News / floating harbour
New boat ‘blessed’ with cider and launched into harbour
Crowds gathered in Hotwells on Saturday afternoon for the ‘blessing’ ceremony of a new gig racing boat.
The vessel, called Mischief, was built in Cornwall over eight months and is the latest addition to Bristol Gig Club’s collection of eight pilot gigs.
In keeping with the centuries-old maritime tradition, a branch was laid inside the boat along with homemade Bristol cider and seawater poured onto its woodwork.
is needed now More than ever
“They say that boats develop their own character,” said chair of Bristol Gig Club Benjamin Boudier, addressing the crowd of club members and locals.
“So when she’s racing, I hope that she lives up to the name, the spirits of the crews exemplify it and every moment the cox is tested, they are found worthy of her.”
View this post on Instagram
“All boats should really have a ceremony for launch,” Boudier told Bristol24/7 before the service that was conducted by retired chaplain David Hamer.
“It doesn’t have to be big but usually there’s a blessing typically with a branch laid on the bow and bubbly smashed over the front.
“It brings everybody together in the club and the community together, and there’s also the superstitious side of it giving the boat good fortune.”
After the blessing, Mischief led a flotilla of gigs from the slipway on Nova Scotia Place while all-male choir High & Dry sang traditional sea shanties.
The ceremony included sea shanties from Mendips-based choir High & Dry
The boat is named after a Bristol Channel pilot cutter commissioned in 1906 and sailed by pilot Billy ‘the Mischief’ Morgan.
She went on to be purchased in 1954 by mountaineer and explorer Bill Tillman, who voyaged to Arctic and Antarctic waters in search of new and uncharted mountains to climb.
Boudier, 38, who started rowing for the club in 2011, added: “Over the last ten years, we’ve grown a lot from about 70 members to almost 250, which is quite a feat trying to keep it all together.
“It’s an affordable community sport with rowers from 11 to 79 and we all row together.
“We don’t have a club home and we never have so it’s another chance for us to all be in one spot.”
Members of the gig racing club and locals came together for the service
All photos & video: Betty Woolerton
Read next:
- Sea Shanty Festival returns to the Floating Harbour for 2023
- Stunning video of Floating Harbour captured by drone
- A-Z Bristol pub crawl: The Nova Scotia, Hotwells
Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
