Boats For Sale - Cutter

A very rare opportunity: the famous “Pixie” that took Bill Norrie single-handed and almost non-stop around the world. Refitted with no expense spared for his circumnavigation, then updated again for the couple’s trip to New Zealand and back. Approx $300,000 spent making her ready for all adventures.

Pixie is a 1994 Bristol Channel Cutter 28, hull number 102 of the 128 built by the Sam L. Morse Company to Lyle Hess's celebrated pilot cutter design. She is a proven, thoroughly documented bluewater cruiser, sailed single-handed around the world by Bill Norrie, a voyage covered in Good Old Boat and, in July 2026, on the cover of Practical Sailor in a feature by Bert Vermeer titled “Bristol Channel Cutter 28: Circumnavigator's Choice”.

Standing and running rigging, chainplates, bobstay, and bowsprit hardware were replaced in full in 2016 by Blackline Marine. Her Beta 25 diesel dates to 2014 and has been maintained throughout by Gartside Marine. She carries an unusually deep Carole Hasse sail wardrobe, including a tri-sail, storm staysail, nylon drifter, and a nearly new asymmetrical spinnaker with twin poles for downwind work, backed by a windvane and hydrogenerator for serious offshore passages.

Her sea-keeping record speaks for itself: 25 Southern Ocean gales, hove to 18 times without a scratch on deck, and four or five knockdowns survived with nothing worse than a torn dodger and chaos below. She is kept simple by design, with no refrigeration or pressure water, in the low-maintenance tradition that Lin and Larry Pardey made famous in this class. This is a rare opportunity to own a well-known, well-documented example of a proven bluewater design ready to cross an ocean.

Full voyage history and video documentation are available at Pixiesails and via the “SV Pixie and Ms Scuppers” YouTube channels.

Built in the USA so American buyers face no import duty bringing her home.

Name......................................................... PIXIE

Year............................................................ 1994

Builder.................................. Sam L. Morse Co.

Designer............................................. Lyle Hess

Hull No...................................... 102 of 128 built

LOA............. 37'9" (with bowsprit and boomkin)

LOD............................................................ 28'1"

LWL............................................................ 26'3"

Beam.......................................................... 10'1"

Draft............................................................ 4'10"

Displacement.................................... 14,000 lbs

Ballast.................................................. 4,600 lbs

Sail Area.................................................. 673 ft2

Hull........................................... Solid Fiberglass

Deck.................................................. Fiberglass

Steering...................................................... Tiller

Keel................... Full Keel - Encapsulated Lead

Rudder....................................... Transom-Hung

Fuel.............................................. 32 gals / 121 l

Water........................................... 70 gals / 265 l

Hot Water....................................................... No

Holding Tank................................................ Yes

CONSTRUCTION

• Hand-laid fiberglass hull with fully enclosed, full-length keel, no keel bolts, lead ingots form-fit and glassed into the keel sump
• Massively built hull-to-deck joint, inward turned flange bedded in 3M 5200 and covered by a teak rub rail
• Internal bulkheads glassed to the hull with five layers of mat along their full length
• All new bronze chainplates, bobstay, and boomkin chainplate, Blackline Marine (2016)
• Aluminum fuel tank and glass fresh water tanks are original to the boat.

COCKPIT

• Traditional small offshore cockpit, wide teak-topped bulwarks, boom gallows doubling as a handhold
• Dodger replaced with full Sunbrella canvas package (2021)
• Teak tiller, single-line reefing led aft, all sail controls handled without powered winches
• Two-piece cockpit cushions covering the full length of both benches
• Large lazarette locker accessed through a single cockpit hatch
• Propane stored in its own airtight locker within the lazarette; two 10 lb tanks, both full, with all new pressure hoses (2024)
• Boarding ladder with double-step fender

INTERIOR

• Cream-panelled main saloon with teak trim, port pilot berth extending to a double and starboard settee with lee cloths
• Below-deck brightwork refinished in Epifanes (2026); countertops repainted in bright white enamel (2026)
• Forward cabin serves as the head, with the toilet concealed under a bench top; standing headroom in the deck doghouse
• New brass ship's clock, barometer, and kerosene lamp
• Bronze salon table post, galley safety rail, and salon handrails (upgraded from teak)
• Solid teak and fir cabin sole
• Companionway fitted with three sets of boards: original varnished teak with hasp, a clear plexiglass board, and a pine set, secured from below with dual pins
• Forward scuttle hatch silicon-sealed for Southern Ocean passages; teak butterfly hatch remains fully operable
• Quarter berth fitted with storage bins for spares, fenders, and lines
• Fo'c's'le cupboards hold tool bags and spare parts
• Force 10 Cozy Cabin Heater, propane
• Espar Diesel Air Heater
• Alpenglow dual-color LED interior lighting throughout

GALLEY

• Practical seaworthy galley
• U-shaped galley to port, Force 10 propane stove with oven, deep stainless sink
• Deep custom sink, a favourite feature other BCC owners consistently admire; ideal for catching mugs and gear passed down from the cockpit, and a pleasure to work in underway
• Fresh and salt water foot pumps at the galley sink
• Two glass fresh water tanks (30 and 40 US gal, 70 total) below the salon sole, with notably clean, good-tasting water
• 6 litre per hour watermaker
• No refrigeration or pressure water, kept simple by design in the Pardey tradition, low maintenance offshore
• Icebox with a dedicated drain pump in the engine room
• Nav station opposite the galley with a substantial chart table and full electronics panel

