- PRM hydraulic gearbox; single lever controls
- 21 in Darglow Maxprop centreline feathering propellor
- Engine hours = 850 (June 2019)

Tankage
- Fuel tank - 250 L
- Water - 400 L in 2 x tanks that can be isolated
- Black water tank in place but not plumbed

Hot water for taps, shower and radiators from:
- Engine calorifier
- Shore power
- Refleks stove

Electrical
- 3 x 100 Ah AGM domestic batteries
- 1 x AGM starting battery
- Victron 240V battery charger
- Smart alternator 100 amp
- Shore power
- Removable 40W solar panel

- GPS Garmin 172c chart plotter
- GPS Garmin 751 chart plotter at helm and portable
- Traditional binnacle mounted Plastimo steering compass
- Tacktick wind instruments
- VHF Standard Horizon
- VHF Handheld

- Webbing jackstays port & starboard
- Liferaft 6 person
- Traditional life ring
- Fire blanket at galley
- SeaMe active radar target enhancer

- Variety of moorings warps
- 6 x fenders

- An Avon tender and outboard(s) is available by negotiation outwith the sale price

- Sailing 02-05, drawings and monochrome image: Working Sail Ltd
- Sailing 61: Patrick Selman Sailmakers