Cornish Pussy - St Keverne, Cornwall
Cornish Pussy is a new catamaran (launched 2006) run by Gary Fox of Dive Action. It runs around the Lizard, on the south coast of Cornwall, and has been designed from scratch as a dive vessel.
I booked it for a weekend’s diving for myself and a group of friends in August 2006. At that point it was still bedding in, but it was already showing it was a great dive platform. The benches are stainless tubing arranged either side of a cetnral spine with room elow for boxes or bags, and have a small gap down the back to ensure that bootless twinsets don’t slide forwards. there is enough room for 12 twinsetted divers, and spare seats that jut under the canopy for “dry” seating. At the moment there is only a short hard canopy, which covers some dry storage and camera shelving, and the tea & coffee making facility - hot water always on tap for a brew, lovely! Gary has plans to add soft cover to increase the dry area, or shade, for the varying climes of Cornwall.
The transom has two door cur into it. One leads onto the diver lift, which drops to a good depth below the waterline, and the other is free onto a small platform. This arrangement means buddy pairs can enter the water togehter - one from each door, and stops the unlucky second always having the longer swim for the shot, or risking landing on the first.
As a cat the rear deck space is plentiful, and the boat appeared to be nicely stable. As we dived in the calm waters in the lee of the Lizard it is difficult to tell how this translates in higher seas. We also didin’t get the opportunity to see how fast she went, but given that Gary is thinking of taking her on long weekend jaunts next season, I suspect she does have some “oomph”!
Gary is a great skipper. He dives the waters that he drops you in on and knows exactly what you will expect to see. Wrecks are his thing, but he will talk squidgy stuff with you if you demand it! His bluff Yorkshire style could offend the sensitive flowers, but don’t mistake it for rudeness - he is a gentleman….even if he wouldn’t admit it!
Plans for the future include onboard compressors - possibly even nitrox and trimix!
