scottishboating

Another Mystery Yacht

2012-03-09T02:20:00.001-08:00

The first scottishboating mystery yacht remains unidentified after more than a year, so let's have another go with a new one. Peter has sent in the images above, which show a yacht with a number of interesting and puzzling features.

The photos were all taken by the famous Scottish photographer Ian G Gilchrist, who published a couple of fine books of images, Call of the Wind and Scenes and Sails on the Firth of Clyde under his Windward Publications imprint. From the general style I guess that the pictures above are pre-War, when Ian was in his prime.

The pictures show a hull form that would have been unusual in the 1930s with short ends and what appears to be a flat run aft, possibly suggesting a fin keel.

Image one shows a fractional sloop rig and a mast that has suffered a bit through backstay tensioning, whereas in the other images she has sprouted a mizzen.

Was she designed as a racing yacht, perhaps by her owner anxious to prove a theory and later converted for cruising? There is a clue suggesting that this might be the case in that she seems to have had originally two circular cockpits for safety reasons in the style of many of the early extreme racers, the foredeck hand nipping out of the forward one when required while the helmsman aft concentrated on cerebral work unhindered.

The pictures of her in cruising set-up suggest a very cosy cockpit arrangement, particularly if you invited any guests along.

It's difficult to imagine what life would have been like down below, rather claustrophobic I guess.

An anchor windlass worthy of a Titan appears in all the pictures, suggesting that the owner was a cautious chap. It certainly wouldn't have helped while racing.

And how on Earth was she steered? There's no sign on deck of a tiller, or indeed a rudder.

I'm also intrigued about the locations.

Picture 1 with rhododendrons and a big hoose in the background suggests the Kyles of Bute.

Pictures 2 and 3 again too civilised for the West coast with houses along the shore and cultivated fields, so probably the Firth of Clyde again?

For my money picture 4 is outside Crinan.

Finally a few words about the photographer. Ian Gilchrist was married to Gladys Murison Coulson, who had acquired the lovely Mylne yacht Maid of Lorn as a twenty-first birthday present in 1933 and they lived at Kilcreggan, where he established his Windward Publications imprint. Many of the photographs in his books were taken from the Maid or feature her. She was built by McKellar's slip at Kilcreggan in 1908 with a transom stern and lengthened a year later. She's still going strong and won the beauty prize at the last Mylne Regatta. Here's an image of her, courtesy of the lovely blog lochielbute

I would love to know more about the Gilchrists and maybe someone reading this will have known them. They retired to St Andrews, where Ian died in 1974 followed by Gladys in 1988. It would be good to know that Ian's photographic archive has been preserved.

A Scottish Gem from Don Roberto

2012-03-01T03:34:00.001-08:00

Better known in Argentina than in his native Scotland, Robert Bontine Cunninghame-Graham defies categorisation. Politician, adventurer, explorer, entrepreneur, horseman, humanitarian and survivor all apply to him, as well as an acute observer of life and brilliant writer. He enjoyed a long and exciting life in Spain, South America and Africa but was also deeply involved in Scottish affairs and the first president of the Nationalist Party of Scotland. Friend of and respected by, among others, Hugh MacDiarmid, Compton Mackenzie and Joseph Conrad, he deserves greater recognition in his native land. As a small contribution to this I offer one of his tales from 1905.

McKECHNIE V SCARAMANGA

" MAN, an awfu'-like thing yon law o' general average. Dod aye, I mind aince being the matter of a hundred pound oot by it."

He paused, and spat reflectively into what he, having traded in his youth to Portland Maine, St. John's, and Halifax, knew as a cuspidor. His whole appearance showed him at first sight a man who for the most part of his life had sailed out of Aberdeen or Peterhead.

His iron-grey hair was thin upon his head, and made a halo round his brick-dust face, on which the sun, the storm, and whisky of full fifty years had done their worst. His beard was stiff and bristly, and grew high upon his cheek, and underneath the chin, looked like the back of a wild boar or porcupine. His upper lip was shaved and blue, his teeth stained yellow with tobacco juice. Thick tufts of bristles overhung his eyes and sprang from out his ears, and his enormous hands, once muscular and hard with hauling upon ropes, although immense, were soft and flabby, though still freckled by the sun which tanned them in his youth. Upon his middle finger was tattooed a ring, and round his wrist a bracelet which he tried hard to hide by pulling down his cuff. Not that he was ashamed of it, or ever for an instant posed for anything but what he was, but, as he would explain,

" Mistress M'Kechnie thocht it didna' look genteel. A woman's clavers, aye ou aye ; but then, ye see, Mistress M'K. raises a wild-like turley-wurley whiles, aboot a feck o' things that dinna matter, for I say when a man has got the siller that is the principal." And certainly he had the siller, for from a mere tin-kettle of a tramp, bought upon credit and in which the saying was if you should drop a marlin-spike it would go through her plates, he had attained to the possession of a fleet which peopled every sea.

But though good luck, which he referred to as the " act of Providence," had thus befriended him and seated him in his own private room in the great office, which he once likened to a liner's cabin, the highest praise in his vocabulary, he yet remained at heart the self-same pawky, pious, superstitious, and hard - fisted sailor man that he was when he first sailed in a whaler to the Arctic seas from Peterhead. His friends and his contemporaries knew him as Andrew Granite, whether because of his resemblance to the stone, his character, or simply from his birthplace, or from all combined, no one was sure. But from the Clyde to Timor- Laut, whenever any of his ships was spoken and ran up her number, a smile went round extending from the forecastle to the bridge, and some old shell-back was pretty safe to say, " One of old Andrew's coffins, damn them, a Granite liner ; yes, by God ; sink like a stone in some place some day, or run upon a shoal marked in no blooming chart ; Andrew will grab the insurance money, and then go off to kirk."

Withal he was a genial, simple, whisky-drinking, pious, and not unkindly man, with all the low-class Scotsman's love for law and pride in never being over-reached, and with a gift of story -telling which a long life at sea had sharpened and improved.

His conversation ran on bottomry, on jettison, demurrage, barratry ("a grand word yon," he would explain), and barnacles. Much had he got to say about Restraint of Princes and the like, of berth notes, back freights, charterparty, cessio clause, frustration of adventure, and as to whether frost and rats fell under act of God, or might be held as perils of the sea. Much did he like to dwell upon "diceesions o' the Coorts," quoting with unction Stamforth v. Wells, Hadley v. Baxendale, and Vogeman v. Parkenthorpe, with comments of his own upon the judges, with much about the lunar and the calendar in the vexed question of the " Charter " month, much of the usages of trades and ports, all which he held " redeeklous," deeming them part and parcel of a scheme against the Granite Line.

An elder of the kirk " outby Bearsden," where, as he said, "he stopped," he yet believed that Providence was a malicious demon on the watch to do him damage, sending foul winds and snapping shafts of screws, blowing off heads of cylinders and heating brasses in an arbitrary way, as if the power referred to had nothing else to do but to watch him and his affairs through a celestial magnifying glass which he kept screwed into his eye after the fashion of a watchmaker when looking at a watch.

The house " outby " where Andrew Granite " stopped " was built of such well-hewn and finely pointed stone as to resemble plaster, so neat were all the joints, so sharp the edges, and though substantial, did not seem designed to live in, but rather as a model from some exhibition of what no house should be. Roofed with dark blue metallic-looking slates, it stood in its own carriage-sweep, which, laid with furnace slag in lieu of gravel, formed as it were a yellow ochre river flowing between the bulwarks of green grass which bounded it, and which, as the possessor said, were " trimmed square by the lifts and braces and ran down sheer into the tide." He used to add that "in a ship, ye ken, ye canna let minavellings lay aboot, an' for a gairdner ye couldna' get a better man nor steadier than an auld sailor, if ye can keep him frae the drink."

Laurels and rhododendrons, the latter "bonny heebrids," as the seafaring " gairdner" called them, stunted and withered by the wind, stood ranged beside the avenue in rows, each with its Latin nickname dangling from a wire upon a piece of tin, as if it was convicted of some crime against its fellows and was doing penance for its sins. Cast-iron hoops contrived to look like withies bordered the road ; and to make all things sure, enamelled plates with the inscription " Parties are requested to keep off the grass " reminded people to be cautious how they walked. A battlemented lodge and wrought-iron gate with a huge gilt monogram upon the top stood sentinels at the edge of the domain. Clumps of young spruce trees were disposed at intervals to break the wind, which bent them over opposite the side it blew, and stripped them bare where they caught all the fury of the blast.

The inside of the villa was suitable to its exterior grace. Plate-glass and varnished yellow pine gave it a sort of likeness to a ship. White fluffy mats lay on the floors, and on the walls were water-colours, so well finished and so smooth that they could easily have been mistaken for the best kind of chromo-lithographs. Wax fruit and feather flowers, and hummingbirds, looking distorted ghosts of their bright selves, were stuck about upon the mantelpieces, covered with glass shades. A banner-screen with a ship worked in crewels stood before the fire, which in a bright steel grate burned till the twelfth of May, and then until October was replaced by coloured paper shavings so contrived as to present the appearance of a waterfall.

Mistress M'Kechnie, a large, high-coloured lady, dressed in black silk and girt about the neck with a gold chain from which a watch was hung which dangled loose or else was stuck into the waistband of her gown, sat in her " droring-room " in state. A large medallion of her lord, with a stout wisp of his stiff hair fashioned into a cable round the edge, was pinned upon her breast. It showed him at the age of thirty, grim and ill-favoured, and had been taken in the port that he called "Ryo" by an artist who he said had been " an awfu' clever chiel," and certainly should have been heard of in the world of art for his stout realism and adherence to the truth.

The owner of the house sat in his sanctum, which, like the cabin of a ship, had small round windows, and was adorned with books, bound in morocco bindings, which he never read, and with a coloured photograph of her he always called "Mistress M'K." and stood in awe of; for she came of " weel-kenned folk," and had some tocher and a temper which was not always safe "to lippen to."

With cigars lighted, his friends about him and their glasses filled, Mr. M'Kechnie used to give full play to his imaginative mind on many subjects which had appealed to him during the course of his career as law pleas about ships, soundings in various ports, the absence of all lights on certain coasts, the charms of ladies he had known about the world and his success with them, and other things of a like nature which he discussed more freely when certain that his wife had gone to bed. One tale led to another, but the tale that his friends all loved the best was one he never failed to tell after his second tumbler of stiff toddy, when, with his feet in carpet slippers worked in yellow beads, and with a fox's head in blue in high relief upon the instep, he would light a Trichinopoly cigar, and after, with the story-teller's instinct, having forced his friends to press him, take up his parable.

" Hae ye all got your glasses filled ? Weel aye I am a sort o' temperate man masel', but speerits, ye ken, are a fair panawcea, that is when taken moderately." To such a proposition no self-respecting Scotsman has an objection, and they all used to fill, and, "paidlin' " with their ladles, inhale the fumes of the hot spirit, puff their cigars, and wait expectantly.

"Ye see, ma freens, law is a kittle sort o' gear, especially sea law, as mony o' ye ken I know fu' feel. But the maist awfu' thing is what they ca' yon general average ay juist fair redeeklous. Ye ken what Mr. Scrutton says he's an M.A. and LL.B. and has juist written the maist compendious work on contrack of affreightment as expressed in charterparties a pairfeck vawdy-mecum. Ane ye ca' Mackinnon helpit him, and between the twa they lay ye aff a'maist a'thing that can arise between a charterer and a shipowner upon the sea.

" Charter-party, sort o' dog Lay tin, carta partita they ca't. In the auld days they juist wrote it in duplicate on a single sheet o' paper, and then divided it by indented edges, each part fitted to the other. That's hoo they got the name, indenture.

" A feck o' things ye'll find in Scrutton's book, ma freens, sort o' auncient like. Whiles when I havna' much to do I tak' it doon and lauch, man I lauch ower it till ma heid juist whummles like a sturdy sheep. Oo aye ye're richt I'm sort o' wandered.

" Weel aweel, I'll tell ye now about a wild-like tulzie I had aince with a lash o' Dawgos a' aboot yon cursed general average. Man, it was this wey, ye ken whiles I juist wonder that a man like Scrutton Mackinnon is na blate either does na' dae something to get the law changed. Na, na, ye could na' richtly look for it ; it's the man's bread, ye ken. Aye, I'll heave roond, I'm subject to thae digressions; so was Sir Walter Scott and others I could mention. Ye mind aboot the seventy-twa, or it may be the seventy-five, freights were fairly high and shipowners were ettlin' to mak' some siller. Bad times we are havin' noo yon cuttin' prices, I juist ca' it cuttin' throats but in the seventy-five that's it I had a boat was gaein' oot to Smyrny wi' a feck o' cotton goods. Somehow or other she just snappit her screw shaft, and if she had na' just by a special providence come across a tramp out o' the Hartlepools she micht have wandered aboot yon islands just like Ulysses him thae raise sic' a dirl aboot in Homer ; for, ye ken, I ha'e a sort o' tincture o' the humanities.

" The tramp just gi'ed her a tow in to Saloneeky. Losh me, then there cam' the salvage racket, the maist infernal intrikit affair ye ever saw. A man juist has to go to the slauchter like a lamb, if aiver a ship makes fast a cable to any o' his boats. Scrutton has it textually, that unless the charter amounts to a demise but I'll no deave ye wi' technicalities. Ye'll get it in Sepia v. Rogers, or Hubbertey v. Holts, and when ye hae it, mickle wiser may ye be.

" Fill up, men, it winna' hurt ye, and there's plenty mair . . . ah yes, yon maitter o' the salvage was sort o' seekenin'."

" The worst thing, though, was that the freighters were a' upon me for demurrage. Sirs me, I was fair gyte, and I juist yokit on Scrutton (the vawdy-mecum, ye mind) as if it had been the Holy Scriptures. Ma heid fair dirled wi' Sangivetti v. Postlethwaite and a heap o' cases very much resembling mine. I thocht I had a bit issue anent the cesser clause, and awa' I went to my awgents in West George Street. I laid my case before them, and they lauch't at me fair lauch't. They told me the point was clear that I stood liable. Man, I whiles think the very elements are a' against the shipowner. What wi' they cursed strikes drawin' awa' the trade, the employers' liabeelity, and the infernal intrikitness o' the law, a body hasna' got a chance.

"Ye'll mind, Geordie, when we went tae sea thegither, sax-and-forty years ago it was maist a' wind jammers in thae days ? "

The crony thus interpolated took his black oily Burmah cigar out of his mouth and grunted, " I mind weel. A man juist signed for his salt horse and his salt pork, nane o' your tin-bag then," and, after looking at the ceiling, spat into the fire.

" Aye, that's so, a sailor man was a richt felly then. Nane o' yer comin' aboard withoot an airticle o' kit except a knife and a pair o' sea-boots, and slingin' the latter doon the forepeak and fa'ing drunk upon them.

" Na, na, we a' had oor bit kists wi' plenty dunnage in them and as for your employers' liabeelity set them up a sailor man juist took his ain life in his hand."

Geordie having grunted something about a long yarn and a rope-maker, Andra' came, as he said, back to his course, and once again took up his tale.

" I juist cabled oot orders to my awgent in Awthens to proceed to Saloneeky to arrange for chartering a vessel to tak' the stuff on to Smyrny ; the body juist agreed wi' the captain o' a Greek schooner, ane they ca'ed Scaramangy, heard you ever sic' a name ?

"His craft was ane o' they Levantyne-built bits o' things, awfu' gay wi' paint, a kind o' gin-palace afloat, ye ken the things, Geordie ? She lookit weel, and my awgent cabled me that, wi' God's blessing, he hoped she would do the trip to Smyrny in aboot three days. I couldna' thole yon ' God's blessing ' in the cablegram. A man has his ain releegious opinions ye mind I'm an elder in the U.P. kirk outby Milngavie (ye canna' get the richt doctrine here in Bearsden, a mere puir imitation o' the Episcopawlians, a sort o' strivin' after being genteel, I ca' it) ; but business, ye see, is business. Besides, thae things are better understood, taken for read, as they ca' it up at Westminister.

" Yon blessing in the cablegram cost me a maitter o' some saxteen shillin' the rates were awfu' high in thae times, ye mind. Saxteen shillin' just expended in a manner I ca' redeek-lous, for the Almighty must ha' kent that I was putting up ma ain bit supplication when the cash was at stake.

" Yon Scaramangy had a wild-like crew on board ; man, they Greeks dinna sail short-handed, I'se warrant them. Thirteen Dawgos forby himsel', and the bit schooner not above three hundred tons. Heard ye the like ?

" I canna' bide a superstitious man, for I aye haud nae ane should stand between a man and Him ; if a man wants Him, let him gang straucht, I say through the Auld Book. Anyhow, Scaramangy had his Madoney a sort o' shrine, ye see aft o' the mainmast, and a bit licht burnin' awa' before it nicht an' day ; an' awfu' waste o' can'le. Weel aweel anither Trichinopoly ye'll na aiblins anither tot. What ! yer done ? Geordie, rax me the ginger snaps. Scaramangy I didna' see him ; but I hae seen his like a thoosand times, maist-like dressed in longshore togs, wi' ane o' thae Maneely straws, an' alpacy jacket, an' white canvas shoes ye'll mind the rig. Maist o' them has a watch-gaird on them like the cable o' a battleship ; ye canna' tell a gentleman nooadays, wi' everybody wearin' their bloody Alberts. No a'thegither bad-like sailors are they Greeks ; sort o' conceity whiles the way they paint their bits o' schooners and their barquentines ; maist o' them yallow, wi' a bit pink streak, whiles a blue ane, and sure to hae a figure-head, some o' they Greek goddesses. No, Geordie, Sapho was no' a goddess she was a poetess, a queer-like ane tae, just went fair demented ower a felly they ca'ed But I'm havering the humanities, ye ken, tak' an awfu' grip on a man.

" Scaramangy was most certain to hae had a wee bit curly Maltese dog on board I canna' bide them, rinnin' aboot yap, yappin' and film' the decks. Set them up ; for ma ain pairt, I like a cat, or maybe a mongoose na, na, man, no a monkey dirty brutes, the hale rick ma tick o' them ; seem to gae into a decline tae soon as ye pass the forties. Man, I mind ane, I traded a coat and a bit Bible for him wi' a missionary in the Cameroons. Puir brute, we had na' sighted the Rock of Lisbon, comin' hame, afore he started hostin'. I had him in the cuddy, and ettled to mak' him tak' some Scott's Emulsion. It would na' dae, and we had juist to commit his bit body to the deep, the same as a Christian, just off the Wolf Rock. I dinna' care to mind it. I lost my ain Johnny the same way. Man, I felt it sae, I should hae liked to hae the wee deevil stufft, but his mother said it would be heathenish.

" Nae doot o' it, yon Scaramangy would foul some other body's cable when he lifted anchor, and find his throat halliards unrove they're apt to use them for a warp, ye ken, or some other kind o' deevilment ; but, anyhow, to sea he went in half a gale o' wind.

" There must hae been an awfu' haggersnash o' tongues, bad as the Tower o' Babel, on board the Aidonia ; that's what they ca'ed her thae Levantynes canna' dae a thing withoot a noise.

" Set o' curly-heided Dawgos, with their silver earrings and sashes rowld round their hurdies I canna' stan' a sailor man wi' a sash on him, it looks sae theatrical.

" What happened only the Lord Himself and Scaramangy really ken. The Lord, for a' He kens, never lets on He hears, and Scaramangy was a naitural accomplished liar frae his birth.

