Brixham Trawler Provident stars in finale of The Traitors

Provident stars in BBC’s “The Traitors”  final mission

At the end of July we were a couple of days into a new charter and heading into Loch Hourn, one of the most remote lochs in Scotland, when we got a phone call.  The loch is surrounded by very high mountains with no chance of a phone signal unless you climb to the very top of one of them.  With the signal becoming increasingly flaky, we managed enough of a conversation to get the gist.  A production company was looking for a beautiful sailing ship to play a part in the finale of a reality TV show.  After some complex negotiations we realised that we could deliver on their dates and having been sworn to secrecy (all our crew had to sign a non-disclosure agreement) they revealed that their show was called The Traitors and would be airing on prime time BBC1.  They needed a dramatic ending to the show and Provident was it!

Provident’s part in The Traitors was to anchor off the iconic Bow-Fiddle rock near Portknockie on the North East coast of Scotland.  This was quite a trek for the Provident crew who are based in Oban on the West coast.  The USA and the UK versions of the show are filmed in exactly the same way but a month apart.  We had to travel from Oban through the Caledonian Canal to Inverness and a further day sail to Portknockie – about 60 miles east of Inverness  - twice.  Provident's part in each show lasted about 10 minutes but as the production team hired us for 22 days, they seemed to have a quite a big budget!

“Are all your sails red?” the production team asked us – they wanted us to attach their logo to our sail and wondered whether it would show up enough.  With an astonishing amount of efficiency, we derigged the mainsail in Inverness and two days later we got it back with The Traitors logo attached. 

We did hoist the sail between Inverness and Portknockie despite the secrecy around filming, but we were so far offshore we don’t think anyone saw us.   We never use the engine unless we have to!

Bow Fiddle Rock is not a great spot to park a boat - definitely not recommended by the Admiralty charts - and we bounced about at anchor for at least six hours while a fast rib went back and forth with sound men, camera men, directors and production assistants.   We all had to spend at least an hour below decks while a drone flew about taking pictures of a “deserted” Provident.   

The contestants' mission involved abseiling off a cliff, swimming in a cave to get money rewards and getting to the ship as fast as they could before their time ran out.  If you watch the show you might catch sight of the Provident crew in glamorous outfits – blue boiler suits, flat caps and white neckties.  Nobody wanted us to get confused with the contestants! 

When the contestants came on board Provident, they were very excited and needed quite a lot of supervision to stop them bouncing around the deck and on top of the deck house.  They were all brilliant and took to sweating and tailing naturally.  There is great shot of Jaz in the film sweating like a pro and Claudia shouting encouragement.  Our crew worked in the background, raising the gaff and as I am sure you can all guess – reality TV is not all “reality”.   

So Provident’s new claim to fame is being on prime TV in both the UK and USA versions of The Traitors. We enjoyed having Claudia Winkleman and Alan Cumming - the presenter of the US version - on board.  Alan is of course, a Scot, and seemed very at home despite the difficult sea conditions when they were shooting.  We did think Claudia should probably have worn a few more clothes, but luckily, we have plenty of hot water bottles on board.   

At the end of our scene, Claudia says: “You were all spectacular – well done”.  We like to think she was talking about the Provident crew too!

Source: Provident Sailing