BRIEF HISTORY
Vigilance BM76 is a piece of floating history. She’s one of only seven surviving sailing trawlers built in Brixham. When she was launched in 1926, she represented the pinnacle of trawler design and proved it with her record-breaking speed and by winning Brixham’s coveted George V Cup in the annual Trawler Race. But, sadly, she was moth-balled after just eleven years when steam-power took over from sail, and during WWIl – little more than a hulk – she was used as a platform for tethering
barrage balloons. Following the war, she escaped being broken up for scrap and was refitted as a gentleman’s yacht. Vigilance then survived an attempted arson attack and several more years of neglect before enjoying yet another career as a sail training craft and an
Arctic Survey Vessel. In 1997 she was ‘rediscovered’ moored up on the Isle of Man and sailed back home to Brixham by a group of local enthusiasts to be restored. It was a precarious voyage; the bilge pumps were working overtime the whole way! But her arrival back in the bay marked the first step in establishing Brixham’s present day Heritage Fleet and Vigilance is now enjoying yet another new lease of life as a floating and working reminder of the port’s role in international fishing industry.
Paignton Probus Club 