" What he said was, that a pairfect hurricane burst on him, soon as he'd pit to sea. He couldna' get the topsails aff o' her, as nane o his dodderin' deevils daur to gae aloft. So he juist watched them blow clean oot o' the bolt-ropes, and shortened the lave o' his sails the best he could by a special interposeetion o' Providence he didna' lose ony o' his heidsails, though nae doots but he deserved tae.

"He says he and his cattle were in the awfu'ist peril that they ever experienced in their lives, the schooner almost on her beam ends, and the seas fair like to smother her.

"In the nick o' time, what think ye he did, man?

" ' Ran for some harbour,' ' lie to a bittie' ; na, na, nae frichts o' him. He juist pit up a bit sipplication to his Madoney in the companion, and promised her (as if the painted bitch could hear him) that if she took him safe to Smyrny, that he would sacrifice something valuable as a sign o' gratitude. Heard ye the like o' that?

" God's truth, it mak's me mad to think aboot it the folly o' the thing and the gratuitous waste o' valuable property.

" Anyhow, he doddered in to Smyrny some gait or ither, and what d'ye think he done ? He an' his men aye, Geordie, nae doots he had the dawg along wi' them went barefit oot to a shrine they had, and returned thanks to Him who stills the waves that is, when He has a fancy tae.

" I dinna altogether disapprove o' that, for, prayer, ye ken, is usefu' whiles. Samuel pit up his sipplication to the Lord before he hewit yon Agag, and Joshua when he smote thae Canaanites, and even Paul a gran' man Paul, sort o' pawky too lifted a prayer when he was in juist sich a situation as was yon Scaramangy.

" Scaramangy and his Dawgos, when they had done their prayer, went aboard again, un-bent their mainsail, and took it ashore and burnt it on the beach. Mad, ye say, Geordie mad, aye, mad enough, but no on business matters.

" Ye can't think what they did then ?

" They gaed awa' up to the British Consulate, and tabulated their claim, under the law o' general average, for the value o' the mainsail ; for the deevils said, had they no made their vow, the Madoney wouldna' have interfeired, and the vessel would maist certainly hae been lost. No blate, yon Scaramangy but mercy me, whatna' a conception o' natural laws he must have had ! Fancy the Madoney expawtiating in the heavens, watching a storm like a fisherwife watching for her man when an easterly gale springs up, and no to be propeetiated without the promise o' an offerin' !

" After I got the cable, I fair sprang oot o' the hoose, and awa' to West George Street, to my awgents, and they tel't me Scaramangy was domiciled furth o' Scotland, and the case would have to be heard at Smyrny.

" It was juist held that whereas Captain Scaramangy, bein' in peril on the deep, and havin' done everything within his power and in the compass o' good seamanship to save his ship ma God ! and being at the point o' daith, had recourse to prayer. Furthermore, the Coort bein' o' opinion that the vessel must have foondered had there not been an interposeetion o' a Higher Power, decides that Captain Scaramangy took the proper course, and that his prayer and his vow being both heard and considered favourably by the Madoney, that she thocht fit to save the vessel and the crew.

" Therefore, the Coort held that the vow was instrumental in the first degree, and that the jettison o' the mainsail which of course wasna' a richt jettison at all was necessary, and that the shippers were all bound to bear their due proportion o' the loss.

" Appeal nae frichts o' me. It cost me, one way and another, mair than a hundred pound. Appeal na, better to lose than to lose mair ; that's a Greek proverb at least I think so, and no a bad yin.

" Yer gauntin', men; weel, weel, good nicht to ye Geordie, rax me doon Scrutton fae aff the top shelf there's juist a pint or twa anent yon cursed general aiverage I should like to look at before I turn in for the nicht."

From Progress, 1905

The oldest One Design in the World (and a chance to buy her)

2012-02-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

Avid readers of this blog (you know who you are, I don’t)know how I love a good mystery. If you guddle through my earlier posts from2010 onwards you’ll find my attempts to trace the histories of long-disappearedyachts and their owners, which have resulted in occasional successes and one ortwo tales of maritime adventure and even espionage. On reflection it’s actuallyquite surprising that so many old craft, built as they were in an impermanentmedium and often used hard in rough conditions actually survived, the more sowhen one reflects on the habits of the early owners of racing craft whocannibalised an older boat for rig and fittings for the new one.

Occasionally the hours spent originally in libraries whenI started out in a pre-internet age and now done online from a remote corner ofScotland produced real and very satisfying results. Earliest was the discoverythat the Scottie survived as she approached her first century, still makingripples on the Wansee.Read that post here:- Scottie, a tale of espionage

More recently I posted on the one-designs of George LennoxWatson here:- The Clyde 17/19 foot Class

The Master in his prime

I suggested that his nineteen foot lugsail boats created for the ClydeCanoe Club in 1886 were possibly the oldest one-design class in the World. Ihad to be tentative, as I knew that the Dublin Waterwags of the same year makethis claim, supported by the advertisement placed in the Irish Times of 18September 1886 by their founder Thomas B Middleton, which started off

“It isproposed to establish in Kingstown a class of sailing punts, with centreboardsall built and rigged the same, so that an even harbour race may be had with alight rowing and generally useful boat…..”

Waterwag at Dalkey

At that time I didn’t have a precisedate for the Watson boats and also didn’t want to upset the Irish friends whomI meet mostly in cyberspace but sometimes also along our shores, but help hasnow arrived in the form of Martin Black’s masterpiece “The Art and Science ofYacht Design” which arrived here recently and has put paid to all work aroundthe house for the time being and coincidentally published by some of thoseIrish friends. Martin records the Dumbarton Herald of 18 August 1886 reporting

“Early in the present season the Clyde Canoe Club ….. resolved to add to theirfleet of lugsail craft, three lugsail boats…. and on Saturday last, 14 August,the three left the Leven for Gareloch…”

The first boats of both classes werebuilt by R McAlister & Son of Dumbarton. It would be fascinating to readany surviving correspondence among the promoters of the two, as we know therewere very close family and sporting connections across the Irish Sea at thattime.

So there we have it, nearly a dead heat and certainly avictory for the Celts, as both classes beat the Solent by a couple of years.

In my original post I recorded three more boats built in 1887and a final one in 1888. Martin reports a total of nine, the first three namedRed, White and Blue, three more built by McAlisters in 1887 for the Royal ClydeYC, which he doesn’t name and a final three in 1891 by Paul Jones of Gourock,also unnamed.

So what about my 1888 boat? I was thinking about theBanshee, which the Watson design list published in Martin’s book describes(design no 149) as a “Clyde 17/19 ft”, 2.5 tons and built by A McLaren atKilcreggan. Incidentally Martin also lists the Nell (design no 156) as a “Clyde19ft”, also 2.5 tons and built by J Adam of Gourock.

Confusion is caused by the emergence of another class hot onthe heals of the first one, the 17/19s, about which we know quite a bit. Towhich class did Banshee and Nell belong?

In my post I wrote that we didn’t have photographs of theearlier boats and posted the lines and sailplans, copied here:-

Here is a half model of Red, which is just a wee bit clearer than the above.

But I have now learned that one of them, Banshee, stillexists. Not only that, she’s for sale, via Gareth Worters of the Dauntlessboatyard. Contact details are posted below. To me she looks like one of the original boats and not a 17/19, which generally weighed in at 3 tons and seem to have much deeper keels.

She’s had a very thorough professional restoration,including making and fitting a new stem, stern post, lots of planking repairsand reframing and an entire new deck structure. From the photos below it seems she’ll need very little, apart from a final coat ofpaint, to get her sailing again. Gareth tells me that there’s a good set ofspars, finished to a high standard and a suit of sails.

As visitors will know this blog is unmonetised and totally non-commercial and I want to keep it that way, but I am happy to help friends in the world of old boats. If you want to pursue the Banshee further you can find Gareth on garethdauntless (at) aol.co.uk.

And if you miss out on the Banshee, don’t forget that HubertStagnol is building and has maybe finished (I haven’t heard from him for awhile) another of the original design in France, about which I posted here:- Red lives again

Cool Colonsay

2012-02-04T02:27:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from an interesting trip to Colonsay. Over the years I've often had a glimpse of this island, visible far out to sea from the pre-historic lookout post of Dun Fada round the corner from Degnish Point, but thoughts of the great Atlantic swells always put me off visiting by boat. Better to travel on board the good ship Isle of Mull, above, where good conversation and fine strong coffee can be found.

An invitation to take part in a discussion about the proposed fish farm stirred me from winter lethargy into three days on this magical island on the edge of the world.

What follows is a little photo-essay of my visit, without the polemic, which I will save for a more political forum.

Well, maybe not entirely politics-free, because what on earth is the Icebeam doing in Oban? She's been here for months, a Swedish research ship equipped with state of the art under-water survey equipment. She's been seen as far afield as Ardnamurchan, as reported by the Kilchoan Blogger.

McCaig's Folly

And I can't resist a poke at the PC Brigade, who insist on calling it a tower, when everyone knows its real name. Here goes with the essay.

Leaving the Sound of Kerrera, Mull in the distance.

On arriving there was time for quick drive round the island before dark.

The Strand, between Colonsay and Oronsay


It has to be called Hangman's Rock

Loch Fada

First view of Traigh Ban

Day Two dawned cold and bright and I decided to do a gentle stroll from Scalasaig to the north of the island.

Scalasaig

Leaving Scalasaig one soon comes to an interesting wee haven.

After a little while I came to the Colonsay House estate and took a detour through.

A case for the WD40

Traigh Ban again, from under Carnan Eoin


Raised beach

The Old Man of Balnahard

The way back is always longer

On Day Three I had time to explore south from Scalasaig and walked over towards Queens Bay, where there are signs of old cultivation.

From the high ground one gets a good view of the Scalasaig Kirk.

And finally a view of the route home, with Jura stretching north on the left and Scarba just visible beyond.

The Art of the Progue, a Galloway Whisky Galore and a naturalist Welsh Monk

2012-01-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

Therecent storms haven't all been doom and gloom for some of the local charactersaround here. Our shores have been recipients of huge quantities of debris ofall sorts, including a few thousand tons of gravel that miraculously appearedafter the storm on Christmas Eve, a fine present all neatly washed and graded.It's amazing what an angry sea can do and I've just read that all the sand atGanavan disappeared in the same storm. Well, it's not ended up here and ifanyone is missing some gravel, they're not getting it back.

An oldlocal eccentric, sometimes known as Hairy Pete and by those who don't know hisname just as the Old Logman has been down on the shore recovering sodden timberwhich may eventually dry out enough to keep him warm later this century.There's been enough black plastic stuff, curiously-shaped objects never seenbefore, enormous black barrels and bits of broken rope to start a small fishfarm. A great length of heavy duty pipe also washed up and was hauled withgreat difficulty to the roadside by Hairy Pete to await later collection oncehis friends recovered from their revelries enough to help him, but haddisappeared by the time they did. We have to guess that its owner, possible ahedge fund in Kazakhstan, has arranged for its recovery to go back to itsfunction of feeding caged salmon.

Inparts of the country where they have traditionally received such bounty fromthe sea, the locals have special names for it. The occasional fine sailing shipnever made it out of the approaches to Firth of Clyde, coming to grief onCorsewall Point, a sticky-out bit of land at the top of the South-west tip ofScotland, where the tides are strong and the winds changeable. Around Stranraerand in the tiny settlements facing the Irish Sea and Luce Bay, havens forgenerations of smugglers, the harvesting of this material became known as"proguing" and the product as "the progue."

Italways beats me why ship-owners didn't see the sense in having their preciousvessels towed well clear of these dangerous waters. Ferdinand Laeisz kept aspecial fleet of steam tugs to tow his P-ships the whole way from Hamburg untilthey cleared the English Channel, where they were set free in the open sea andthe tug would wait for the next incoming member of his fleet.

Typicalof what happened in Galloway was the fate of the Firth of Cromarty, picture above, whichthankfully was not shared by her complement.

On 26thAugust 1898 she and her tug anchored for the night in Rothesay Bay. We canguess that her master and crew enjoyed a few fairweel swallies in thewatering-holes of the lovely Royal Burgh before setting off for the long tripto New South Wales.

About 6a.m. the next day the tug pulled the Firth of Cromarty out into the Firth, pastthe south end of Arran, and about 7.30 p.m. she had Ailsa Craig on the portbeam. The weather was described as hazy, with passing showers, and the sea wasgetting up. About 8.30 p.m. sail was made to topsails and foresail and the tugcast off, the ship standing on the starboard tack and continuing full and by onthat tack, doing about four knots with the wind W.N.W at that point. Land wasin view at all times and she was closing it, with the wind shifting from W.N.W.to W.S.W. as darkness began to fall. The subsequent inquiry notes

"At 9 o'clockthe light on Corsewall Point was made, bearing about south, and at an estimateddistance of nine miles, but it is to be noted that neither at this time, nor atany subsequent period, did the master think it necessary to seek forcorroboration of his assumptions as to distances by having recourse to thelead. The dangerous nature of this neglect, and of trusting implicitly to theeye for judging distances, is shown by the fact that at 11 o'clock, only 20minutes before the ship stranded, the master judged he was eight miles from thelight which was then bearing S.E., while, as a matter of fact, he was so closeto the shore that when, a quarter of an hour later, he attempted to wear shipshe was brought up by the rocks.....at a place locally known as Bloody Point,about half a mile to the southward of the lighthouse, and ultimately she becamea total wreck. (my comment- so he's been doing four knots for two hours andthinks he's gone one mile over the ground???) Next morning the mate and ninehands, in one of the ship's lifeboats, landed in Loch Ryan, and the remainderof the crew was rescued by the rocket apparatus."

Ihesitate to suggest that the delights of the Rothesay hostelries had anythingto do with the disaster, but the aftermath would certainly have given theGalloway proguers some sore heads.

Thecargo included a huge quantity of very fine malt whisky, placing the event atthe very pinnacle of the art of the progue. Bottles were being recovered bydivers quite recently, three selling at auction in 1991 for about £1,000 each.

We hadno such luck here, but the local progue did include one biological curiosity. Alocal proguer came across part of a bucket that had been at sea long enough toacquire its own population of barnacles, but these were not your ordinarybarnacles, they were goose barnacles, a species found only in far-away places.

Itseems these creatures got their name thanks to one Gerald of Wales, acelebrated monk, politician and naturalist from the time of Henry II of England.As Wikipedia reports,

"In the days before it was realised that birdsmigrate it was thought that barnacle geese, Branta leucopsis, developed fromthis crustacean, since they were never seen to nest in temperate England hencethe English names "goose barnacle", "barnacle goose" andthe scientific name Lepas Anserifera. The confusion was prompted by thesimilarities in colour and shape. Because they were often found on driftwood itwas assumed that the barnacles were attached to branches before they fell inthe water. The Welsh monk, Gerald (Giraldus Cambrensis), made this claim in hisTopographia Hiberniae. Since barnaclegeese were thought to be "neither flesh, nor born of flesh", theywere allowed to be eaten on days when eating meat was forbidden by religion."

The Goose Barnacle Tree

Alittle research on the great Gerald suggests that he should have perhaps stuckto the politics, as he developed a number of other theories, including the ideathat an osprey has one webbed foot, which are unlikely to have been based onobservation. Certainly our local osprey, who visits daily in summer, flies sohigh that I haven't been able to inspect his feet. It's always possible, ofcourse, that Gerald himself had indulged in a bit of twelfth century proguingand had found a bottle of something that had addled his brain.

Easy to see how Giraldus got confused

Will the salmon share Betty's luck?

2012-01-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

As Iwrite this several hundred thousand mature salmon are making their reluctant wayacross the North Sea aboard about a dozen enormous circular cages, almostunnoticed in the mainland press. When last spotted two days ago they werefortyfive miles South-east of Whalsay Isle in the Shetlands. The ViktoriaViking got a line aboard, but gave up after an hour as she was making noheadway, and since has been out looking for them without success, as has aplane from the Fisheries Protection. For reasons that will no doubt becomeclear in time the powerful tug stationed in the Shetlands to deal withemergencies, but under threat from the Westminster Government, who havewithdrawn support, has not been called upon.

With a Force Nine wind promisedit's anyone's guess where the fish, who officially number 300,000 will end up.To get this into perspective total annual catch of wild salmon and seatrout byall means including netting is between 80,000 and 85,000. If only a fractionof the escapees make it to the valuable East coast salmon rivers theconsequences could be disastrous.

I amutterly shocked that what could be a massive environmental disaster ishappening virtually unnoticed in the press, outwith the Shetland Islesthemselves, True, the story has made it onto the BBC website, but only as localOrkney and Shetland news.

Thestory can also be followed on www.shetland-news.co.uk and thereare interesting exchanges on the local website www.shetlink.com

Here is a flavour:-

"DaSIC want tae spend £thoosands subsidsing Nortlink tae hire a boat fur da Orkneyfolk tae cross da Firt athoot spewing dir muggies yit dey coodna send a tug faeSellieNess tae mitten youn cages - na, I firgat , youn tugs canna steer acoorse.

Yuncaiges wir sed ta be 30 odd be aest Onst twa daes eftir Yul, (dir laekleerikkin aboot da ootlyers o' Norrwa be noo, sam is auld Bettie Moad...), owerfar fur yun bits a Sulim tinnies ta geen I doot....Dey canna geen ta da seaappairentlee....ur so dey sae.

AuldYoals an smaaer gud fardir, an tocht hit owerweel....Sae muckle fur so caaed"progris"...."

Presumedall dead is what I heard on the news. Alsoapparently two of the cages have sank.

"cooddey no sweem?"

Itremains to be seen whether or not the salmon have the same luck that BettyMouat (mentioned above) had in 1886, when she survived a similar unorthodoxtrip.

Thisastonishingly robust lady had already endured sufficient misery and hardship,not to speak of some accidents that would have felled lesser folk, when she setoff on her solitary voyage on 30 January of that year. Six months after she wasborn at Levenwick in 1825 her father, by trade a shoemaker, decided to give uphis usual summer job on a herring boat and sign onto a whaling ship, whichvanished without trace.

A few years later Betty's mother married a localcrofter and after they both died she helped his brother to run the small farm,facing the icy winds in all weather and knitting stockings during the darkwinter months for sale in Lerwick. At the age of eighteen she was trying torecover an escaped sheep, when she got accidentally shot by a man out huntingwith a shotgun. The local doctor managed to remove one pellet, but decided theothers too dangerous and were left in her head. Many years later she was runover by her cart when the pony bolted. When she was fifty six Betty suffered astroke, which left her partly disabled. A few years later she decided to travelto Lerwick to seek better medical help than was available on the small islandwhere she lived.

Bettyduly set off as the sole passenger on the Columbine for the short sea trip, takinga quart of milk and two biscuits for sustenance. The weather was atrocious andwhen the fifty foot smack was still in view of those on shore she was seen tocome head to wind, fall off, then luff up again, all the while drawing furtheraway from land. After an hour or so the smack's boat emerged through the sprayand came ashore, with two of the exhausted crew. They reported that themainsheet had parted shortly after they set out and the skipper had fallenoverboard. They had set off in the boat to rescue him, but he had drowned andgetting back onboard had proved impossible. Betty was on her own.

