Falmouth Working Boat Championships Review
Colourful Falmouth Working Boats Championship sponsored by H Tiddy won by St Mawes boat Rita.
These boats were originally built for oyster dredging in Carrick Roads (Fal estuary. Dredging was and is only allowed under sail in order to preserve stocks and this has worked well for hundreds of years. Only a few boats still dredge commercially during the dredging season from October to March. At other times racing started many years ago and is the main occupation of most boats today.
Racing takes place throughout the season with the highlight being the Championships with keen rivalry between Falmouth, Flushing and St Mawes based boats. Conditions this year were ideal for the first two days of racing, with light winds on the third day.
Racing was very close as the picture above illustrates, showing Victory, Rita and Meloris fighting for the lead. Rita, a St Mawes based boat, won the overall championship at the end of the day. A handicap system ensures that each boat, which differ in design details, gets a fair crack of the whip.
Working boats can be seen racing for the rest of the 2025 season on Tuesdays from Flushing and some Thursdays from St Mawes, in village regattas and in Falmouth Week in August.