Reprieve

An Invited Friend of the Harrison Butler Association
1899 Newman's built Poole Pilot Cutter

An Intriguing Poole Pilot
Tim Frearson, who's a proprietor of Traditional Shipwright Services in Poole, has been in touch following the publication on this website of the drawings of Harrison Butler's Poole Pilot design. He is delving into the history of his boat, Reprieve, which is believed to be a surviving Poole Pilot Cutter, like Lone Wolf and White Heather.
In the 1950s - then rigged as a yawl, Reprieve was acquired by Cyril Cozens, who with his father restored her to her original cutter rig. Up to the early 1980s, he used her both for pleasure and as a workhorse, positioning mooring buoys in support of his role as bosun of Marchwood Sailing Club. A turndown in Cyril's fortunes had Reprieve permanently laid up at Quayside Marina in Southampton and in 1994, looking for a project, Brian Cox acquired her - while retaining Cyril and his boat building skills for the restoration. This was to be major task, not helped - after much work had already been done - in her being unwittingly moved and grounded on a falling tide before she was properly seaworthy. Nevertheless recovered again, work restarted in May 2000 and she progressed albeit slowly to her completion in September 2007, to be launched again successfully shortly thereafter.
It is her pre-1950 history that Tim is investigating - If you can help, please email me. Most recently, Tim's been doing major work on Reprieve's hull as the photograph below shows. In spite of replacing so much rotten wood, Tim hopes to have Reprieve afloat and back in commission for the 2017 sailing season. You can follow his progress on FaceBook.

Reprieve Statistics
Built : c1900 by Newman's Boatyard, Poole
LOA : 35' 0"
LWL : 30' 0"
Beam : 10' 4"
Draught : 5' 6"
Displacement : -- tons TM
Lloyd's Register : N° ---
OGA Boat Number : 0686

Reprieve Custodians & Home Ports 
Tim Frearson (?-2016-2017...) Poole, England
Brian Cox (1994-2008-?) Kemp's Marina, England
Cyril Cozens (1950s-1994) Southampton, England

Reprieve Links
• Reprieve on OGA website 
• Reprieve's FaceBook page

Page last updated : October 2017

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