Thefollowing Saturday, 7 February, Betty and the Columbine fetched up on theisland of Lepsoe, twelve miles North of Aalesund, a fishing town in Norway.Knut Veblungsnes, a young fisherman, spotted Betty and called for help. Hewaded out to the smack and managed to fasten a rope to the Columbine, by which the localspulled the smack closer to shore. He then tied another rope around Betty's waist andshe made her way, hand over hand, to shore. Astonishingly she survived herexperience to live another thirty two years.

Festive Greetings to one and all

2011-12-24T08:10:00.000-08:00

A Happy Christmas, Merry Solstice or whatever to everyone who bothers to read this stuff,or happens to stumble on it in a forage through the blogosphere.

It's pretty wet and miserable in Argyll today and I wonder how the ancestors coped, kippering themselves with peatsmoke, maybe just a cow or a few pigs to keep them warm, or perhaps just the heat of a doctrinal discussion. As an old professor said, the Scots like philosophy because it's free and heats you up in a metaphysical sort of way. But then there's the cratur too, and that was free too, if you had a wee copper still hidden away.

Right now it's hard to believe that the above image is from around here, actually it's of Erraid taken more years ago than I'd like to work out.

And that reminds me, given that the papers are full of highfallutin books to read, there should be a recommendation for holiday reading, so scottishboating recommends RLS's Kidnapped and Catriona. If you haven't read them shame on you and if you have, well, read them again. The ship went down just outside this island.

The magical Isle of Gigha, nice memories for horrid winter days

2011-12-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

My log for 1979 containsthe following entries for the Glasgow Fair Weekend:-

"Self and PS

Saturday July 14 HW Oban 09.42 BST, pressure 1030, cloudy,rainy wind S force 2

Departed Ardfern 09.00 wind increased to SW 4/5 had quickbeat down to Craighouse. Becalmed off Nine Foot Rock and had slow sail throughSmall Isles Bay. Got anchor down at 18.00.

Sunday 15 July, pressure 1035, bright, light W wind

Departed Craighouse 08.45 wind backed SW force 3 hadpleasant reach across to Gigha, anchored in 11/2 fathoms in Ardminish Bay(white sandy bottom) at 12.20.

Monday 16 July HW Oban 11.21 BST North going stream in Soundof Gigha starts 02.44.

Departed Ardminish 05.20, visibility very bad, pouring rain.Wind SW 5/6. Tied in one reef as didn't know what seas would be like outside.

At McCormaig Isles wind moderated, day cleared, shook outreef. Had very fast reach and kept tide till past Crinan. On mooring Ardfern13.20."

In a typical Fair Weekend (i.e. rain andwind) we had sailed about 80 sea miles, allowing for tacking, in just over 20hours.

Petersent me this post card to celebrate our trip, he does this sort of thing.

Mymemories of Gigha were of a fairy tale island blessed with exotic plants,incredible white sand and a tide that moved fast but didn't seem to go in orout. It was also an incredibly quiet place with the large old-fashioned hotelthe only place to visit and no other facilities.

Since1979 the island had suffered under various somewhat colourful owners beforebeing taken into community ownership. By 2009 I was keen to celebrate thethirtieth anniversary of the trip, but the attempt ended when we were becalmedin thick fog and it became dangerous to go on. After an anxious hour or so theweather cleared enough for us to feel our way into Crinan.

Stroma and Peigi

Justbefore midsummer 2010 we had better luck. Peter couldn't make the trip, but hisson Ken (not born in 1979) came with me and our old friend Ken Campbell, whooften sailed with us in the 1970s. The only lesson from the trip was that ifyou don't want everything done twice don't sail with two men of the same name.

Theproblem with this trip is that you have much less tide going South, as it turnsprogressively earlier the further you go, for example Gigha is three and a halfhours ahead of Oban. Coming back North the opposite is true, so timing doesn'tmatter so much.

To avoid an unseemly early startwe set off from Kilmelford on the Friday evening, June, and sailed roundto Toberonochy.

KilchattanBay is a favourite spot of mine, soaked in history. King Alexander II anchoredhis fleet there on the night of 7 July 1249 on his way to meet with Ewenof Argyll, who controlled the inner isles at that time. Ewen had been pursuinga diplomatic balancing act between the Scottish and Norwegian crowns for someyears and had been trying to persuade Alexander that it was possible toowe allegiance to two masters. The King was not buying this and set off withhis fleet.

Alexander'strip was not a great success, as he was stood up. Ewen of Argyll had gone toStornoway, taking with him the ten year old prince of the Isle of Man, for theboy's protection and also no doubt as a bargaining counter. The following dayAlexander died at Horsehoe Bay on Kerrera, leaving his kingdom to his own tenyear old son, who became Alexander III. I have read a lot about this period andhave never come across any suggestion of foul play, so it seems likely thatAlexander II was already stricken with some deadly illness and made his trip inan attempt to obtain some control for his successors over this part of what heclaimed as his realm. His son was crowned just a week or so later at Perth,which suggests that the Court had the arrangements already in hand. Of coursethe Western Isles weren't to come under the control of the Scottish kings formany years after that.

Thewalls of the old kirk at Kilchattan bear graffiti that may have been done byAlexander's marines during their visit. We can tell that the graffiti depictsScottish ships as they have rudders. The graffiti doesn't photograph well, sohere is an image from a tomb slab showing the typical shape of a Scottishvessel.

Shehas short ends and a centrally hung rudder, as opposed to the Viking ships,which had the long ends suited to open water passages, but required a steeringoar, slung of course over the starboard side. This difference would have giventhe Scots an advantage in our narrow inshore passages subject to strong tidesand the Vikings an advantage offshore.

Luingis full of haunting reminders of an industrious and sometimes turbulent past,when the islands were the centres of all sorts of activity. Visitors will findeverything apart from shops, including prehistoric duns, an old water millhaunted by elves, who demand a hair as a tribute, curious religious messagescarved by a madman whose hobby was making his own gravestones, and the scarsleft behind by the unremitting slog of the slate industry. They will also finda population of more hares (the other type) than humans, a special herd ofcattle and a landscape like that of the Outer Hebrides.

Weset off from Kilchattan Bay the following morning with about three hours oftide against us, to get the best use out of the South-going ebb later, carryingone reef in the main, destination Ardminish if the wind held and Craighouse ifit didn't. We were lucky that a Westerly Force 3 to 4 held all day with brightsun. For hour after hour Stroma reached along, as always light on the helm, atmaximum hull speed. Passing Skerryvore we decided to go for Gigha as we still hada few hours of tide with us. We were anchored in Ardminish by late afternoon,about seven and a half hours after setting off.

Thefollowing day there was a yachtsman's gale from the North, so we had a day toexplore Gigha and for the older Ken to re-discover his childhood haunts fromholidays in John McMillan's cottage more than fifty years ago.

The Isle of Gigha today, afterseveral years of community ownership, has to be the finest example of whatwonders can be achieved once the iron grip of the traditional Highlandlandowner is broken.

For a start the visitor mooringswere all occupied, mainly by visiting Irish boats, for whom Gigha is an easydestination, but also at least one by a crew from across the Atlantic.

Onshore there is a welcoming quayside restaurant, the hotel is jumping (well, not lierally, but we were by 3 am) and thereare various craft and other attractions to be added to the famous Achamoregardens.

Thereis a lot of building activity, in an attractive style that respects ourtraditions, while maximising solar gain and modern materials. There is anelement of uniformity that I found pleasing.

In summary, what was virtually an economic basket casehas become a vibrant, self-sustaining community with a great sense of purpose.The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust website can be viewed here:- www.gigha.org.uk

Weleft early on the Sunday morning with the wind still a strong Northerly andafter a few hours of being flung around in the lumpy seas thrown up by windagainst tide we decided not to go on and settled for a fast, bumpy reach acrossto Craighouse, where it was a relief to hook up to a visitor mooring.

Wedidn't see much of Craighouse, as we had an early start next day, but thereseems to be a big contrast between Gigha and Jura, the latter not having movedon very much in thirty years and still belonging to a few rich owners.

Thenext morning we got away very early, in very little wind, with the younger Kentowing us out behind the trusty Peigi, which went with us everywhere thisSummer. You won't see yachts being towed by their crews very much these days, but it was common a hundred years ago and is much more reliable than having an engine.

Outsidethe Small Isles we picked up a gentle Westerly, which came and went all day,part sailing, part drifting on the tide, until we just got past Crinan. As thetide started to turn against us we picked up a new wind from the North west,which gave us a fetch to Asknish Point and then a reach home.

We had covered about 90 seamiles in about 28 hours under sail, a slightly slower average speed than I managed in the same boat over thirty years earlier, but then we're both getting older.

Tramp Steamers

2011-12-19T06:04:00.000-08:00


SS Harmodious by John Gardner

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

  Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,

  With a cargo of Tyne coal,

  Road-rails, pig-lead,

  Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

(John Masefield, 1902)

The tramp steamers are mostly no longer around, at least inBritish waters, but in their day they encapsulated a type of romance of the seathat led countless youngsters to seek adventure, see the world (or maybe just a wee bit of it) and generallyescape from the threatened drudgery of work in an office or factory. Thereality was a life of extreme boredom seasoned with occasional terrifyingincidents, and an ever-present risk of injury or death. Despite or maybe because of these conditions lifelong friendships were formed among the seamen and many developed loyalties to the company under whose flag they sailed, despite the eccentricities of penny-pinching managements.

An old friend, who did his time in the immediate post-Warperiod, recalls going off duty with the ship steaming into the teeth of aMediterranean gale and returning on deck eight hours later to find that she wasnow several miles behind where she had been when he went off.

And, trawling online in the course of my researches I foundthis quote from a Scottish old-timer,

“joined the Blairspey on Saturday 14th July 1956 as acatering boy at Northfleet Paper Mills, done three trips in her, to Seven Islesin Canada, loading pulp. Most of the deck cargo was washed overboard on thetrip home. I can’t be quite sure but I think it was either the Queen Mary, orthe Queen Elizabeth, passed us three times on the last outward trip that I madein her with a message, ‘Keep Going Blairspey You Will Make It’. That last tripthe outward voyage was rough as the best she could do was two knotsbackwards…..”

I’m sorry he hid behind an online alias, as I would like tothank him for his contribution.

The late Nineteenth century and the first half of the Twentiethwere amazingly profitable times for those adventurous enough to become involvedin shipping, provided of course you stayed off the actual ships and confined yourefforts to buying them, dealing in them or just managing them. The Blairspey was part of the Blair line founded by George Nisbet, with whom I share an affinity, as he was the first owner of Stroma and I am the ?th.

The story of the Nisbets is very typical of many of the period and illustrates the great social mobility that resulted from the rapid development of Glasgow as a major industrial centre. Around 1843 John Nisbet and his wife Patricia left Ireland and came to Glasgow, where he established himself as a baker in Bridgeton. His son James followed him in the trade and moved into Tradeston, then a mixed area of factories and housing, to a flat in Gloucester Street, where as it happens my ancestors also lived at the same time. James and his wife Ann had about eleven children, of whom George was one of the youngest, born in 1876.

Our next sign of George is in the 1901 Census, where we find that he is now a ship broker, aged 25, the owner of a substantial house in Maxwell Road, Pollokshields, living there with his now widowed mother, four brothers and sisters and some domestic servants.

In 1905 George Nisbet and John Calder went into partnership and bought a second hand tramp steamer, the Greatham, joined in 1907 by the Etona and in 1909 by the Benedick. At the end of April 1913 the partnership dissolved and George continued on his own, operating as an owner and broker under the names Clydesdale Navigation Company Limited and George Nisbet & Co Limited, by which time the ships were being given "Blair" names.

George Nisbet was a fairly active buyer and seller of ships during the First World War, a period when losses were extreme and prices escalated, luckily managing to sell most of his ships before they were torpedoed. At the end of the war he owned only one ship, the first Blairmore, which he sold in 1919. He then took a few years out before going on a massive buying spree from 1922 with Blairadam, Blairbeg, Blairlogie, Blairholm and Blaircree, then commissioning his first new-build, the ill-fated Blairgowrie, followed by many others and an occasional second-hand purchase.

The loss of the Blairgowrie in February 1935 must have been a shattering blow to the reputation of the company, who were extremely lucky to have the Board of Trade find that "no wrongful act or default" was shown. The report is available online and I warn readers that it is one of the saddest and most distressing things I have read in a long while,

Report of the Board of Trade Inquiry

By the start of the Second World War the fleet comprisednine ships, which went into war service and to which the government addedanother eight for the company to manage, eleven of the total being lost. GeorgeNisbet himself died during the war and the company was run thereafter by Douglas R Nisbet, who eventuallysold the fleet and wound up the companies in 1961.

"The best bilge pump of all is a bucket in the hands of a frightened man".

2011-12-15T02:07:00.000-08:00

Butch Dalrymple-Smith at the helm

A Guest Post from Theo Rye

I must have quoted this a hundred times; it's a great example of a near perfect aphorism for sailors. It contains enough truth and humour to bear repeating to the novice as well as the experienced, and at worst you'll get a wry smile.

If you Google it, you'll get a lot of similar quotes, usually prefixed by something along the lines of "Someone once said..." and "It's an old sailing tradition that...". I must admit I'd always assumed it was a traditional saying, dating back into the distant past; Nelson had surely heard it as a midshipman. It really should be as old as sailing itself, shouldn't it? Or, at least, as old as bilge pumps and buckets.

Re-reading Adlard Coles' "Heavy Weather Sailing" the other day though, I came across the expression in print. For those of you who don't know Coles' treatise, it is dedicated to a series of studies of yachts in heavy weather, their tactics, the metrology and outcomes. His style is as serious as the subject; it's not totally without humour, but it is decidedly not frivolous. It's rather like reading an Admiralty pilot; it makes you wonder why you ever go sailing at all. The chapter headings give you a good clue; "Pooped for the First Time", "Twice Rolled Over", "Survival Storms"; it's not a light read. The photos are black and white and often rather out of focus, (and these days can easily be eclipsed by two minutes searching You-Tube), but are still fascinating (and occasionally horrifying.)

In the chapter "Heavy Weather Conclusions", Coles discusses tactics in the Southern Ocean, and relates the story of the capsize of Sayula II in the Roaring Forties in November 1973 during the Whitbread Race. One of the crew, Butch Dalrymple-Smith, wrote an article for Yachts & Yachting and Adlard Coles subsequently made contact and got more information from him. In the conclusion to the article, Butch says "the best bilge pump of all is a bucket in the hands of a frightened man". Coles does not appear to be a writer who would bother to repeat a truism, and in quoting this he seems to be passing the comment on in all seriousness.

Sayula II

Butch happens to be a friend of mine and, intrigued by the story, I gave him a call. To the best of his recollection, he was relating the incident to Bob Fisher in Sydney after the leg, and in the course of the interview just came out with the unforgettable phrase. Again, as far as he can recall, he wasn't repeating anything he'd heard previously, but he does allow that it was a long time ago and it is possible that (perhaps subconsciously) he was. It certainly wasn't a well known phrase to him or Bob Fisher, and nor (it seems) Adlard Coles. (Sayula II, you may be interested to know, was a standard Swan 65, and went on to win the race despite her capsize. Butch recently wrote two amusing articles about it all for the Volvo website, accessible here:- www.volvooceanrace.com

So, there is the question; did Butch Dalrymple-Smith coin this immortal phrase? It wouldn't surprise anyone who knows him if he did, but if you know of an earlier use or reference, I'd be very interested to hear.

Hurricane Bawbag and the Daftie Seagulls

2011-12-13T01:53:00.001-08:00

Compared with last Spring's storm this one wasn't so appealing visually, but round our way it scored wind strengths of 102 mph in the gusts. There were few boats afloat and they all survived, including the schooner Hippo, to the left in the image above.

At the height of the storm in the early afternoon of 8 December I shot some footage and didn't notice the antics of the seagulls until editing this later.

Unique Boardroom Table by David Ryder-Turner

2011-12-11T02:45:00.001-08:00

I am selling my boardroom table designed by well-known yacht designer the late David Ryder-Turner of Helensburgh and built by the professional cabinetmaker Jane Wright of Kilcreggan.

The table is a unique work of art, built to the highest standard of craftsmanship. It was made as a special commission from me and as an entry in a woodworking competition, which it duly won. It is oval in shape and measures 92.5 inches by 45 inches.

The top was made from a single log of Huon pine that David had brought back from Tasmania, to which a mahogany inlay was applied. The base was laminated from mahogany and sycamore.

The table is now surplus to requirements and is offered for sale at £2,000 (no VAT), but I will be happy to negotiate if it goes to one of David's friends. It can be seen in central Glasgow, from where the buyer would collect it.

If you are interested please contact me on ewangkennedy@gmail.com

Another Westra and a little more local history

2011-12-02T07:01:00.001-08:00

Gisela Scharbaum recently sent me this image of another Westra, from the Royal Northern & Clyde collection, and asked if I could help to identify her. A quick trawl through the internet showed that she was the second of two raters of that name drawn and built by the genius of skimming-dish design, Charles Sibbick of Cowes.

The Charles Sibbick Interest Association have kindly allowed me to share the following notes, which they sent following my request for information:-

"First of all there is no knownofficial registry of Sibbick Boat Plans/Drawings and not even a list of thebuilding numbers of his boats.

However, we have managed totrace the names of nearly 300 of his boats with type and building year.We have spent some years on this. We know for a fact that he built over 300boats until his death in 1912. There are also some enthusiasts, not so many,but are really into Charles Sibbick. We are all sitting with variableinformation from different sources. There are probably some boat plans inprivate ownership here and there. We have a lot but unfortunately none ofWestra which was originally a 5 Rater measured over to 36ft Linear Rater in 1897.At the time her rig was altered from a Sloop to a Cutter and Jib and Bowspritwere fitted to her. The reason for the change was probably for Westra to fit inwith the First Linear Rater. She was, as most of Sibbicks boats, extremely fastand was mentioned in several articles in the New York Times in 1896 and 1897.

In 1902 she was in the YachtRegister listed as a Lugger, with sails from Ratsey & Lapthorne (1897). HerLength was 36 ft (Linear Rater 36.03). A Beam of 9.8 and the Owner in 1902 wasSir R.H.Williams-Bulkeley, Port, Beaumaris.

N.B. There was alsoanother Sibbick Rater called "Westra" but that was originally aone Rater, later converted to a 24ft Linear Rater.

What has happened to Westra, weare not sure about but when the International Rule came in 1906/1907 severalSibbick boats were measured over to fit the new formula for example 8mR.

We know for a fact that Sibbickwas still registered as a Naval Architect with the address on Albert Yard ,Cowes in 1905 and he continued building and repairing yachts, although not insuch a large scale, but he had from time to time financial problems and theInternational Linear Rating Rule obviously caused him major problems, even ifthe new rule was not especially popular in the UK at the beginning. It was mostlyin Scandinavia where those boats became extremely popular at once.

Sibbick had a lot of influenceand was building a huge amount of boats, one designs and restricted classes forEurope and the United States and many other parts of the world. He was stillactive until his tragic death in 1912. (comment from me - It seems that CharlesSibbick eventually became depressed and drowned himself)

We can also tell you that J CConnell of Glasgow put his boat Westra, who was champion of the season, up forsale in 1897. Westra finished the season with the biggest record of a class andan explanation from Mr Connell was awaited as to why he was selling his boat!"