MECHANICAL

• Beta Marine 25, Kubota-based diesel, installed by Gartside (2014)
• Approximately 1,000 hours, maintained throughout by Gartside Marine
• New dripless shaft bearing and cutlass bearing, Gartside Marine (2026)
• New gudgeons and pintles, Blackline Marine (2026)
• Engine electrical panel relocated below deck at the chart table (2025) to avoid salt water corrosion, with backup starting switches installed in the engine room
• Spare oil and fuel filters and a raw water impeller stowed in an engine room drawer, accessed beneath the companionway ladder
• 16 US gal black water holding tank in the sole of the fo'c's'le; all new plumbing and diverter valves (2025), secured with zip ties
• 32 US gal aluminum fuel tank, original, below the cockpit sole

ELECTRICAL + PLUMBING

• Fully set up for off-grid, extended cruising
• Closed AGM house battery bank and separate AGM starter battery (2020)
• Watt and Sea hydrogenerator (2019)
• 200 W solar panel mounted on the dodger
• Victron battery monitor (2024)
• Victron Phoenix 12/800 W puresine inverter
• Lavac manual head, as robust as they come!

INSTRUMENTS

• Full B&G instrument suite (2015): 9 inch multifunction display, depth, speed over ground, boat speed, water temperature, apparent and true wind speed and angle
• B&G radar (2025)
• AIS with dedicated antenna
• Icom IC-M506 Ship's VHF with DSC and Icom handheld VHF
• Icom IC-M802 SSB long range radio
• Simrad TP32 electric tiller pilot synced with the B&G suite
• Freehand self-steering windvane (2019)
• Fusion marine stereo
• Iridium GO satellite communicator with external antenna (2020)

SAILS & CANVAS

• Custom sail suite by Carole Hasse: cutter rig, all sails by Port Townsend Sails (2015), with Fern Sunbrella UV covers
• Mainsail, 267 sq ft, double slab reefing, full battens
• Roller furling jib (RFJ), 100 percent, and staysail, 110 sq ft, both on Harken furlers (2015)
• Tri-sail, 20 percent of mainsail area, own luff track and dedicated halyard doubling as a topping lift
• Storm staysail, virgin, bronze hanks, with Sunbrella storm sail sleeve
• Nylon drifter, 110 percent LP, 300 sq ft, 2.2 oz red nylon with two sheets
• A2 asymmetrical spinnaker, Leach McBride (2024), 910 sq ft, white and virtually unused beyond three hoists
• Twin spinnaker poles, one carbon fibre mounted forward on the mast and one telescoping aluminum stowed on foredeck chocks, each with fore and after guys

RIGGING

• Rigging optimized for single-handed offshore cruising: traditional in appearance but modern in implementation
• 100 percent new standing and running rigging by Blackline Marine (2016), in traditional off-white
• Dyneema lifelines
• All standing rigging terminated with Sta-Lok mechanical terminals, no swages
• Eight halyards: jib, staysail, solent, spinnaker topping lift, two spinnaker halyards, main, and main topping lift
• Drifter and spinnaker sheet leads run on Spectra frictionless rings
• Spectra strop with frictionless ring, doubling as spinnaker tack lead and anchor snubber lead
• Most halyards, furling lines, reefing lines, preventers, guys, and sheets replaced within the last two years
• Mainsail halyard recently upgraded with a double pulley to ease hoisting
• Dedicated mast-ascent kit: 4:1 gaunt line pulley with boatswain's chair, stowed in its own bag

DECK GEAR

• ABI manual windlass, refurbished (2021)
• Primary anchor: 33 lb Vulcan with 200 ft 5/16 in chain and 150 ft 9/16 in triple-braid nylon rode
• Secondary anchor: 9 kg Vulcan
• Stern anchor: 16 lb Fortress
• Backup primary rode: 100 ft 5/16 in chain and 200 ft 5/16 in nylon, stowed in the port salon locker
• Nine-foot Douglas fir bowsprit, triple-painted white (2025), with Port Townsend Foundry bronze hardware new (2016)
• New bowsprit net (2026)

ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT

• Lyle Hess-designed Fatty Knees 7 ft dinghy with sailing rig, foils, and mounting chocks on deck; varnished and leathered oars stow below in the salon; 8.5 ft spruce boat hook doubles as the dinghy's sprit-rig mast and as a launching spar
• Custom-built Force 10 barbecue with bronze rail mount for the port taffrail
• Two full sets of fenders and dock lines (home and away), three years old, four lines per set, plus three new 50 ft, 9/16 in triple-braid nylon transient dock lines
• 36 inch flat screen television
• ACR GPS EPIRB

VOYAGE RECORD

• Sailed single-handed around the world by Bill Norrie, including a full lap through the Southern Ocean below the five great capes
• Weathered 25 Southern Ocean gales and hove to 18 times without damage on deck
• Came through four or five knockdowns with only a torn dodger to show for it, no structural damage
• Over 100,000 nm and more than 500 nights underway at sea, the great majority single-handed

MAINTENANCE

• Full standing and running rigging replacement (2016)
• Full engine, shaft, and steering gear service completed (2026)
• All glass stripped to bare hull and repainted with Awlgrip (2016); cosmetic refinishing plus deck repair, no blisters found. 
• Teak “eyebrow” trim above the cabin sides removed at the same time for lower maintenance
• Bulwarks refinished to bare wood (2020), maintained yearly with Cetol Marine Clear
• Complete refit carried out without budget constraint by Blackline Marine, Port Townsend Foundry, Hasse Port Townsend Sailmakers, and Ben Gartside; full documentation and investment records available to serious buyers upon request
• Original factory tankage diagrams and all ship's papers kept in a leather folder in the starboard salon bookcase

Listed by Max Shaw of the Port Sidney Marina location of Yacht Sales West