Breton boats in Newlyn over the years.

The Loctudy stern trawler Kristel Vihan (Little Kristel) rolls her way to the gaps watched from the quay by Billy Stevenson from the comfort of his Dolomite.....
followed in by the Audierne registered Ouseau Bleu.......
the Ar Bleiz Mor passes the lighthouse in scuffly weather......
a dozen boats, mainly from Loctudy - the older 'classique' wooden boats are moored closest to the quay.....in port and tied up outside the local ex-St Guenole boat Ben My Chree, a handful of prawn trawlers, mainly from Loctudy......
while some young go-ahead Breton skippers, like Michel Douce, invested in the latest in boat design at the time - new fully shelter-decked stern trawlers with their twin net drums and working deck that extended from the stern and forar'd below the wheelhouse..... some skippers, like that of the Passereau made do with converting their sidewinder trawlers by fitting an aluminium shelterdeck and twin net drums.....

like Alain Jagoux with the Riquita seen here landing a full 15 day trip of langoustine into her home port of St Geunole......
she too was later shelterdecked though with a glass fibre shelter, the skipper's son, not wishing to follow directly in his father's footsteps finished university in Quimper and became editor of the French monthly fishing magazine Eco Peche.....
the Atlantel was another Loctudy 'classique' boat converted.....
a closer shot of the working deck aboard the Lorient registered Pearl de Jade, with skipper and two sons in the crew - a rare visit to Newlyn when she had gearbox trouble on the Smalls prawn gound, the skipper rigged a huge fores'l that she carried and had sailed her the best part of fifty miles south to the Longships when Kenny Thomas (the then Penlee lifeboat cox'n) picked her up with the Mystique and towed her to Newlyn.......
the Keriolet was one of many ex-Breton trawlers that were bought by local skippers, seen here berthed inside the Le Petit Zico, an early example of gill netting boats of which the Keriolet would one day join......
apart from trawlers and netters there were occasional crabbers like the Nymphee probably the first boat ever to be rescued by, the then, brand new Penlee lifeboat Mabel Alice......
after several hundred steel 19m shelterdecked boats replaced almost every 'classique' vessel in the Breton fleet a new generation of 24m boats, many with 3 or 4 net drums arrived on the scene - seldom seen in Newlyn during all but the poorest weather - or embarrassingly, in this instance, for Rolande, the skipper of the An Dou Bleizh waiting to float in the gaps having tried to get in without sufficient water....
the Loctudy Le Heidi skippered by Phillip was a regular vistor as he often worked closer to Newlyn for fish rather than prawns......
the second boat owned by Christian from St Guenole, the Hibernia was built for speed specifically to allow her to work the Porcupine Bank for langoustine.....
three Loctudy boats leave en-masse after a storm has passed.