The Grayhound is built by Marcus and Freya Pomeroy-Rowden and was launched on the 4th of August 2012. She is a 5/6th scale replica of a three masted Customs Lugger built in 1776 in Cawsand, Cornwall. The Grayhound carries a Category 0 license for world-wide travel and can carry ten to eleven passengers, a crew of five and is armed with eight cannons.
A lugger is a sailing vessel defined by its rig, using the lug sail on all of its one or several masts. They were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of France, England, Ireland and Scotland. Luggers varied extensively in size and design.
Luggers were used extensively for smuggling from the middle of the 18th century onwards; their fast hulls and powerful rigs regularly allowed them to outpace any Revenue vessel in service. The French three-masted luggers also served as privateers and in general trade. As smuggling declined about 1840, many luggers wehre converted into fishing vessels. The mainmast of 3 masted luggers was often discarded, and larger sails being set on the fore and mizzen. This gave more clear space in which to work fishing nets.