John C Connell was a member of the famous family of Glasgow shipbuilders of that name. When he owned Westra he was in his early twenties, so she was rather a nice plaything for him. That she had no accomodation would not have troubled him unduly, as the records show that in 1895 the family firm built two steam yachts for their own use, SS Moneira and SS Athene. I haven't found details of the Athene, but the Moneira was eightyfive feet long, of 57 gross tons and her build cost was £2,150, information courtesy of http://www.clydebuiltships.co.uk

Charles Connell & Company was founded by John's father in 1861, when he resigned from his post as head foreman shipwright and latterly yardmanager at Alexander Stephen & Sons of Linthouse. The Stephen companyhistory records:- It is amusing to find that although Alexander Stephen,commenting on Connell's resignation, writes: "I do not think he willsucceed," a pencilled note on the opposite page, inserted many yearslater, states that "Connell died in 1898 leaving over £300,000."

Actually Connell died on 14th February 1884 at hishome in Broomhill Avenue in Partick, leaving an estate in excess of £250,000and a well-founded shipbuilding concern. His eldest son, Charles B. Connell,succeeded his father and ran the yard with various brothers and half-brothers.

The family were close and built themselves a twenty two-roomed villa, Caol Ruadh, at Colintraive near to the Kyles of Bute Narrows, absolutely in the centre of Clyde yachting. Here is their 1901Census entry:-

You can see that brothers William, John and Arthur are described as shipbuilders, while younger brother Allan is "living on own means" and they have a butler, a valet, a cook and three domestic servants. The family gamekeeper Alexander Gillies lives next door in a one room cottage.

The 1911 Census shows John C Connell aged 42 and his brotherWilliam C S Connell aged 47 both living at Carston House, Ayr with their(half?) brother Alfred H Connell, aged 30, Alfred’s Irish wife, a valet, agroom, a cook, two housemaids and a French maid. Alfred was at the time anofficer in the Royal Scots Fusiliers. John and William are both shipbuildersand employers. Later on Alfred became a ship owner and broker in Liverpool. Heseems mainly to have owned small tramp steamers.

Carston House, Ayr

The development of Scotland’s heavy coal and steelindustries and the ship-building industry that followed created astonishingopportunities for people with skills and initiative. It also created conditionsof enormous inequality between the workers and the bosses. Tens of thousands ofworkers lived in crowded tenement flats within walking distance of the yards,where they toiled in the open for slave wages, regardless of weather. From myown childhood in the west end I remember the distant noise of battering asmillions of rivets were banged home, throughout the daylight hours. The contrast beween these conditions and the lifestyle of the Connells could not be more stark.

There is a good website with information on the old Clyde yards here:- http://www.clydemaritime.co.uk It reports that:-

The last ship built at theScotstoun Yard under Connell family management was the 12,011 tons cargo linerBENSTAC for the Ben Line of Leith, which was launched on 20th of November 1967and completed in the spring of 1968. The Connell family, however, remained inbusiness as Ship-Owners and Ship-Managers.

The Connells were regarded asone of the superior shipbuilding families of the many Clyde based shipbuilders,introducing many new techniques and investing their private wealth back intothe business. More than most, Connell saw the benefits of maximising onstandard production and prefabrication techniques, and were leaders inpioneering these new methods.

The fast cargo-linersproduced by Connell for the Ben Line of Leith were regarded as amongst thefinest examples of this Yard’s superiority in designing the best ships to flythe Red Duster of the British Merchant Navy, setting standards of excellence innaval architecture that were emulated throughout the international maritimeworld.

The 1934 Royal Northern Yacht Club handbook lists threeConnells, Charles, a member since 1924 and probably son of Charles B., Arthur, now living at Douglaston, Milngavie, a member since 1895 and John, now living at Craigallian, Milngavie, a member since 1891. Arthur and John are joint owners of Westra, a 1934 12 metre yacht K4 designedby Charles Nicholson.

Arthur died at Dougalston in May 1949 aged 77, having beenConnell’s chairman since 1937. He had been a member of the Thistle syndicate 6metre yacht for the Seawanhaka Cup butshe wasn’t ready in time and didn’t compete. He had owned or part owned sixtwelve metre yachts.

If we add in Herbert Thom's famous Westra, about which you can read elsewhere on this blog and on http://www.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com we've now traced four Westras, none of which still exists, the Twelve and the Islander having been destroyed during the War.

Coney Island Life-guard

2011-11-30T02:49:00.001-08:00

Paul Kennedy has just started on a series of work inspired by his visit to the States earlier this year. We don't really have chaps like this on the shores around here, he would need a big woolly jumper and a Sou'wester, but it's nice to dream of warmer places.

Paul tells me the lifeguard is off to London to one of the galleries, but there will doubtless be more like him to follow. Although this is a slightly new, more international direction for him the work reflects some of the concepts and colours he has been working through in recent work. I've added a few examples below and more can be seen on http://www.paulkennedyart.com

Some Thoughts on Model Boats

2011-11-24T09:18:00.001-08:00

8 metre yacht Fulmar, photo Gisela Scharbaum

The models made by Gisela and Helmut Scharbaum are virtually perfect reproductions of the originals, evidence of a search for authenticity which eventually led them to build the 1:1 model of Tringa featured in my last post.

But their models are more than this. Apart from representing the prototype in all respects these incredible creations are also meant to sail. It seems to me that this inevitably leads the Scharbaums into areas of technical difficulty which lesser mortals would do well to avoid.

Firstly there are problems of scale. At anything smaller than full size the exact scale model will inevitably lack sufficient displacement to carry her full canvas. In other words what is a nice Force Three breeze to the full sized ship becomes a terrifying Force Six or Seven for her quarter or sixth scale model sister. It seems a pity to have to limit one's sailing of the model to days of gentle winds (are there any anymore?) or to have to devise a way of reefing down.

Secondly there are problems associated with keeping water out of the lovely open cockpits of these models and keeping the radio control equipment, batteries and servos dry.

For these reasons most conventional model-builders go down one of two distinct routes, building either full or half models for display or working models for sailing. However one also shouldn't lose sight of the original purpose for which ship models were built, to assist with the design process.

The earliest builders of full-sized vessels would start by carving a model out of solid. Once a shape acceptable to builder and client had been produced it would be sawn apart crosswise to produce sections, which would then be scaled up to produce the shape of the building moulds. Even in the computer age models still feature large in the design process, as the dynamics and variables involved when a hull passes through water at various angles of heel are far too complex for predictive modelling. Tank testing was first developed by the English mathematical genius William Froude, who persuaded the Admiralty to build the first one in 1871. Dennys of Dumbarton were impressed and built the first commercial tank in the world on the Clyde in 1883. Today tank testing is in use world-wide and the makers of the finest models in the United Kingdom are probably R F H Pierce & Associates of the Lake District. There is a fascinating insight into their thought processes and working methods here:-
www.jewelofmuscat.tv

Richard Pierce and his son James have occasionally built full-size yachts and sailing dinghies to order. After Richard completed the replica Scottish Islander Shona his client requested a display model for his house and James produced a first, "practice" one and a second, final version. Here is a photograph of the first one, which I took on a visit to Windermere before she was rigged.

Scotland's leading builder of static display models is undoubtedly David Spy, whose efforts are displayed world-wide. Here is his eight metre Anitra:-

David's website can be accessed here:- http://yachtmodels.co.uk/

Alongside these renowned experts I hesitate to portray my own efforts, which have been graced with enthusiasm rather than skill. I recently completed a six metre for radio control and it's been interesting to find that she actually floats. She's a John Lewis "Tern" design if anyone is interested.

The Wee Giff only took about thirteen years to build, off and on, and was completed with fittings from the English guru Graham Bantock, whose website can be found here:- http://www.sailsetc.com/

Tringa lives again - in more ways than one

2011-11-15T01:28:00.001-08:00

I was totally astonished to receive the guest post which follows, with a digital album of photos. Blogging is a strange, solitary activity, which has to be seen as its own reward, especially one like this which makes no pretensions to be a money-spinner. Sometimes a bonus turns up, an unexpected gem of information or a story from another corner of the World from a kindred spirit.

I leave it to Gisela and Helmut Scharbaum to describe their obsession in their own words.

"Our interest in model making started sometime in the 1990s. I have always been interested in sailing and when we both saw a model of a wooden sailing ship during an exhibition of model makers, we decided to buy a model kit for Christmas. It was a modern plastic yacht, but since then we have been infected and many radio controlled models followed. We developed our interest in the classic wooden ones, which were not available as a kit. So we started to construct them completely according to the drawings, made everything for ourselves and thus we became more and more experienced.

One day in 1999 we saw the film "enchanted by the dragon" on TV, a film made by Tom Nitsch, a German film maker with special interest in Fife and his yachts. He knows a lot of the history, the yard and the owners. Secondly the book about Fife, written by Franco Pace, an Italian photographer, confirmed our wish to build a model of a Fife yacht.

We chose Fulmar, an 8mR and soon we found out that research was difficult and the drawings were hard to get. In the end we managed it with the help of the owner and since then things became much easier. Travelling around in Scotland and South England and the Mediterranean followed, and especially with the help of the RNCYC, especially Ian Broadley and May Kohn and all the other people in Scotland we learned so much about the Fife´s , found so many pictures and drawings which allowed us to build these models as close to the original as possible.

The first time we saw Tringa was in the book Fast and Bonnie, it is the picture which shows her standing on an iron slip trailer at Robertsons Sandbank. It was the design of the hull which is so remarkable, that we fell in love somehow. After finishing the model and having seen her sailing in 1:4, we made another step further and decided to try 1:1.

5000 hours later Tringa is sailing at the Baltic. There was a lot of learning by doing and one of the most dificult problems was to get the fittings. In the end we visited Classic Marine in Woodbridge and Ording Blokken in the Netherlands to order the fittings for the deck and the mast. For the rest, for example the roller fairleads we made wood patterns and let them cast in Britain at Haworth Castings. Research, trying to find out what Tringa looked like is one of our most favourite jobs.

The Schlei area is nowadays an area for leisure activities like sailing. But it still exudes its own special charm. Our problem is Tringa´s draft which is about 6 feet, and the shallow waters of the Schlei are tricky. For example our first trial was stopped by a sandbank, but we managed to get free again.

This year we left the Schlei for two weeks and crossed the Baltic towards Sonderborg and Aero. Tringa is seaworthy, she always lets you feel well and safe, she also forgives mistakes and is easy on the helm even in rough weather. She is always in a hurry, we logged 8 knots in fresh wind with a reef in the mainsail!

Sailing around with Tringa is like walking on a catwalk. Everyone is watching, asking, and taking photographs. We are faster than the Nordic Folkboats, which are especially designed for the Baltic. Addictive .

But the modern sail cloth induces a lot of power to the rig, therefore it was useful to add two more frames to fix the plates for the shrouds securely. This strengthens the forward hull and leads the force directly to the metal floors and keelbolts. Former designs were too weak at this point.

The runners are quite important for the same reason. We also have to get used to all the sheets and halyards, but after having made some experiments this summer, everything works better and better. "

Specifications:
Overall length: 24 ft
Length on waterline 19 ft
beam: 7,5 ft
draft : 6 ft
displacement 3 tons
ballast 2 tons lead
sail area 45 qm (500 square feet)
main 37 qm
foresail 8 qm

frames 5x3 cm
planking 2cm cedar, and larch beyond the waterline, glued with Aerodux and covered with glass fibre (800g Biax)
deck plywood 8mm and 6mm teak/mahogany , the spars are of spruce
bow sprit is of Oregon pine

There's a short film about this talented pair that can be viewed online here:-

www.sailing-films.com

And there's a great deal more information about the old 19/24s here:-

www.clyde19-24.org.uk

The Shieldhall was a Sludgeboat and she sailed upon the Clyde

2011-11-06T03:23:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago the Brother and I made a trip to the deep South. There was a boat show on at the time, but we had no interest in visiting that. After all we had no interest whatever in acquiring one of these,

or these,

and we couldn't afford one of these

On the contrary we were down to visit our old Aunty, who had just become a hundred. Being at a loose end after the festivities we went for a wander into town and soon came upon a sight familiar to us in childhood, the old SS Shieldhall.

Glasgow Corporation had two of these ships taking sewage sludge from the population, then of a million or so, down the river. All of our major cities commissioned similar vessels, which operated until such an activity ceased to be permissible. There were two of these ships in Glasgow, the Shieldhall and the Dalmarnock, daily enduring signals from passing ships along the lines of "Where are you bound? What is your cargo?" in the days before the city ceased to be a great port.

The trips were a great boon for the pensioners of the city, who could get a free trip, a cup of tea and dancing to live music. Many a geriatric romance must have started on board, especially for those without a sense of smell.

Shieldhall now tries to earn her living as an excursion boat on the Solent, but in the present recession she is suffering somewhat. Earlier this year I heard of her plight and resolved to do something for her, not sending money of course but providing her with a nice song, the royalties from which could perhaps secure her future.

From this project I have learned about the difficulties faced by the budding songwriter/singer/impressario. You don't just write the thing and sit back to await fame. Writing it was the easiest part, certainly a lot easier than persuading my musical wife to provide a tune. A group of local women were in the habit of singing in a cowshed on Thursday evenings, but by the time I approached them they had disbanded. Months went by without the song being heard, delaying the anticipated revenue stream endlessly.

The world premiere eventually took place at that centre of the universe, Toberonochy. The song was duly preformed by a male voice choir, Charlie, Ken, Bill, John and self, before an invited audience to ecstatic applause. Sadly the event wasn't recorded as Richard, who was supposed to be there with a camera, had fallen asleep. In case someone else in the blogosphere has more luck, I reproduce the music and the lyric below. You can read more about the Shieldhall here:- www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk

TheSong of the Shieldhall

TheShieldhall was a sludgeboat and she sailed upon the Clyde

Twohundred sixtyeight feet long and fortythree feet wide

ToAilsa Craig she'd go, in sunshine and in snow

droppingoff her cargo in the deep brown tide

Chorus: To Ailsa Craig she'd go, in sunshine andin snow
droppingoff her cargo in the tide, deep brown tide

TheShieldhall was the finest ship that I have ever seen

Hercaptain wore a jacket of Corporation green

Herhull was painted grey, she chugged along all day

Whilethe sailors scrubbed the decks and kept them clean, kept them clean

Chorus: Her hull was painted grey, she chuggedalong all day
Whilethe sailors scrubbed the decks and kept them clean, kept them clean

Nowsome ships sail to India and some sail to Tiree

Somesailors meet with sharks and whales and some just see the sea

Thosesights are pretty rare, but the best thing I declare

On theShieldhall you were always home for tea, home for tea

Chorus: Those sights are pretty rare, but the bestthing I declare
On theShieldhall you were always home for tea, home for tea

FromWhiteinch and from Partick and from Yoker to this boat

All hadin mind a purpose, to get themselves afloat

And ifthey did incline, to drink a little wine

Makingsure they had a bottle in their coat, in their coat

Chorus: And if they did incline, to drink a littlewine
Makingsure they had a bottle in their coat, in their coat

Formany years the Shieldhall did sail upon the sea

delightingall, who got a cup of tea

but thefinest thing to tell, never mind the rain and smell

forpensioners the trip's completely free, all for free

Chorus: but the finest thing to tell, never mindthe rain and smell
forpensioners the trip's completely free, all for free

If you're daft enough to have read this far you may have noticed the subtle difference between the original version of verse one, given under the tune, and the revised one. The ship was of course launched in 1954, not 1953.

John Gardner's Quincy Skiff

2011-10-31T05:11:00.000-07:00

The late John Gardner of Mystic Seaport was apparently unable to pursue a teaching career on graduating from Columbia because of his political views, but formal education's loss was a great boon to the wooden boat community. Very few people combine practical ability with good writing skills, but his books on building classic small boats are so clear and inspirational that each chapter seems to cry out "please build me".

So I found myself while building the Swampscott dory in Volume one devouring the other chapters and wondering which would shout the loudest. In the event the modified Quincy skiff won out and became my next project. At the start of the chapter on her the Guru writes that she

“should row well, but build easily and cheaply. This is nota racing shell, obviously, nor is it intended for the open sea. This simpleskiff should do well on lakes, large rivers, and sheltered waters along thecoast.”

There were aspects of the construction that seemed particularly intriguing. She has an almost flat bottom formed from four softwood planks spliced together, two per side, to form chine logs that will be cross-planked over later.

Once cut to shape, the logs are set upside down on horses positioned at a convenient height, then suitably bevelled, and the transom and stem are added. Next the enormous plywood sides, over eighteen feet long and each needing two scarfs, are tortured into shape.

The book didn't actually say how difficult it would be to do that last bit, nor did it point out that a dry fit usually goes rather better than the real thing. I did this build single-handed and could have done with a helper to control the plywood sides, sticky and slimy with glue, as they slithered around on the temporary building moulds. Bringing the sides together was a real struggle, as I had decided to add both at once, in order to balance out the inevitable stresses on the jig. For a while this caused me a real panic, until I decided to screw battens to the plywood sides to get a proper grip on them. The battens could then be subjected to a lot of force with Spanish windlasses.

Fortunately I wasn't using a fast-hardening glue, and I eventually managed to close the gaping spaces at the bow at the expense of a lot of cursing and badly blistered and glued hands. After this planking the bottom and adding the seats was pretty simple.

The result was a stylish and very unusual rowing boat. The only problem was that we don't live on a lake or large river, nor is our coast all that sheltered. Perhaps I had skipped over that first paragraph in my eagerness to get building. With her flat bottom and long slab sides this skiff is no boat for a cross wind of any strength, or a seaway. In a calm she's a delight to row and my wife still recalls the trip we had one very crisp and sunny New Year's day, travelling effortlessly over four miles down our loch and back.

Because calm days don't happen often in our part of the world the skiff passed fairly soon into the hands of friends who did live beside a sheltered loch, whose sons got great use out of her. They are now grown men and the family have moved on, but the skiff is still on the lochside, more than twenty years later and reasonably serviceable, although some of her bottom cross-planks have been replaced from time to time.

Update on 2 November 2011

Dave Gentry has kindly allowed me to share some photos he took of this Quincy skiff doing good service in the catering trade. He has a fascinating collection of designs on his own website, here:- http://www.GentryCustomBoats.com

Bruce Sandison on Fish Farming

2011-10-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Bruce Sandison, who is undoubtedly the leading defender of Scotland's wild fish and a gifted writer has kindly given me permission to publish as a guest post the following article, which appeared recently in the press.

Farming salmon seemed like a good idea at the time, back in 1965; the perfect adjunct and enhancement to subsistence crofting in remote rural areas of the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It was believed that the industry would provide much-needed employment by attracting young families to the area who would then sustain and expand every aspect of community life; new faces and new ideas, a bustling economy and busy shops, more children at local schools, a golden age of growth and prosperity.

Other people were less sanguine and predicted that the end result would most likely be tears and acrimony, pollution on an unprecedented scale and environmental disaster. They claimed that insufficient research had been carried out into the environmental consequences of salmon farming and that to proceed without a sound scientific base upon which to build would be irresponsible

Fifty years down the line the doubters seem to have been right: conflict and acrimony currently surrounds the industry. Many communities in the West Highlands and Islands are mounting furious battles to try to keep the fish farmers out of their back yards; thousands of people sign petitions opposing the expansion of salmon farming into new areas; conservation groups are considering legal action, accusing fish farms of driving distinct populations of wild salmon and sea-trout to the verge of extinction. They allege that the sea lice that breed in their billions in the farmers fish-packed cages attack not only farm salmon, but also wild fish that pass by farm cages.

