A LOOE businessman and boat owner is offering a £500 reward for information leading to an arrest, after seven vessels in the port's harbour had their mooring ropes slashed on Monday night

Mr Mike Cotton, who bought the Our Boys last July and brought her back to Looe, where she had been built in 1904, has expressed his extreme anger at the vandalism. 'My boat is the oldest Looe built lugger,' he said, 'and part of the town's heritage which could not be replaced had she been lost'. Trawlermen arrived at the harbourside on Tuesday morning at around 4am, to catch the incoming flood tide to go out fishing, when they discovered the cut ropes. They were able to secure the boats involved just in time.

They believe if they had arrived much later some of the vessels would have been carried towards the bridge and smashed against it, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

It is thought the knife used in the attack was taken from the fishing boat Kessenyans, owned by Graham Jolliff of Polperro, which also had its moorings cut, and probably occurred at around 11.30pm at low tide. Other boats damaged were the charter vessel Deu Kerens (Mark Kitto), The Viking (Dave Wells), Swiftsure (Richard Chapman), Belerophon (Robert Chapman) and Rosses Fisher (Matthew Jaycock).

'We are talking about three quarters of a million worth of boats and equipment here,' said Mr Cotton, 'this attack is very serious.'

He added that in total about 40 heavy mooring ropes had been cut through which would have taken at least half an hour. Anyone with information should contact Looe police on 08705 777 444, or can call Crimestoppers confidentially on 0800 555 111.