Discover on these pages a fascinating and wide range of classic sailing vessels. They all have either taken part in recent Regattas and/or Rallies, or they have entered an upcoming event. Where possible, we have added a photograph (many taken at earlier regattas) and a short description relating to each vessel.

Now charity owned and operated undertaking seasonal sailings April-October each year. Sailing area is South West England and North West France.

The Brixham trawling fleet was the largest in England, with the fleet in the early 1900s being more than 300 trawlers under sail. As motor trawlers took over in the mid-century the sailing trawlers mostly succumbed to decades of hard service with just a handful of the historic boats left today.

The town’s maritime history is still prominent to see with a large modern fishing fleet still working out of the harbour alongside the Heritage fleet of Provident, Leader, Pilgrim, Golden Vanity and Vigilance. They are all prominently berthed in the outer harbour for all to admire on the heritage pontoons. The heritage fleet alongside in Brixham

Brixham’s has a strong resident fleet and also sees fishing vessels from elsewhere that fish South-West waters on a seasonal basis. The fleet in Brixham is able to rely on the services of a range of suppliers to the fishing industry, with fishing gear suppliers, engineering companies, ship’s painters, electronics suppliers and transport ...

When Pilgrim was built Brixham and Torbay were home to a fleet of over 300 large fishing trawlers working the English Channel and farther afield. In the 1840s Brixham was the largest fishing port in Devon, with as many as 1,600 trawlermen working out of the port.

There were not only a large fleet of big ketches, but also a fleet of the great classic yachts. These included King George’s yacht Britannia and several of the famous J-Class yachts. The Modern Regatta Racing lapsed after the war and, as sailing trawlers became commercially outdated, the fleet slowly disappeared.

Brixham was once home to one of the largest fleets of wooden sailing trawlers in the world. Today, visitors can see six of these moored in Brixham Marina and Outer Harbour.

Vigilance BM76 is a piece of floating history. She’s one of only seven surviving sailing trawlers built in Brixham. When she was launched in 1926, she represented the pinnacle of trawler design and proved it with her record-breaking speed and by winning Brixham’s coveted George V Cup in the annual Trawler Race.

In this extract we hear of fisherman George Bridge’s encounter with an enemy submarine. George Loram Bridge (1900-1977) Photograph courtesy of Brixham Heritage Museum.