These allegations have been vigorously denied by the industry who say that there is not enough evidence to suggest that sea lice were responsible for any declines in wild fish stocks. None of these claims and counter-claims is new: for more than twenty years the industry and those concerned about the adverse impact they say salmon farming is having on the marine and freshwater environment have been fighting over this same ground. All of the many attempts at finding common purpose through consultation have failed: meetings, joint committees, discussion papers, aquaculture framework strategies, codes of conduct, et al.

Salmon farming is judged to be one of Scotland's most successful industries and is estimated to be worth upwards of £450 million pounds to the Scottish economy. The industry also supports 6,500 jobs, many of which are in remote rural areas where other employment opportunities are limited. Scottish farmed salmon is one Scotland's biggest export earners, second only to whisky in value, and yet, in spite of this, the Scottish fisheries minister, Stewart Stevenson has now suggested that new legislation planned for later this year might see farms banned from areas that are important for wild fish stocks. The minister also revealed that he is considering forcing fish farmers to publish information about sea lice levels on specific farms; a measure that is already in place in Norway to protect their iconic stocks of wild salmon and sea-trout.

Like many observers of the irresistible rise and rise of salmon farming, I am puzzled by this apparent sea-change in the minister's attitude towards an industry that heretofore has appeared to be beyond reproach; an industry that has benefited mightily from continuous support by governments regardless of their political persuasion. Since the 1980's, when doubts about the environmental impact of salmon farms began to be voiced, many alleged government shielded the industry from any form of meaningful public scrutiny and repeatedly resisted all calls for an independent public inquiry into these murky waters.

At the heart of this dispute are matters of vital importance, now, and to future generations: on the one hand, is a perceived risk to the health and integrity of an irreplaceable part of Scotland's natural heritage, on the other, the economic wealth that the fish farmers say they bring to the nation. With both parties entrenched in intractable positions, finding a solution is not going to be easy. But there has to be a solution and a new initiative by government has been launched in an attempt to bring the warring parties together. An influential Scottish parliament committee appears to be promoting this initiative, led by its Convener, MSP Rob Gibson. The committee is determined to get to the bottom of the bitter argument raging between anglers and the fish farmers and propose to invite interested parties to round-table discussion to address their concerns.

The beauty of the wild lands of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland draw thousands of visitor each year to enjoy the majesty of their mountains, moorlands and myriad lochs and rivers. Visiting yachts anchor in sheltered bays, their crews coming ashore in the evening to local restaurants and hostelries to relish wonderful seafood; scallops, mussels, lobsters crab and prawns, freshly delivered each day. Children splash in crystal-clear shallows and play on white-sand, near-deserted beaches. Local communities rely on income by providing visitors with bed and breakfast accommodation in their homes, self-catering cottages and caravan sites and other services. Guesthouses and hotels also provide accommodation and extensive employment opportunities.

Rod and line sport anglers prized the salmon, sea-trout and brown trout that thrived in pristine, unpolluted waters. But now many lochs and rivers that once supported remarkable numbers of fish are virtually devoid of these species because, it is alleged, of the impact of fish farm sea lice. The Loch Maree Hotel in Wester Ross, where some 2,000 sea-trout could be could caught be each season and which employed eleven gillies to guide anglers to the best fishing spots has closed its doors. Other West Highland and Islands fisheries that enjoyed a world-wide reputation for the quality of sport have suffered a similar fate; such as Stack, More, Shiel and Eilt, and the rivers Dionard, Laxford, Inver, Kirkaig and Ailort.

The late Mrs Pauline Cameron-Head of Inverailort House is credited with bringing the benefits of salmon farming to Scotland. In 1965 she agreed to lease her land for use as a shore-base from which to service a fish farm in Loch Ailort; a sea loch on the famous 'Road the Isles' close to where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745 to try to reclaim his father's lost kingship of the British Isles. The fish farm company involved in the deal was Marine Harvest, then a wholly-owned subsidiary of the multi-national Unilever organisation, now Norwegian-owned and the largest producer of farm salmon in the world. The company operate a fish farm in Loch Ailort to this day.

Loch Eilt and the River Ailort, which drain into Loch Ailort used to be counted as amongst the most prolific sea-trout systems in Europe that could produce 1,500 sea-trout each season. Now, the numbers of sea-trout caught may be counted on the fingers of one hand, with some fingers to spare. A picture, taken in1941 of Lochan Dubh, an extension of the river, shows just how many sea-trout used to run the system. It was sent to me by Iain Thornber - historian, archaeologist and author from Morvern. He explained that explosives were used to kill the fish in the picture; a criminal offence, hence the soldier with the fishing rod strategically placed to try to suggest that the fish had been caught legally. All of the fish were sea-trout and used to feed Special Operations Executive commandos stationed at nearby Inverailort Castle. Iain remembers Pauline Cameron-Head telling him that the number of sea-trout in the system was so great that the noise they made splashing to upstream spawning grounds could be heard from the castle.

The assumption that fish farming would be initiated and carried out by crofters never materialised; capital costs were high, disease episodes and consequent loss of stock frequent and the expertise required to successfully rear fish to slaughter-weight was woefully absent. This knowledge gap was filled by fishery scientists from government agencies, the Fisheries Research Services, now renamed as Marine Scotland, and by scientists from a number of Universities, including Aberdeen, St Andrews and the Department of Aquaculture at Stirling University. Funding grants to further research programmes into fish farming came from the European Union, UK government and industry bodies.

Within a short time the industry began to consolidate into fewer and fewer farms owned and run by fewer and fewer multi-national companies, the majority of which were Norwegian. In the 1980's when 20,000 tonnes of farmed salmon were being produced annually the industry directly employed in excess of 2,000 people on their farms, fulfilling the claim that they were creating jobs. However, by the mid-1990's when production peaked at nearly 150,000 tonnes, employment figures, because of advances in technology - particularly automatic feeding systems - the number of jobs had fallen to below 1,000. Indirect employment, however, soared, reaching an alleged 7,000 people; but almost 50% of these jobs were taken by immigrants for Europe, the Middle East and Iberia and some 25% of those were illegal entrants to UK.

The industry claims that it is one of the most highly regulated businesses in the world and open to constant scrutiny and control. This is substantially true, but those worried by the fish farmer's actions suggest that such scrutiny is poorly implemented and ineffective; one anomaly being that for most of its existence the Crown Estate had the sole right to issue sea-bed licences to operate fish farms and to issue planning permissions. The Crown Estate benefits to the tune of approximately £2 million a year from fish farming and this suggested a clear conflict of interest. After more than seven years of government promises, the planning role was given to local authorities. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) also has to give their approval for operating cages in the sea and generally did. For instance, during the period 2008 to 2011 SEPA received more than two hundred applications, all but fifteen of which were approved.

The problems for wild salmon and sea-trout from fish farms are, however, vividly illustrated by comparing wild fish numbers in East coast rivers such as Spey, Dee, Tay and Tweed with those in the West Highlands and Islands: whilst there has been a total collapse of wild stocks in many of the later, with few signs of recovery, stocks in the former are currently producing record numbers of fish returning to spawn. There are no fish farms in East coast waters because, when fish farming began, it was decided to adopt a precautionary principal to protect these major rivers, and give the industry free reign to operate amongst the smaller rivers in the West. In substance, this is the core of the present dispute: wild fish that have survived in these waters since the end of the last Ice Age are being sacrificed for the financial benefit of a few, against the express wishes of the many.

There is a way out of this impasse that would, I believe, be of benefit to both sides of the argument: move the industry into closed containment systems by building a solid barrier between the fish in the container, and the sea water in which the container floats. There would be immense financial savings for the industry, including freedom from sea lice attack and other sea-born diseases, reduced expenditure on chemicals and medicines, fewer escapes from these new farms and a more secure work-platform for staff. Water from the containers could be cleaned and recycled back into the sea. Even better, and more secure, is to operate these containers from land-based, onshore sites.

For anglers, wild salmon and sea-trout would have unhindered and safe access to their natal spawning grounds to get on with what they do best, the propagation of their species. Such systems, tried and tested, already exist and are being introduced in Canada. The Norwegians themselves are also showing great interest. It makes sense; at least it does to me and it offers a realistic opportunity to bring this sad, sorry, costly and unseemly conflict to an end.

This photograph shows Major Donald Gilchrist greeting Mrs Pauline Cameron-Head, who wears the green beret, a privilege extended to her by the Commandos in recognition of either her ability to keep them under control off-duty or her skills at blowing up fish for their dinner with dynamite, I'm not sure which. I also don't know which would have been the more dangerous.

Swampscott Dory

2011-10-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

"Dories have long been recognized as fine seaboats, but their low initial stability and active response to wave action is apt to be disconcerting to the sailor unaccustomed to dories."

The late John Gardner of Mystic Seaport combined a massive understanding of the history and practicalities of small boat design and construction with an ability to write lucid and interesting prose to guide the novice through his or her first few projects.

When I got a copy of "Building Classic Small Craft" about twenty five years ago I had just completed the Joel White Nutshell, about which I have already enthused - here- and was ready for a larger project. The book was a treasure chest of interesting shapes and romantic histories, evocative of the coast of Maine in its transition from a series of traditional fishing ports to a holiday destination, conjuring up the spirit of Winslow Homer.

Here were fully detailed drawings of everything from planks to spars and sails, with simple instructions and words of encouragement. Long evenings were spent agonising over which of these evocative craft should grace the shores of Loch Melfort.

There were a number of factors in the choice of the Swampscott dory as my next build. The shape was enticing, a lovely curve to the stem and an extreme "tombstone" stern, plus an utterly insane leg o' mutton mainsail and tiny jib set on an unstayed mast. I read that if you saw a line squall coming up you could throw the whole rig overboard in an instant and the boat would ride to it on her mainsheet like a sea anchor. That transom could never take an outboard, so rowability was a major factor.

Dories evolved in ancient history when wide flexible planks of cedar or pine were available, many presumably coming form old-growth forests long since destroyed. Plywood is of course an excellent modern alternative, stable and capable of providing a watertight glued structure. Also there weren't too many planks to cut, unlike some of the other lovely designs in the book.

Like most amateur projects my dory was massively over-built. The hull planking came from 9mm marine ply, sourced from an ordinary builder's merchants, put together upside down over a temporary strong back set into the frames. The latter were cut off to length in due course and remained in the finished boat.

To get the sixteen foot length most of the planks had two scarfs.

I hadn't learned the delights of epoxy and glued the lands together with a polyurethane glue that went off in contact with moisture, not a problem in Argyll, but a plant spray was useful in occasional dry days. I didn't entirely trust the glue and added hundreds of copper nails as well, quite unnecessarily.

Don't paint the inside this colour - it attracts dung beetles

End of shed unbolted to get her out - it never recovered

The plank dimensions in the book were accurate and everything went together pretty well. My one gripe with these old American designs is with the profiles of centreboards and rudders. We now know that a good hydrofoil shape will make a world of difference to the performance of any vessel through the water and while there's an historical argument for keeping the traditional slab shape there's also a lot to be said for improving performance when it can easily be achieved. Here is the board, as drawn, just after I had cast in the required lead to make it sink.

In the Spring of 1988 the dory Anne, named after an understanding wife, took the water.

During the build process I had dreams of the result being an ideal boat for messing about, perhaps evening sails with a few friends, one in the bow with the case of beer passing refreshments down the line as required. Homer had after all got five boys aboard his admittedly slightly larger craft. But the dory turned out to be no picnic boat. Neither wife nor dog showed any great enthusiasm for going out in what was in reality quite a racy machine.

Dory and Nutshell

I found that I was mainly taking the dory Anne out on my own, which gave me a good sense of her qualities. One was her extreme sensitivity to weight distribution. Any movement forward would bring her sharply into the wind, so I changed the steering by removing the tiller and substituting a yoke with lines leading round the boat, enabling her to be controlled from anywhere.

The new Commander

Eventually dory Anne found a new owner, younger and fitter than I and with friends willing to experience the excitement of a hull that heals just so far, the rail exactly on the water, but that is almost impossible to push further. Under her new commander she made frequent explorations down the loch, invariably bringing her new crew home safe and well, if a little wet. I don't think the experience was unique, because when John Gardner's Volume Two came out there were drawings for wider, improved version. The quotation above comes from there.

From a construction point of view the dory lasted well. She endured many years of minimal maintenance and is still around somewhere, but I don't know where. She has been through a number of changes of ownership, generally and as far as I know has never been sold.

A dirty old night on the Clyde

2011-10-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

It was late in the season and the sun had not been seen all day. If it hadn't been my turn to assist the race officer there's no way I would have gone, and as I drove down through wind and rain I wondered if even the Loch Longs would turn out to race.

They always do, of course, and on that evening fifteen or so years ago there were also a pair of Islanders. With only two starts there wasn't a lot for us to do. I had a good view from the top of the clubhouse and took these pictures of Cara and Gigha battling it out.

Above is Gigha, then recently restored and owned by David Spy, romping in before the start.

Here is the scene in the last minute, followed by a couple of shots just after the start.

The boats were sent off on a long beat from Gourock to Hunters Quay, followed by a short reach down the Firth and then a run home. The race officer figured that even a couple of hardened old sea-dogs like David and Martyn would find that enough.

Here are some shots of Gigha as she bashed her way over towards the Kilcreggan shore.

The weather thickened so much that we lost sight of both contestants for a while. Eventually as visibility got even worse the wind moderated a bit and Gigha emerged from the murk, a few hundred yards ahead of her rival.

Gigha carried her full canvas throughout this race, which meant that she was pretty pressed at the start but had the advantage later, helped by David's crew being willing to hoist a spinnaker. Martyn decided to keep the full main and fly a tiny storm-jib. This helped Cara after the start, but gave her a serious handicap later on.

Traditionally the Islanders never reefed, but I think that with stronger modern sail-cloths they are now easily over-pressed and go better with a shorter main and not dragging their side-decks through the water.

More ramblings on Bute - and why this man kerfed children

2011-10-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

In theearly part of the Nineteenth century, before the railways and steamers turnedit into a holiday resort, Rothesay was a centre for the herring fishery andassociated commerce. The Firth of Clyde generally was home to countless littleherring skiffs, with almost every port having its family of boat-builders andnumerous variations in design, but all sharing the basic features of speed,light build, deeply sloping keels and lugsail rig. They were nimble to handlethe nets and fast, partly to get the catch home but mainly to run for safety insudden changes of weather. On fairs and days of rest these boats turned outrigged for racing and in due course the first small racing yachts would copythe skiffs pretty closely.

Inthose early days before the fishing industry became mechanised and destroyedthe stocks the Clyde contained herring in their millions and a major industryevolved, curing these and sending them to the Baltic states in fast schoonersdesigned for the purpose. One such vessel was the Inverune, built for DonaldMacewen originally of Otter, near Inverary, around the end of the Eighteenth Century, whenhe moved to the isle of Bute. On Donald's death the Inverune passed to his sonJohn, by this time already her master, and his herring business passed to hisyounger son Colin.

Johncontinued to trade with the Inverune for many years, carrying salt herring toScandinavia and returning with timber for the ship building industry andoccasionally making shorter trips within Scotland with general cargoes. Hebuilt up a considerable fortune, while his wife produced children at aprodigious rate, ending with a round dozen. Disaster struck on a date which Ihave been so far unable to discover, but probably around 1840, when theInverune was driven ashore on the West coast of Ireland in a winter gale andbroke her back.

CaptainJohn's career now took a curious new turn. In 1843 the Great Disruptionhappened in Scotland, when an enormous number of members and preachers in theChurch of Scotland left to form a new organisation, the Free Church. Some ofthe issues were doctrinal, which Scots keep falling out about (anold professor once told me that the reason the Scots love to argue is becauseit's free). Others were political and related to the Church of Scotland havingsided with the landowners in the clearances and enforced emigrations.

Curiously,because of his background, a major supporter of the new church was theEton-educated John Campbell, the second marquess of Breadalbane and a freemasonand massive landowner. It's difficult after all this time to understand why such afellow would be attracted to a disputatious and frugal bunch like the FreeChurch. Campbell commissioned a very fine yacht to carry missionaries from thenew church to the islands and the wooden schooner Breadalbane was duly built byJ Barnhill of Cartsdyke, West Greenock and launched in 1844. At just over fiftyfeet over the deck 13.4 feet in beam and twentynine tons she was apparently afine sight.

John Campbell

It'ssaid to be very bad luck to go to sea with a preacher and Captain John Macewennow had to contend with up to six of the creatures. One can imagine them, likeblack crows, pacing the deck engaged deep in discussion on textual minutiae orhuddled in prayer in the vessel's commodious main cabin. For the next few yearsMacewen took these strange evangelicals to remote places where the people wereoften still at least partially pagan. I've read that there were difficultiesfinding volunteers for the more extreme places, like St Kilda. Indeed thatisland ended up with one of the most extreme members of the new cult, who couldhardly have been welcomed by a population struggling constantly to stay alive,scaling the cliffs to capture gannets and so on, without having to feed anadditional and entirely unproductive mouth.

Whilethis was going on Mrs Macewen back home in Rothesay gave birth to her twelfthand final child on the day after Midsummer 1848. He was to become Sir WilliamMacewen, one of the most successful and inspirational surgeons of all time.During his childhood in Rothesay he was to spend time playing around the Fyfes'Red Shed and eventually learning some wood-working skills from them. Almostcertainly what he learned from the Fyfes, not just in terms of manual skills, butalso in confidence and self-reliance had a profound effect on his subsequentwork.

By the age of twentynine the future Sir William was a full surgeon atthe Royal Infirmary in Glasgow and at fortyfour he was Regius Professor atGlasgow University. Amonghis achievements he pioneered neuro-surgery by removing for thefirst time a brain tumour. The twentyfive year old patient was surprised to find himself alive after the procedure.

Initially a champion of anti-septic sprays Sir William convertedearly on to aseptic surgery, boiling his instruments and banishing those withwooden handles. He recognised the status and importance of nurses and was anenthusiast for women being educated and having their own careers. He made adetailed study of the growth of bone.

Throughouthis career Sir William continued to moonlight as a police casualty surgeon andworked among some of the poorest of Glasgow's rapidly growing population. Thechildren of recent immigrants from the Highlands and Ireland were oftenmalnourished and suffered from the terrible deforming bone disease of rickets.Sir William recalled the Fyfes' practice of bending wood by the process knownas kerfing, making a series of saw cuts across the plank and bending it. He adapted this by reversing it toenable the children's legs to be opened up, kerfed and straightened. Securely held in straight splints the young bones soon recovered.

SirWilliam's last major achievement was as a founder of Erskine Hospital, set up in 1916to cope with the huge numbers of mutilated and limbless soldiers returning fromthe war. Again he recalled his early days in Rothesay, encouraging carpentersand pattern-makers from the shipyards to transfer into the manufacture of woodenartificial limbs.

SirWilliam declined to take holidays, but built himself a fine country retreat atGarrochty in the South-west corner of Bute, with a private pier for his boat.He continued to operate until shortly before his death in March 1924, justshort of his seventysixth birthday.

