Overview
Ferenc Mate, in The Best Sailboats in the World, called the Bristol Channel Cutter and the Falmouth Cutter “the most beautiful 28 and 22 foot fibreglass sailboats in the world,” and the Falmouth Cutter 22 has built a devoted following on that reputation. Designed by Lyle C. Hess, who spent years studying 19th-century Falmouth, Cornwall workboats for their load-carrying ability and seaworthiness, the boat applies those traits to a pocket cruiser small enough to trailer, one of a small handful of production boats under 25 ft genuinely built for offshore work, alongside the Dana 24 and the Flicka.
History
Hess’s affinity for English pilot-boat lines dates to 1950, when he designed the 24 ft gaff-rigged Renegade of Newport for a friend. That design later informed Seraffyn, the Marconi-rigged boat Hess drew for Larry Pardey in 1968; the Pardeys’ book Cruising in Seraffyn, which went on to sell in the tens of thousands, created real demand for a production version of Hess’s work. Sam L. Morse Company answered with the 28 ft Bristol Channel Cutter in 1975, then began work on a smaller sibling in 1978 that could still carry two people safely across open water: the Falmouth Cutter 22. Sam L. Morse built the boats to a high standard until closing in August 2008, by which point 39 hulls were complete (the last sold semi-finished for the owner to complete). Cape George Marine Works took over the molds and rights the same year but has not put the design back into production since, though it has considered a simplified weekender variant with a larger cockpit.
Design and Construction
Hess modified the traditional full-length pilot-boat keel into a swept-back profile with more hollow in the garboard area, cutting wetted area and improving windward performance without losing the type’s seakeeping manners. The foot of the keel was widened to concentrate ballast centrally rather than spreading it along the keel’s length, reducing hobby-horsing, while an 8 ft beam adds form stability. The cutter rig carries a large sail plan for the boat’s size across a long bowsprit and boomkin, which is most of how a boat with only 20.8 ft of waterline manages a respectable turn of speed.
Below deck, the boat is entirely wood-lined rather than fitted with molded liners, giving full access to the hull structure and real flexibility in outfitting since each boat is hand-built. Headroom is 5 ft 11 in under the forward hatch and in the saloon; the forward cabin holds a head, hanging locker, and double berth to port, with the galley and an icebox/chart table further aft, two saloon settees, and surprisingly good stowage for the boat’s size. An inboard engine is standard, though some owners choose an outboard to free up space for a larger berth.
Under Sail
No specific named ocean passage or circumnavigation is documented in current sources for this exact model, though it shares Lyle Hess’s Bristol Channel Cutter design lineage and construction standards and is featured alongside the BCC in Ferenc Mate’s book. Owners describe genuinely seaworthy manners in a blow, a slow, easy motion typical of heavy-displacement hulls, and good downwind tracking on large swells; the bowsprit also carries a cruising spinnaker or large genoa for real light-air performance on an otherwise heavy boat. At 3 ft 6 in draft, the boat can explore shallow coastal areas with real confidence.
Buyers Notes
Given the boat’s age and low production numbers, examples rarely come to market; when they do, hand-built construction means quality and equipment can vary boat to boat more than on a larger production run, worth a careful survey and comparison against the owners’ forum and forum archives before purchase.
