Name Pioneer

PIONEER was built in 1899 by Paynters of St Ives for the Hendy family as a fishing boat. She remained within the family until 1988.  At the tome she was partly owned by Jim Richards and Henry Handy was her skipper. She was one of the first to have a steam engine in west Cornwall. She worked out of St Ives for the first part of the century, but her ability to work in all winds made her unpopular and she was soon forced to move to Newlyn from 1932 where she fished for herring.

During the summers of the 1920s, PIONEER was used to run sea excursions from Penzance harbour to Lamorna cove; 7 miles around the coast. She went to Falmouth to muster for the Dunkirk evacuation, but was not accepted because the quantity of coal she would have had to carry would have negated her passenger capacity. But from Falmouth, she completed some war service doing various jobs for the military.

Her steam engine, of which unfortunately no details survive, was replaced in 1947 by a 44hp Kelvin motor. This was replaced once more by a 30hp Lister in 1952 which still remains today in full working order. PIONEER continued fishing out of Newlyn until 1966 and became extremely successful. Mr Hendy sold her to Cyril Gascoigne in 1988 and purchased a larger craft. She was taken to Hayle to be restored. After fishing as a longliner, she was used as a diving boat for crawfish and has since done some salvage work on wrecks.

In 1985, PIONEER was laid up in the Old Harbour at Newlyn where she stayed, afloat, for 7 years. In November 1991, she was bought by Jim Richards and after restoration was relaunched on 2 September 1999 into Hayle Harbour.

PIONEER was bought by her current owner in 2019 after having been laid up on the dock for the previous six years.  She had some damage and rot to some planking in the hull, deck and main structure.  

The current owner has now completed extensive repairs alongside Guy Rowsell at the boat shed in Exmouth. The restoration was a huge labour of love, with huge amounts of time, effort and energy going into it. Approaches and techniques deployed were in keeping with her rich history. 

Update, September 2023: Vessel for sale