Garrochty

The Other Fyfes

2011-10-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

The Fyfes of Bute

A greatdeal has been written about the legendary Fifes of Fairlie, the threegenerations of craftsmen who produced some of the loveliest yachts ever seen.Many of these are of course still around, a few in original condition but mostlyre-incarnations and a few entire new-builds. In fact this talented familywere spread much more widely than just around Fairlie and this post is an attempt tocommemorate one of the other branches of the family which has been somewhateclipsed by their more famous relatives, namely the Fyfes of Bute. The aboveappears to show this family of three brothers and some of their workforce intheir yard on the shore at Ardmaleish, near where Alfred Mylne was later toestablish his Bute Slip yard.

In herwell-known history "Fast and Bonnie" May Fife McCallum recounts how:-

"Acousin [of William Fife I] John, who was a carpenter in Ardrossan, and hiswife, both died about the same time, and an uncle in Ardrossan took care oftheir three sons. Apparently these orphaned boys were not happy in thishousehold and walked from Ardrossan to Fairlie, a distance of about ten miles,to throw themselves on the mercy of their father's cousin. He took them underhis wing and employed them as apprentices. On completion of theirapprenticeship they crossed to the island of Bute where they set up asuccessful boat building business at Ardmaleish."

Thisstruck me as a slightly romantic tale of Victorian hardship and kindness and Iwondered if in fact the boys were transferred by agreement not just in order tobe trained but also to add much needed workers to the rapidly expanding Fairlieyard. I decided to try to discover a little more from the records.

I findancestral research fascinating and have had a lot of pleasure, for example, intracing my own tribe back about eight generations. A few years ago this sort ofresearch would have entailed numerous visits to the national and local archivesand been too time-consuming for anyone with a career to undertake. Now thanksto some excellent websites matters are much easier.

Thereare still pitfalls, such as confusions over spelling and the tendency forfamilies to favour particular forenames. There was also a Scottish tradition ofnaming later children after earlier ones who had died, which doesn't help thehistorian. Both of these aspects can be found in the Fyfe/Fife history, withforenames such as John and William being favoured.

Accordingto May Fife McCallum a John Fyfe was born in Kilbirnie in 1743 and moved to theEarl of Glasgow's Kelburn Estate to work as a wright in 1770. He and his wifeJanet, nee Fyfe and probably a cousin had at least six children of whom foursons, John, James, William and Allan followed their father's trade, Williambecoming the famous William Fife I. She goes on to record:-

"Itappears that John Fyfe Junior, the eldest son of John the wright on Kelburnestate was building fishing boats at the beginning of the 19th century. Oldcustoms records list fishing boats built by him at Fairlie and registered atIrvine, the local port of registration at that time. As a youth William Fife,born in 1785, may have been attracted to his older brother John's business, andthus began his introduction to boat building."

Nothingmore is said of this John Fyfe Junior and I was intrigued to find out if hecould possibly have been the father of the three orphans, whose names I alreadyknew were John, James and Thomas. I discovered the following, from the 1841Census:-

Thisestablishes two things. Firstly this John is not John Fyfe Junior, as he wasonly thirty in 1841. Secondly he was an established shipbuilder, not simply acarpenter. A further search showed that he died from jaundice on 14 May 1848. Icouldn't find his wife's date of death. Note that John's brother James is living in the house, as he features later in this story.

A lookat the 1851 Census showed that the boys weren't living with William Fife I atthat time. Here is the entry for that famous household:-

Sowhere were they? A further search shows two of them in Ardrossan, John a shipcarpenter lodging at number 5 Harbour Street and James with his uncle Jamesnext door, still an apprentice. It also confirms that both were born inFairlie. I haven't managed to trace younger brother Thomas and it seems theyoungest, Daniel, had passed away.

Thisseems to confirm that far from being helpless little orphans the brothers wereuseful, fully or at least partly trained ship carpenters by the time they movedback to their place of birth in Fairlie and joined the workforce of WilliamFife I. Nor did they stay there long, for by 1856 a large wooden building hadgone up on the shore at Rothesay, the Red Shed, probably not actually red incolour but named for the red rocks on which it stood. Here is AlexanderWilson's depiction of it.

On thefront at Rothesay in June 2003 during the Fife Regatta I made the acquaintanceof a delightful and well-informed lady, who turned out to be Miss Jean M Fife,perhaps the last surviving member of the Bute Fyfe family still in Scotland. I kept in touch withher and she kindly supplied much more information, with permission to publishit as I saw fit. What follows is based on her research in local libraries,conversations with local residents and so on, but not least her own memories ofher family and a lifetime of holidays on Bute.

Itseems that there were two James Fyfes building boats in Rothesay in the mid1850s, described as Senior and Junior, but with only half a generation betweenthem. This suggests that Uncle James (born about 1816) had moved from Ardrossanand nephews James (born 1832), John (born 1833) and Thomas (born 1838) hadcrossed from Fairlie to join him.

TheseBute Fyfes were an industrious bunch and built almost anything that couldfloat, apart from yachts. In his "History of Rothesay and its People"Dr Lawson records:-

"TheRed Shed was below the level of the road. What is now the [New Rothesay, laterSt John's] manse garden was the ground on which the larger keels were laid ofsmacks of a goodly size. Smacks, fishing skiffs and rowing boats (also smallboats with round sterns and one sail) were the craft built by Messrs Fyfe.There would be a number of new boats lined up on the ground on the margin ofthe roadway extending to the ladies' bathing place (now Isle of Bute SailingClub). Behind the ladies' and gents' bathing places (the old bathing station)the land was lower than the roadway. This depression was used in winter timefor the laying up and storing of small rowing boats."

On 13 June 1857 The Buteman announced:-

"On Wednesday last there was launched form the boat-building yard of Messrs. Fyfe a beautiful craft of the gigger rig, c. 20 tons, property of Mr Thorburn, Farmer, Isle of Muck. She was named "The Islander's Bride" by Miss Richmond, daughter of Mr Richmond, Temperance Hotel-keeper, Rothesay and is intended to carry produce of the isle of Muck to Tobermory, the nearest market port in that district, the owner being the lessee of that isle. She has a very faviurable appearance and, considering the cost she is built for, promises to be a swift sailing craft and a credit to her young and enterprising builders."

This would have been one of the first larger vessels built by the family, but they went on to greater things. In April 1858 the Buteman again:-

"Launch! On Tuesday afternoon there was launched form the building yard of Messrs Fyfe a sloop of c. 70 tons burden, the property of Mr Kelso of Arran. The vessel was name "Catherine Kelso." The launch was conducted with systematic accuracy and the vessel glided down the ways gracefully. We hope soon again to witness the launch of as large, if not larger craft form the same yard."

By 1861 the Census described James as a Master Ship carpenter, John as a ship carpenter and Thomas as a mere journeyman. One can see that they all knew their station.

With the coming of the railways and the Clyde steamers Rothesay entered its heighday as a holiday destination for all classes of society. Wealthier families could afford to build or rent villas along the front, while more ordinary ones went into lodgings for the annual Glasgow Fair. There was terrific business for boat hirers well into the Twentieth century, in fact right up to the arrival of cheap package holidays in the 1960s.

After many years the road along the front at Rothesay was improved and the Red Shed was taken down. The Fyfes moved round to Ardmaleish, where they established their second yard on the site where there now stands a sea-food factory. Thomas (Miss Fife's great-grandfather) didn't join his brothers. Instead he concentrated on building rowing skiffs and in the 1881 Census is described as "boat-builder/hirer (17 boats)."

My grandfather used to take his family on holiday to Port Bannatyne and my late father recalled that on such a summer's day in the 1920s they were out in a rowing boat off Ardmaleish Point when a whale appeared alongside the boat and alarmed the family. Fortunately my great-aunt Maggie, recently returned from her exploits in South Africa and quite fearless, sang to it and made it go away. It's very likely that the vessel had been constructed by the Bute Fyfes, but probably not by Thomas, as he eventually couldn't cope with an outdoor life and went to spend the rest of his life working in the yard at Fairlie.

The remaining Fyfes eventually concentrated on building fishing skiffs and three of James Fyfe's sons were working at Ardmaleish until the 1930s, by which time the boats were getting much bigger and designs were changing fast. Two of John Fyfe's sons were trained there, but George was drowned aged twenty in 1898 and John emigrated to Canada in 1906. Most of Miss Fyfe's surviving relatives are now in Canada and the United States.

Anyoneinterested in finding out a bit more about some ancient Kennedys can visit http://www.kennedystory.blogspot.com

Scottishboating is a year old

2011-10-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

Thisblog is one year old today, so we're celebrating with a cake (and maybe a dropof the Laddie).

A fewmonths ago Nikki and Bart visited from New Zealand, where apparently everyoneis into healthy eating. They brought this cake, which is seriously good forputting instant energy into hungry outdoor types, be they salty sailorsmariners, crazy canoeists, frozen fishermen or whatever. Of course it suitsanyone allergic to wheat or just trying to lose weight. Here is the recipe for-

Nikki'sFlourless Fruit Cake

Ingredients:-

2 wholeoranges

6 eggs

generousteaspoon of each of nutmeg, cinnamon, mixed spice or whatever plus halfteaspoon of ground cloves

300grams ground almonds

2 kgdried mixed and fruit (chopped prunes, apricots, raisins, sultanas) soaked inrum or brandy for a few days

Method:-

Simmerthe oranges in water for 30 minutes, remove, allow to cool, remove pips andblend to a pulp.

Beatthe eggs and add the pulped oranges. Mix well now and at every stage.

Add thespice.

Add thealmond.

Add thefruit.

Whenall thoroughly mixed transfer to a square tin 23 to 24 cm lined with bakingpaper, outside wrapped in two layers of brown paper. Cover top with double layerof baking parchment with hole cut in middle.

Put inoven heated to 120 degrees electric fan or equivalent, bake for 3 hours 45minutes.

Pourcup of rum or brandy over cooked cake while it's still warm.

Idon't apologise for the above product placement, Bruichladdich do such a good jobsponsoring the Crinan Classics.

Olympic Yachts - More Images from John Gardner

2011-10-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

For Olympic year 1996 John Gardner produced a series of former competitors, which I am happy to show here.

Above is Magda IX, designed by Johan Anker, the Norwegian winner of the Gold at the 1912 Games held at Nynashamn in Sweden. Sadly there were only three entries, the others being Erna-Signe from Sweden and Heatherbell from Finland.

Next we move on to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the sailing events taking place outside Kiel. The British entry Lalage, designed by Charles E. Nicholson, won the Gold, after a tense series of seven races at the end of which Lalage, the Swiss Ylliam III and the Norwegian Lully II were all equal on points. Unexpectedly the Swiss entry was then disqualified for infringing the amateur status rule. In the redistribution of points between the other two Lalage came out one point better to win the series.

In his mind's eye John must have been on almost the same spot I was sailing over in 1998 when I took this picture during a race in quite windy conditions. You can see the U-boat memorial in the background in both images.

Fast forward to 1948 at Torbay in Devon. Here we see Johan Anker's Dragon Class yachts, Norwegian design of course and the winner Pan also from Norway, narrowly beating Sweden's Slaghoken and Denmark's Snap.

For Helsinki in 1952 the Swede Richard Sarby designed the Finn Class for single-handed racing with an unusual rotating rig and unstayed mast. Competitors drew lots for identical boats built by Borreson of Denmark, whose Paul Elvstrom won the series with four wins, beating Britain's Charles Curry and the Richard Sarby himself picking up the bronze.

Next we have the Star Class at the 1964 games on Enoshima Bay near Tokyo. The Bahamas entry Gem took the gold, the American Glider the silver and Sweden's Pelle Pettersson the bronze.

On Lake Ontario in 1976, in Solings, Denmark's Odds-n-Ends took the gold despite only winning one race, the Americans took the silver and the East Germans got the bronze.

Finally John Gardner chose to depict the Tornado catamarans at Long Beach in 1984, the gold going to New Zealand with a boat built by Reg White of Brightlingsea, Essex, the silver to the United States and the bronze to the Australia. With one hull out of the water these machines can easily reach twenty five knots.

From Toberonochy to the Battle of Largs, a voyage through some ancient history

2011-10-06T01:48:00.000-07:00

Aileach, a replica birlinn

Regular readers will know that Toberonochy is a favouritespot of mine and I am doing my best to put it back on the world map of VeryImportant Places, where it surely belongs. When the Greek islands disappearunder the rising sea Luing will still be rising from being released from theweight of the mile of glacial ice that melted away a few millennia ago; whenthe South of France burns to a cinder it will still be raining there; and whenthe rest of the World runs out of oil and gas Argyll will still be sproutingacres of ashwood for the stove and the hydro schemes will be overflowing. Petersays the county will be covered with lovely windmills too, but I’m not too sureI’m keen on that idea.

Kilchattan Bay is soaked in history. It is where KingAlexander II anchored his fleet of one hundred and sixty galleys one night inearly July 1249 on his way to a scheduled meeting with Ewan of Argyll, thethird Chief of the Clan MacDougall, who controlled the inner isles at thattime. Ewan was in the habit of keeping in with both King Haakon of Norway andthe Scottish King, which probably both infuriated and pleased both in equalmeasure. The walls of the old kirk at Kilchattan bear graffiti that may havebeen done by Alexander's marines during their visit. We know that it depictsScottish, rather than Norse ships, because they have short, vertical stems andsterns and hung rudders, whereas as everyone knows Viking ships had long endsand were steered with an oar.

Alexander's trip was not a great success. Firstly, Ewan hadgone to Stornoway, taking with him the ten year old king of the Isle of Man,for the boy's protection. He wasn’t to return South until 1251. Secondly, thefollowing day Alexander died at Horsehoe Bay on Kerrera. Some reports claimthat he developed a sudden fever, but it’s far more likely that he was alreadystricken with some illness and made his trip in an attempt to obtain somecontrol over this part of what he claimed as his realm after his demise. Amonghis enormous retinue he apparently had with him Bishop Clement of Dunblane,rather an odd companion for a military expedition unless you were concernedabout requiring his services at short notice. I have read a lot about thisperiod and have never come across any suggestion of foul play, so it seemslikely that his death had nothing to do with what he might have eaten at theCastle of the Dogs on Torsa, where it’s nice to imagine he maybe had his lastdinner. His son, also ten years old, was crowned Alexander III just a week orso later at Perth, which suggests that the Court had the arrangements alreadyin hand.

Of course the western isles weren't to come under thecontrol of the Scottish kings for many years later. In a couple of years fromnow we Scots will no doubt all be celebrating the 750^th anniversaryof the Battle of Largs, to get us into the mood for Bannockburn’s 700^thin 2014. The battle didn’t quite end Norse domination of the islands, whichcontinued until the Treaty of Perth in 1266, but it probably demonstrated thedifficulties of running outposts so far from home. As I have alreadymentioned the Scottish and Norse ships had very different characteristics. AViking longship with her slender flexible hull would have been ideal forcrossing the oceans quickly but a nightmare to control in the narrow tidalpassages that are one of our main coastal features. The Scottish birlinns wereshorter and were developed by the island ruler Somerled (Sorley) into afighting ship with short ends and a rudder.

image from McDufie's chapel on Oronsay

Generations of Scottish schoolchildren were taught that theBattle of Largs was a decisive Scottish victory, but modern historians seem toconcur in thinking it was more of an inconclusive skirmish in stormy conditionsin which a Viking store-ship had been blown ashore. History is usually writtenby the victor and in this case it may be that both sides felt they had won, solet’s call it a draw.

There follows an account of events found in Hacon's Sagawritten by Sturla Thordssen, just after Hacon's death.

"Battle on the Sands: King Hacon Intervenes in Scotland, 1263

The summer before had come letters from the west from theSouthern [Western] Isles from the king there, and they made much stirabout that strife which the earl of Ross and Kjarnak Machamal's son andother Scots had made in the Southern Isles when they fared out intoSkye, and burned farms and churches, and slew a host of men and women. Andthey said this that the Scots had taken small bairns and spitted them ontheir spear-points, and shaken them till they fell down on theirhands, and cast them dead from off them. [claims of this sort have beena popular form of propaganda tool down the ages from Viking times, through theBelgian babies nonsense of WWI to our present age] They repeated too, many bigwords of the king of Scots, and said that he meant of a surety to layunder him all the Southern Isles, if life were granted him. And when thesetidings came to King Hacon, they touched him with great care; hebrought these matters before his friends and councillors. But whatever anyman might say about it, king Hacon there and then let letters ofsummons be sent round all Norway after Yule and called out the levies bothof men and stores as he thought the land could best bear it; hesummoned all the host to meet him early in the summer at Bergen.

The invasion fleet sailed, but, lying at anchor in Cumbraesound, ships were driven ashore and attacked by the Scots.

When they saw that the main battle was drawing near, menbegged the king to get into a boat and row out to the ships to send themmuch more force. The king offered to be on land with them, but theywould not bring him into such risk; and for that he put off in a boat,and rowed out under the isle to his force. These were the liegemen whowere on land: Ogmund crow-dance, Erling Alf's son, Andrew pot,Erlend the red, Andrew Nicholas' son, Thorlaug the hot and Paul sour. Therewere near sixty men from the king's ship and at their head was Andrewclubfoot.

But by the reckoning of most men there were in all eight ornine hundred of the Northmen on land. Nigh two hundred men were up on thehillock with Ogmund, but the other force stood down on the shingle.Then the Scottish host began to drawnear, and it was a very great host. It was the reckoning of some men that they numbered five hundredknights; but some called them something less. That force was very wellequipped, with mail-clad horses, and many Spanish steeds all covered witharmour. The Scots had a great host of footmen, but that force was badlyequipped as to weapons. They most of them had bows and Irish bills. TheNorthmen who were on the hillock dropped down towards the sea, so thatthe Scots should not hem them in. Then Andrew Nicholas' son came up onthe hill, and asked Ogmund [crow-dance] if he did not think it wiserto go down to the shingle to the force that was there; and that advice wastaken.

Andrew bade his men to go down, but not to hurry likerunaways. Then the Scots came on fast, and pelted them with stones. Then agreat shower of weapons fell upon the Northmen. But they fell back facingthe enemy and shielded themselves. But when the Northmen came as far asthe brow of the descent which went down from the hillock then each triedto be faster than the others. And when those who were down belowon the shingle saw that, they thought that the Northmen wanted toflee. The Northmen ran to the boats, and in that way some of them putoff from the land and came out to the ships. But most of the boats sunk,and then some men were lost. Many Northmen ran under the lee of thebark and some got up into her. When the Northmen came down from thehillock into the dell between it and the shingle, then most of them took torunning. But some one called out to them to turn back. Then some menturned back, but still few. There fell one of the king's bodyguard Hacon ofStein. Then the Northmen still ran away. But when they got down on theshingle it was again called to them to turn back. Then again some ofthem turned back, but not many. That was south on the shingle beyond thelong-ship which had drifted on shore. There two of the Northmen fell.Those who had turned back had then nothing left for it than to keep onthe defensive, and so they fell back until they came north roundthe long-ship. Then they found there some force of the Northmen,and they all shared in the fight together. These were the leadersthere - Ogmund crow-dance, Andrew Nicholas's son, Thorlaug the hot, andPaul sour. Then there was a hard battle, but still a very unequal one, forthere must have been ten Scots to one Northman. There fell a young manof the Scots; his name was Perus; he was come of the best stocks,and was the son of a powerful knight, and rode more boldly than anyother knight. There fell men on both sides, but more of the Scots . . .

When the day was wearing away the Northmen made an onslaughton the Scots up on the hillock andthere fell on them most boldly. As is said in the Raven's Song:

The chosen barons of the king, Chief justice of North-Mærenfolk, With war-songs hailed their sturdy foes, What time the hill atLargs they scaled; The valiant henchmen of the king, Who keeps histhrone in awful state, Marched iron-hooded, cased in steel, Against the foein sword-stirred fray. Brown brand bit the rebels sharply, Atthe mail-moot on the hill; Up the 'How' the red shields mounted, Tilltheir bearers reached the top, Then the Scottish brand-gale cloudmen[shielded warriors] Took to flight with terror stricken Turned theirheels those doughty soldiers From the champions of the king.

Then the Scots fled away from the hillock as fast as eachman could to the fells. But when the Northmen saw that they went to theboats and rowed out to the ships and got off with difficulty for thestorm."

Autumn Visitors

2011-09-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Most of the local boats are laid up now, Stroma included, sitting safely under her winter cover. The moorings are of course still out, so this has always been a good time for hardy souls to do a bit of late-season cruising. Not that the people aboard this lovely stylish motor yacht will exactly be slumming it in the cold and wet.

This interesting and quirky cat came in last night and obviously didn't need to lift a mooring.

A little later ...

Later still. Ladder vital equipment.

Another interesting visitor was the lovely yacht Mat Ali. Her owners, Charlie and Mary, invited me to a day out with them as they neared the end of their first major cruise. They had been living aboard for a month and there are very few boats on which that can be done in comfort.

Mat Ali's origin could have been written by Joseph Conrad. She was commissioned by a veteran of the First World War, who had obtained the grant of a tract of land in Malaysia to operate an oil plantation. There was an enormous tree on the land, of an extremely hard oriental hardwood, which he eventually had cut down and milled to provide his yacht, built in 1935 by a local builder named Mat Ali to a Harrison Butler design. On completion she was shipped to the Mediterranean and then sailed home by her owner to Cornwall, where she remained until recently.

I took these images after we had spent an interesting and educational day. With a wind of Force Four to Five we ran out through the Dorus Mhor with the tide, then spent the day basically beating back against it. Despite her robust look and at twelve tons a heavy boat for her thirty two foot length this is one fast yacht. In the stronger winds she was easily making seven and a half knots and in five hours we covered twenty six nautical miles through the water, mostly tacking back and forth over the same piece of landscape. It was fascinating to compare our perceptions of where we were heading with our actual track as plotted on the sat-nav. At the end of the day our course was a tangled cats cradle of crossing lines.

My next shot is of a fine wee visitor from the South, an English Nutshell built by her proud owner Tom, who has been a regular visitor here for many years. Like many others he has been appalled by the threat to our local sailing waters from the fish farm menace.

Finally a picture of the Hebridean Princess, which I took from Mat Ali the other day. She had a career as a Calmac ferry until a previous government found an excuse to sell her off, following which she has become an extremely luxurious holiday ship, specialising in short cruises on the West coast. When I took this shot she was on her way to one of her favourite anchoring spots, Port na Moradh, which just happens to be exactly where Lakeland are proposing to establish their massive new industrial fish farm.

It's terribly important that all who care about the threat to our scenic landscape and the local, visitor-dependent, economy should register their views with Argyll & Bute Council. Full details of the campaign, including how to object, are on the dedicated website, http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk.

Another Buchanan and some Olympic Nonsense

2011-09-23T04:24:00.000-07:00

JohnBuchanan was born on New Years Day 1884 into a family of fabulous wealth. Hisfather Francis C Buchanan described his employment in the 1891 Census as"living on own means" and at that time the family were living in aseventeen-roomed house in Rhu. Further back in history the family belonged tothat elite group of Glasgow merchants whose fortunes were founded on thetobacco trade, slavery, shipping and finance. They lived in a massive townhouseon Blythswood Square opposite the Smith family whose lovely and dangerousdaughter Madeline famously charmed a jury of Edinburgh gentlemen. It's possiblethat Buchanan Street was named after a distant relative. I don't think Johnwould have had to work very hard, if at all, and he certainly devoted most ofhis life to yachting.

Like his fellow, near namesake but unrelated, yachtsman James Buchanan, John was a joiner, being a member of the Royal Northern, Royal Clyde, Royal Western, Clyde Corinthian Yacht Clubs and the Loch Long Sailing Club.

At theage of twenty four John Buchanan was part of the crew aboard Sir ThomasGlen-Coats' twelve metre yacht Hera taking part in the 1908 Olympics. Thisyachting event or match, as it was termed, was a little strange because therewere only two entries, so everyone was guaranteed a medal, be it gold orsilver. Further, both entries were British, so they helped the country's tallyregardless of how well they did.

Therewas a slight international flavour, as the other entry, Mouchette, came fromMerseyside, although her owner Charles MacIver was also of Scottish descent.The teams decided not to bother going to the South of England and on the tossof a coin the match took place on the Clyde. Hera duly won, helped a littlewhen Mouchette found the way ahead blocked by the moored steam yacht Hebe.

JohnBuchanan owned a number of yachts during his sailing career, including the19/24 Shireen, two big old boats called Llygra and Pallas, then the Fife eightmetre Falcon, before buying Stroma from her first owner George Nisbet in 1937.

Hirta, formerly Llygra, in Argyll 2011

In hisfirst season John Buchanan managed only one win out of twenty three starts. Hedid a bit better in 1938 with three firsts out of a total of ten places, butwas plainly disappointed and decided to blame the boat, because at the end ofthat season he sold Stroma and bought Herbert Thom's old Westra. He did ratherworse in 1939, managing just one win and no places at all from 13 starts. Hedoesn't feature in our story thereafter, because racing stopped for the War andhe died at the end of 1943.

James Buchanan of Govancroft, potter and yachtsman

2011-09-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

An enthusiastic supporter of the Scottish Islanders was James Buchanan, the owner of the GovancroftPottery, which he founded in 1911. It wassituated at 1855 London Road in the extreme East End of Glasgow.

He was born in June 1889, so was only twenty one when he set up the pottery. I am reasonably certain that his parents were Duncan Buchanan, a builder from Kilmichael Glassary in Argyll, and his wife Lilias. The 1911 Census has the family living in a substantial house at 199 Onslow Drive in the East End and James is described as a wright and builder, working for his father and his place of birth is given as Largs.

In theearly days the pottery made nothing but utilitarian stonewares with a Bristolglaze and in 1922was described by one rival firm as having almost corneredthe market in jam jars. During the 1920s there were vicious trade wars among the Glasgowpotteries. J & R Tennent the brewers had established the Possil Pottery toproduce bottles for their beer, mainly for the Chilean export market, but thatmarket collapsed and thereafter there was serious over-capacity, with theresult that the potteries were often selling their wares more or less at cost. TheGeneral Strike and the Coal Strike of 1926 caused severe retraction in theindustry with many companies going out of business and by 1929 there were onlythree significant Scottish potteries left, Possil, Buchans of Portobello andGovancroft, with the third doing best.

No doubt as a relief from the commercial stresses James Buchanan found the time to take up sailing and acquired the six-metre Sunshine, built by Fife in 1926. He then commissioned Alfred Mylne's Bute Slip Dock to build him an Islander and Iona was launched at the start of the 1931 season.

As is well known, even in a one-design class people get the impression that there are differences in boat speed. We saw this in my post about Herbert Thom, who sold his new boat Gigha and acquired the older Westra to prove a point. James Buchanan went the other way. In 1931 he managed just one win out of six places, while William Russell's Sanda ran Herbert Thom's Gigha a close second. Something similar happened in 1932 with Sanda again second to Gigha and Buchanan managing two wins out of nine places and again in 1933 when Buchanan's total went up to three wins out of eleven places. When at the end of 1933 William Russell put Sanda up for sale James Buchanan immediately bought her.

1934 was Herbert Thom's first year with Westra and unsurprisingly he became class champion in her. Sanda was again runner-up, but under her new owner's flag. In 1935 the same thing happened, Sanda getting four wins out of twenty three places. By then Mrs Bergius was on the scene with Jura and was to provide very stiff competition, actually winning seven times but losing out on total places. Again in 1936 the winning order was Westra, followed by Sanda with Jura close behind. By 1937 Herbert Thom had moved into six-metres and the Glasgow Herald reported:-

"JURA CHAMPION OF THEISLANDERS

Mrs W MBergius's Jura, sailed by the youngest crew on the Clyde, is the champion inthe Scottish Islands class. The members of the crew are Messrs Walter and CecilBergius and Miss Margie Bergius, sons and daughter of the owner. With her totalof 29 flags Jura shares the distinction with Froya of having won the largestnumber of prizes during the season. As was the case last year, Mr JamesBuchanan is the runner up with Sanda. Mr R K Sharps' Bernera and Mr A R KeithThomson's Fidra have had the most successful season of their careers, with 24and 20 flags respectively to their credit."

And here is an extract from the Glasgow Herald's review of 1938:-

"TheScottish Islanders as usual provided keen and interesting racing. Mrs W MBergius's Jura again tops the class, but this year only by a very small marginfrom Mr James Buchanan's Sanda, which had 4 wins more than Jura, but 4 fewerflags. Mr R K Sharp's Bernera is again in third place, close to the two leadersand well ahead of the other Islanders."

Finally in 1939 James Buchanan got his reward and became champion with fifteen firsts out of twenty seven places, followed closely by Mrs Bergius. By this time he was living at Ferness in Largs and Uffa Fox recorded that he was a member of the Royal Northern, the Royal Clyde, the Royal Largs, the Royal Western etcetera. (I don't know if the etcetera was added by Uffa Fox to save space or if James Buchanan had forgotten which other clubs he belonged to, or felt them too unimportant to mention. There's nothing like taking your sport seriously!)

Racing then stopped for the War and in fact the rose bowl donated to the Class by William Bergius remained with the Buchanan family from 1939 until 2004, when they returned it to me as the class secretary. We had the idea that the surviving boats should compete for it in that, their seventy fifth year, during West Highland Week, but in the event only three boats turned up and we thought it more appropriate to return the bowl to Adam Bergius. The image at the head of this post, taken by the professional photographer Tim Wright, shows the three contenders no 4 Stroma, no 3 Bernera and no 12 Shona.

In 1946 racing resumed and Adam Bergius recalls that

"from then onafter the Saturday race Jura would be off down the Firth with her crew and outof this came the islander’s annual race to Colintraive, with first prize an oilpainting of the winner by the accomplished painter James Buchanan of Sanda.Second prize was a 40oz decanter of whisky to be returned empty! I stillcherish James’ painting of Jura bowling down the Holy Loch on an evening racewith straining spinnaker and crew in their red sock caps. These were jollyoccasions when most competitors slept in Colin Rae’s hotel butthe Juras had to slum it aboard."

Before1946, Govancroft's wares are the most ordinary of commercial and domesticstonewares. But from then on the range was massively expanded. Ordinary stoneware, particularly for the kitchen, continued to bemade but a series of bowls, pitchers and baskets was designed, often with dabbedcolour under an opalescent glaze. It was as if, having seen his pottery from its foundation through the difficult pre-War years, James Buchanan now felt he could indulge his artistic abilities. Through the fifties and sixties the pottery would continue to innovate, producing ranges of decorative items for the tourist trade and some highly successful decorative flagons for the whisky industry, including coincidentally for the distillers Buchanans. I believe that the pottery eventually became so successful with this line that it was taken over, sometime possibly in the early 1960s.

Govancroft Teaset

Meantime James Buchanan continued to race Sanda until the end of 1949, when he sold her to Robert K Sharp, the long-time owner of Bernera. This was the second time Mr Sharp had sold his boat and immediately regretted it; the first time he had been able to buy her back.

Of James Buchanan's boats it seems that Iona no longer exists. There was a rumour that she was destroyed deliberatelyaround 1980, for what reason and precisely how we do not know. Some reports arethat she was towed out past Hunterston and scuttled, others that she was brokenup on shore. It's unlikely that anyone would have sunk nearly two tons of precious lead. I would dearly like to know anything further about her. Apart fromWestra she is the only missing boat.

Sanda was found in Mallaig a few years ago and has been acquired by Huw Jones, who recently informed me that he is looking for someone to take her on.

Start of the Tarbert Race at Hunters Quay

This image, from a photograph by Ian G Gilchrist, shows Sanda just ahead of Dragon no UK 26. This Dragon, Argee, was built by Robertsons in 1937 for Miss Sheila Leitch, so we can approximately date the photo. (I suspect she may have been a member of the famous Tarbert sailmaker's family.)

More on the Scottish Islanders

2011-09-16T03:45:00.000-07:00

Becausethe boats in a one-design class are identical, or at least supposed to be,researching their history is interesting only because it becomes truly ahistory of the people who became involved with individual boats. One-designracing appeals to a certain type of person who would rather win races throughhelming and crewing competence than by spending money.

TheScottish Islands Class attracted a diverse group of individuals to its ranks.Some, like William Wordie, about whom I wrote a post recently, didn't stay inthe class for long. In his case I guess that the pressures of running a haulageempire pretty well excluded sufficient time to excel on the water, although I'msure he didn't lack the competitive spirit. Others stayed with their boats throughthick and thin, enduring lean years where few if any trophies were won in thehope of an eventual triumph. The skill and dedication of J Herbert Thom ensuredthat for some this remained something of a dream.

TheIslanders went to lengths to avoid anyone getting an advantage. The originalfive hulls, built side by side by McGruers in an early form of mass-production,were allocated to the first owners by lot. If you didn't want an engine you hadto carry the equivalent weight and have a dummy propellor fitted. Sails wereordered by the class secretary after he had obtained suitable quotations and avote had been taken, the new jibs or mains then being allocated by lot. Theboats could only be hauled out for scrubbing at certain times, to ensure theydidn't become too light or unfairly weed-free. Each hull had to be adistinctive colour, but the original owners didn't bargain for Herbert Thom'spreference for a varnished hull, which was allowed after some mutterings. Heargued that he liked the colour brown, but in fact he was aware that a paintedhull would gather weight as succeeding coats were added, whereas he would havehad last season's varnish scraped off each winter.

Despiteall these efforts owners still felt that some boats were faster than others. Itis always possible, indeed likely, that two wooden boats from the same drawingsbut different builders will not be identical. The yachts from number 6, Jura,onwards, were built by Alfred Mylne's own Bute Slip yard, so suspicionsnaturally arose. Thus we find owners sometimes selling one Islander and buyinganother.

HerbertThom owned three of the boats during his time in the class. He commissionednumber 9, Gigha, and immediately became class champion in 1931, with 29 prizesin 33 starts, including 18 firsts. In 1932 he had 27 prizes including 21 wins.By 1933 the competition was hotting up. Gigha won only 14 times with WilliamRussell's Sanda, number 5, barking at her heels with 10 and actually moreplaces overall.

DespiteSanda's success discontent within the class was now at a height, with muchrumouring about Gigha being simply a faster boat. George Jackson's Westra,number 1, had now missed two seasons and he put her up for sale. When HerbertThom heard that she had been sold to someone on the Solway he persuaded thepurchaser to accept his Gigha instead. The Field correspondent reports:-

"Onthe relative performance of the two boats the exchange may seem somewhatsurprising. There is only one explanation I can think of. Allegations were sometimesheard that the success of Gigha was accounted for by her out-size.Remeasurement more than once showed that there was no foundation for thesestatements, but Mr Thom is a good sportsman and I expect that he has taken thiscourse to remove any unpleasantness, no matter how unjustified."

This comment proved correct and in 1934The Field commented:-

"Asbefore, Mr J H Thom headed the Scottish Islands class; he won with Gigha lastyear, and this time has repeated with another and older boat, which shows thatit is the man who counts."

And theGlasgow Herald:-

"MrJ H Thom scored a success in Westra, with which he tops the list in theScottish islands class with 29 flags in 38 starts. His prizes include the BryceAllan Cup and the No 2 Tarbert Cup."

HerbertThom and Westra triumphed again in 1935 and 1936, but by the following year hehad moved into the six-metres with Circe and the other owners began to get moreof a chance. Westra was sold and then lost during the War, but post-War HerbertThom was to return with his third islander, Canna, number 10.

Canna just after JHT acquired her, hull still white

I'vewritten extensively about the Islanders in my other blogwww.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com , where those with an appetite for datawill find the pre-War and post-War racing results in some detail. That blog hasnow become more or less an archive of information about these yachts, whichoccupy a unique place in our sailing history. While researching that history Ibecame aware that the people involved concerned themselves with other yachts aswell. Further, they had interesting personal histories of more generalinterest, so it makes sense for these to be recounted on this blog. I shall berecording some of those histories in further posts.

The Trouble with Old Boat-builders

2011-09-14T03:21:00.000-07:00

Lisa von Luebeck

AdrianMorgan has just posted an interesting article on The Trouble With Old Boats, bemoaningthe lack of profit in traditional boat carpentry, which he fears is partlycaused by competition from colleges of boat-building taking on restorations ascost-subsidised teaching aids. His post ends with the words

"Ultimatelyit's the likes of us, unfunded and unsubsidised what's trying to make a livingfrom building boats, and a craft that can't scratch a living is irrelevant anddeserves to die out".

Some ofthe comments are reminiscent of the complaint by my wife's friend Pat, anow-retired professional opera singer, who would sometimes be approached aftera performance by patrons asking "And what do you do during the day, dear,when you're not singing?" It's terribly easy for those on the outsidelooking in on what appears to be simply an enjoyable activity to forget thatthere's actually a lot of skill, self-discipline and time involved.

ActuallyI suspect that the competition from the colleges isn't sufficient in terms ofsize to make a significant impact on the rest of what is admittedly, in the UKat least, a cottage industry. I suspect that the total number of precious oldboats awaiting the enthusiastic attention of the cohorts of recently-retiredprofessionals and others attending the courses is quite small. The client ofsuch a college looking for a cheap job has to be prepared for a long wait, asthe colleges by their nature have a head start in attracting business and willstart the most profitable jobs first. It's not in the nature of the wealthy,successful businessman wanting to create an impression on the"classic" circuit to be patient. He's more likely to send the workabroad, as happened a few years ago when a very high-profile yacht, now wellestablished on the international circuit, was restored in Burma of all places.

A fewdecades ago almost all traditional boatyards here had either gone to the wallor converted to fibreglass. The survivors were extortionate and well beyond thecapacity of any client other than the most wealthy. In line with thisapprenticeships had become unknown. It's a wonder that wooden boatcraftsmanship didn't die out entirely.

Thatthere are now training courses, albeit available at a price, is entirely due toa slowly-growing awareness that good craftsmanship is something to betreasured. In the United States the stirrings started with the coming ofWoodenboat magazine in September 1974. The first concrete indication thatanything was happening here came with Iain Oughtred's book "WoodenBoatbuilding in Britain" published in 1986. (Iain had come from Australiain 1964, probably the very worst time to start up as a boat designer andbuilder, but he's a tenacious fellow.)

We arevery far behind our neighbours in the rest of Europe, however.

Tenyears or so ago on a visit to Luebeck I called in on the Hanseschiff projectand saw a swarm of youngsters working on a massive outdoor construction. Lisavon Luebck is now complete and I quote from her website:-

"About350 people built the ship over a five year period (1999-2004). 240 were between19-25 years old, previously unskilled young adults who had taken up a one yearcourse in wood and metal-working. Since the ending of the original project inMarch 2003 about ten municipal workers have worked to complete the ship. Theyhave been supported by many unpaid volunteers from the city, who have givenfreely of their time to keep the ship going."

On thesame visit I called in on the yard of Krause und Wucherpfennig, whose shed waspacked with restoration projects of all sizes, from twelve metres to smallcommuter motor launches. One of the partners Andreas Krause, Henry Rasmussen'sgrandson, assured me that they had work for the foreseeable future and numerousapprentices taking up the trade.

OurGerman friends have certainly got the message that beautifultraditionally-built boats are to be cherished. Perhaps underlying this is therelative shortage of old yachts, since so many were pinched by the Britishforces after the War (and, by the way, not only those owned by the GermanState; a lot of private ones went too).

Developmentsof this sort are exactly what should be happening in Scotland, given thecurrent concentration in our cities on encouraging awareness of our maritimeheritage, the availability of brown-field land in places like Clydeside and ayoung generation facing an uncertain future.

Visit:-

http://www.hanseschiff-luebeck.de/LisavonLuebeck/LisavonLuebeck.html

Crinan Classic Boat Festival - Part II

2011-09-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Crinan Classics attract an interesting fleet of yachts and this year there were several old favourites including two of the boats in our Class 2, Macaria and Zaleda.

Macaria is a lovely old yawl designed by Peter Dickie and built by his yard in Tarbert in 1922. The design shows the very strong influence of Albert Strange, who had been a close friend of the Dickie family and designed several yachts that were built by them. Macaria at 34 feet is a little larger than Cherub III, Strange's own yacht built by Dickies in 1910, smaller than Quest II, a 44 foot Strange design from 1907 and about the same size as Sheila II from 1910. All are comfortable, canoe-sterned cruising yachts with a surprising turn of speed.

Macaria

I had seen Macaria around the West coast for years before I ended up doing some yacht restoration at Renfrew and found myself alongside Macaria when the late Gordon Findlay had her. I got a good chance to see her at close quarters and marvel at the quality of her build, in particular the internal joinery work. Later a modern near-replica of Macaria was built, but failed to capture the Strange-inspired magic and reach the level of the Dickie's craftsmanship.

Zaleda was designed by James McGruer, built by his firm and launched in 1966. The Seven Metres emerged after the Cruiser Eights were proving too expensive to attract clients, but being built to the same exacting standards and still quite big at 35 feet plus they were also expensive and proved to be the last of the "class" boats built without regard to economy. Only five were ever built.

Zaleda

Zaleda's first owner was Douglas Nisbet, whose father George was the first owner of my Stroma. Douglas's nephew Bill Hogg acquired her a few years ago and had her perfectly restored at Silvers. Stroma was of course built by a previous generation of McGruers, being launched in 1929, so the boats are related.

Zaleda in a breeze

Friday was a bright sunny day with little promise of wind, so we were spared a long slow beat North into Loch Craignish and given instead a short one from the start at the Black Rock to Eilean nan Coinean (Coney Island) off the entrance to Loch Craignish followed by a short reach South and then a run back to the start, followed by another short turn round two buoys nearer home. In the event it was so calm after the start that the course was shortened to end after the run.

Zaleda got off to a great start and sailed faultlessly round the course, easily saving her handicap over the rest of us and carrying off the prize.

As often happens the wind increased after the course was shortened and as we crossed the line the Truant flew past and challenged us to a mini-race round the second circuit. Foolishly we accepted and so were beaten twice, while everyone else was only beaten once.

We consoled ourselves by reflecting that we had enjoyed a lovely sail, reminding ourselves that it's no loss what a friend gets and that, anyway, you take part in these things for the joy of seeing beautiful boats in action.

One of the best things about the Crinan Festival is the social atmosphere. This year to the pipe band aboard the puffer VIC 32 and the splendid traditional ceilidh in the cowshed were added the delights of the Madrigirls from Glasgow University, who sang throughout the weekend. The well-known and talented model-builder David Spy entertained some of us with an illustrated biographical talk about his art and how he graduated to it from full-sized boat building. Added to all this of course is the joy of talking about boats endlessly in one of our prettiest and most historical spots.

We had arranged to be joined for the next two days by Mary Ray, who with her husband owns Stroma's sister Bernera. During one of the social events of the evening our complement grew even further, promising a very congenial crew for the Saturday race.

arrival of new crew Fiona

Saturday was again lovely and sunny, with little wind. The start was delayed a bit, partly to let boats lock out of the canal, but this was to cause problems for some later as the committee failed to also delay the tide. We had a moderate start and then a gentle drift to the West to turn a mark laid off Eilean na Cille, the "island of the little (monk's) cell" about two miles into the Sound of Jura.

Salty sea dogettes Jude and Fiona

As we neared the mark the wind failed and we could see the boats in front getting caught in the North-going flood. They included Macaria, which had been sailed brilliantly for a heavy boat in a calm. We all kept still and quiet, sails nice and loose and keeping the boat heeled gently, as we stemmed the tide and made it into the shallow water inshore of the mark, with less tide. The problem is always - when to tack? Too soon and you join the others drifting North on the wrong side of the mark; too late and you let others through. We probably got it about right and started to breath again when we cleared the mark. It was nice to admire Zaleda's nice varnished hull shining in the sunshine behind us. We had a long broad reach back to the Black Rock, then some triangular circuits closer to Crinan to do.

The skipper tries to concentrate

The wind now started to fill in and we made it into a ruffled belt on the water, where we were soon careening along at a couple of knots. Of course Zaleda soon had her spinnaker up and cruised past us.

Handicap racing in calm weather is unfair on the faster yachts, because while everyone is sitting in the calm and hardly moving the slower boats are clocking up time. Zaleda had a lot to do to overcome this and didn't quite manage, although she was first over the line by a good distance.

On the Sunday, for the Ladies Race, we had more wind, but another sunny day. Was this really the West of Scotland? The only sad thing was that the salty sea dogettes had had to go home for a party!

Sunday's crew

Mary gave us a perfect start and cleared us away so well that when we tacked onto port we were able to clear the entire fleet. Behind us there seemed to be tense scenes as boats on starboard were closing the boatyard shore and calling for water. There was quite a bit of shouting, which all proves how competitive ladies can be.

The wind kept up all day and we had a pleasant, relatively stress-free day, Mary keeping us out of trouble while John and I crewed the ship. Zaleda crossed the line first, making it a hat-trick, but once again she didn't quite save her handicap. Mary was given a nice framed poster for her trouble.

The Festival was now at an end, but the forecast suggested that we could look forward to a good sail home on the Monday, promising a brisk South-easterly. It was good that Mary's husband Arup could join us for the sail home, as Bernera has been out of commission waiting for her new mast after the last one broke.

Just as for the trip down we had a single reef, on the grounds that it's easier to shake one out underway than to tie one in. In the event the reduced sail was just right for the conditions and we had a fast reach home, this time with wind and tide in harmony.

rolling home in a breeze

Crinan Classic Boat Festival Part I

2011-09-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

It'sbeen a pretty mixed season for the Stromas, as we have had some pretty awfulweather and when it's been nice and sunny there's usually been too much windfor social sailing. The storm in May had an unsettling effect and maybe we havenot really wanted to be far away from our very secure hide-out at the head of asheltered little sea-loch. As I writethis we're waiting for yet another blow and Poor Little Tam, thepoet, has just sent a message "woe that ever I was born, to suffer thehorrors of ex-hurricane Katia." And Stroma is still afloat, waitingpatiently to be taken out. She was a bit happier in the picture above, waiting for a little Danish Oil to freshen up the toe-rails.

What wemissed on quantity was made up for in quality however. Sometimes one grabs afew days of utterly idyllic sailing in perfect conditions of wind and sun, beautifulscenery and good company and such an episode makes the whole business oflooking after an old boat worth while.

Thishappened for us in early July, when we went South to the fifth Crinan ClassicBoat Festival, organised by Mike Dalglish and Ross Ryan. I was in two mindsabout going, because the previous four events have taken place in conditionsthat verged on survival at times. Last year's event was a horror. Given a badforecast Stroma was left on her mooring and we took the Kelpie down by road,only to take her home a few days later after managing less than an hourssailing, or more accurately hanging on for dear life and frenziedly bailing.

Thisyear I didn't have my usual crew, as they were all attending a wedding. YoungJohn Wilson, who hadn't come along since 2006 (see An Innocent Pursuit),managed to prize himself away from wife, son and horse and come along. (He'snot so young maybe, since we have been sailing together off and on since theearly 1980s, but at least he's a bit younger than me.)

Thursday30 June was a lovely day with a blustery West-north-westerly. It was too good aday to waste waiting for the tide, so we got underway in the late morning. Ireasoned that it would take us a while to get down South against the tide tothe Dorus Mhor and if there wasn't enough wind to push us through once we gotthere we would just have to sail about until slack water.

Underone reef in the main we had a fast but comfortable sail South and arrived atthe Dorus Mhor even earlier than expected. We could see our destination a couple of miles away on the other side of amass of water boiling up against us. After a quick conference we decided not tohang about for slack water but to chance going through. Soon we were charging into thechannel on an extremely broad reach on Starboard tack.

We werenow presented with a tricky choice. Holding to the North side, near CraignishPoint, would keep us out of the main stream, but ran the risk of a tidal eddygrabbing Stroma and giving us an accidental gybe, but keeping a safe angle tothe breeze would soon bring us into an adverse stream running at about fiveknots. The solution was to go on towards the edge of the stronger stream, thengybe and reach back to the North side. Gybing in a breeze, when the skippersteers and issues commands, one hand hauls in the main-sheet, another tends tothe running backstays and someone else looks after the jib-sheets is reallyquite easy. It's less fun when there are only two of you on board. Making sureyou don't lose the mast is the priority, so our efforts weren't tidy. A fewminutes later we had to gybe again, as we were now closing the Craignish shoreat a great rate and it was obvious that we couldn't clear the point into LochCraignish. Invigorated by the gybes and minus some pride and a couple of slidesfrom the sail-track we were then clear of the worst of the tide and runningfast to our favoured anchoring spot.

By lateafternoon our ship was sitting nicely a hundred metres or so off the entranceto the canal and we were looking forward to the Festival's delights, not leastof which are meeting old friends, making new ones and sampling the fine Bruichladdich that is a feature of these events.

Blue Books, Blue Ensigns

2011-09-08T01:42:00.000-07:00

In older times it was normal practice even for small yachts to be entered in the Register of British Ships and obtain the Blue Book, now much coveted by restorers of ancient classic yachts and a document with sometimes more monetary value than the rotten remains of the long-abandoned hulks that are sometimes recovered from mud berths to start projects.

When I bought Stroma it never occurred to me that she might be a "British Ship" and it was several years before I discovered that technically she still belonged to Ron MacLachlan, several owners before me. After quite a bit of research I traced the intervening owners and everyone co-operated in my obtaining documentary proof from the Registrar of British Ships at Greenock that I now owned all sixty four shares of the Sailing Ship Stroma, the eighteenth vessel registered by him in the year 1929 with the Official Number 161770.

This practice of owning ships in sixty-fourths goes back certainly to Roman times and probably to ancient Phoenician times as well. It must have been seen as a convenient way to legislate for multiple owners and of course each sixty-fourth share could itself have a number of owners, so the possibilities were endless.

A lot of the romance has gone out of this nowadays of course, since we have to obtain a computerised certificate from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, for which they levy a charge every five years. Another example of intrusive Government activity making us pay for absolutely nothing, just as we are charged for having our moorings on the sea-bed.

Once your vessel is registered and if you happen to belong to a yacht club that is "Royal" you can go a step further and obtain an Admiralty warrant for your ship to "wear" the Blue Ensign. As I am not a great monarchist I was in two minds about this until the late Captain John Campbell, who went through the War in the Merchant Navy in charge of a troop ship, told me how offended he was to see tiny little pleasure boats sailing about under the Red Duster.

Of course detractors whisper that the Blue Ensign signifies you must have bought your yacht on hire purchase, as your ship requires to be registered before you can put a mortgage on her!

The Young Alfred Mylne

2011-09-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

Some months ago Martyn Webster kindly shared this image and the text which follows, which I published on http://www.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com. I'm not apologising for giving it wider publicity, after all the original dates from 1904.

The McGruers of Clynder

2011-09-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

drawing by Paul Kennedy

Much has been written over the years about the McGruer dynasty, narrating how they got started, building small boats at Glasgow Green before moving down river, and the subsequent exploits and achievements of this most talented and inventive family. I thought it would be interesting to put together some notes about the methods which they used and the workers involved. Over the years I have met many former employees, indeed it was suggested by a friend who lived in Helensburgh that formerly most of the local craftsmen were trained at McGruers.

It was a tragedy that latterly there were no younger people coming forward to be trained, or possibly the company was not offering apprenticeships, just when there was a world-wide resurgence of interest in wooden yachts. When the original company finally went into liquidation at the end of 2001, having not built any new wooden boats for about ten years, they were the last of the famous Scottish yards to shut down. (That company is not to be confused with a new company of the same name, which carries on surveying and other services.)

When the McGruers moved from Tighnabruaich to Hattonburn at Clynder in 1914 to establish themselves for the first time in their own yard an attraction was said to be the burn with its running water, which gave the power for a mill to generate electricity. Whether or not this is so, by the time the Islanders were built the yard was served by a steam donkey engine driving a wide range of electric tools. Early on the family had realised the benefits of electric power. They had purchased not only powered saws, but more specialised devices such as electric screwdrivers. Some of these came from abroad, France being one place where there were specialist manufacturers. Some were invented and made locally by engineers working in the various industries in the Glasgow area.

Having access to powered hand tools slung from overhead cables must have made the work less arduous and uncomfortable. One of the most useful tools was a spindle cutter set in a workbench, on which planks could be cut out conform to a pattern. This was operational when the yard started to build Dragons about 1926. They would cut complete sets of planks for a Dragon, three copies of each plank, so that they were always left with patterns for the next boat. The hulls were of course planked up on standard moulds, so truly what was going on was an early version of mass production. The safety aspects of such installations before such things were fully understood would be an interesting subject for further research.

The family did appreciate the dangers of making large lead castings and only the smallest keels were made on site. Normally a pattern would simply be sent to one of the numerous shipyards in Glasgow, Port Glasgow or Greenock. Latterly Morris & Lorimers were casting most of the keels. There was a master pattern for each type of keel, Dragon, Scottish Islander or whatever.

There were also plenty of local blacksmiths and engineers to turn out the required metalwork. When the Islands Class boats were built the practice was to use iron bolts, even thought these were incompatible with lead keels. Probably this was because the local blacksmiths could not work with bronze, which is usually turned rather than forged. When eventually the company started to use aluminium bronze, which is easier to work, they made their own. McGruers did operate various steamboxes, latterly using a twenty foot long tube with a double boiler.

Although innovative, McGruers did not try building boats upside down, which is much easier than right way up. Indeed this seems to have been pioneered by American rather than European builders. Shadow moulds would be set up in traditional fashion, the hulls planked up, then the stringers and any steamed frames put in.

When the order was received for the first five Islanders in the winter of 1928 the possibilities for mass production were fully exploited. The hulls were quickly assembled from standard moulds and patterns and the boats then finished side by side. They were all ready for their new owners to select their boats by lot in time for the 1929 season.

At just over twentyeight feet Islanders were the largest boats that could be built from continuous planks without joints. The hull shape is so easy that no steaming was needed. Conform to the traditional Scottish (and Scandinavian) practice there was no garboard. The planks were allowed to taper forward to a feather edge as they met the wooden keel. There was no fuss, stress or complicated joinery work such as is needed with boats built to the Anglo-American tradition with a wide garboard strake. The topsides were planked first, the planks slightly wider forward to meet the stem nicely, then the bottom was planked up simply as one would build a brick wall. The only disadvantage of this method that I am aware of is that the feather edge can be easily damaged when the plank has to be removed to allow subsequent repairs. The method lends itself, of course, to the use of narrow planks such are harvested in the North of Europe.

A variety of timber was used in building the Islanders. The keel, stem and stern -post were of oak, the horn timber of teak, the hull planking of pitch-pine and the timbers American rock elm. The transom, cabin-sides and furniture were of mahogany, the decks planked with tongue-and-groove yellow pine. The large components would be difficult to build today in the same materials. For example the transom has a radius of almost three inches and would have been chopped from a massive slab over four feet long by eighteen inches deep. It is interesting to note that Isla, built thirty years after the first boats, has a flat transom, which would have been much more economical.

Old-growth pitch pine was imported from Canada up to 1939, when supplies stopped for the War and did not resume thereafter. It is excellent for hull planking, there being several examples of boats still afloat after well over one hundred years. Enormous teak and mahogany logs, up to four feet square, would arrive by sea and would be rendered into workable boards at Gilmour & Aitken's yard in Jamestown, Alexandria. They still supply excellent timber.

The hulls were fastened up with a mixture of metals, suggesting that the yard had little understanding, or more likely little concern about the effects of this in salt water, and of course the boats had no electrics. The major components were held together with iron drifts, the bolts in the lead keel were also iron, while the hull planking was secured with copper nails, bent over rather than rooved. This practice is again consistent with the Scottish and Scandinavian rather than Anglo-American tradition. It leaves the timbers cleaner and neater, is easy to do as well as lighter and cheaper. The deck planking was held on with iron nails driven into deck-beams which were not dove-tailed, but simply nailed into notches in the shelf. The chain-plates were simply bolted through the shelf, unbelievable given that the boats were to be raced hard.

Comparing the boats as built with Alfred Mylne's plans shows a number of variations. For example the front corners of the cabin were drawn curved, but were built square. Alfred Mylne and the McGruers worked together constantly, indeed at the time the yard mainly built to his designs, so one can assume he approved of what they did. The Islands Class plans were cleverly drawn for cheap construction and perhaps Alfred Mylne was having a little joke with the corners.

Certainly it was touch and go with the Class getting built at all, because McGruers had said they needed seven orders to hold their price and they only got five. By using what metals could be got and doing without dove-tails etcetera they were trying to preserve some profit.

By contrast with the other metal- work, which was made locally and was somewhat agricultural the rudderhead fittings were skilfully cast and fabricated from bronze. It would be interesting to know how and by whom this was done.

Around the time the boats were built the workforce would have numbered about thirty permanent workers, local residents and usually the family of older employees. In Spring local painters and labourers would swell the ranks to deal with fitting out the fleet of racing and cruising boats that wintered at the yard. Many of these were paid hands on the yachts.

Most of the tools used in boatbuilding are special and the workforce had to make their own, many of which of course passed down within families. These included shaped planes with wooden soles and various jigs and gadgets.

Although conditions must have been hard, working through the winter in sheds only partly protected from the weather, the workforce is reputed to have been extremely happy. I was told by a long-retired boatbuilder that when a boat was reaching an interesting stage everyone would be desperate to get in to work in the morning. Of course at the same time ship-building in the Clyde yards was going on entirely in the open, so perhaps McGruer's men felt themselves lucky. Both types of activity involved exciting creative work which sometimes had to substitute for proper pay. McGruers' workforce could also reflect that they worked for one of the best-known yards and even in bad times there would be a reasonable order-book and job security for the permanent employees at least. At one of the smaller yards in the area it was not uncommon for there to be no wages at the end of the week and the local publican had to offer an informal banking service.

Post-script

I make no apology for reposting this article, which originally appeared on http://www.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com because right now I'm very busy with our campaign against the fish farm (visit our website http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk ).When it appeared at first my attention was drawn to the fact that the Classic Boat articles about the yard had been posted and can be read online at http://clyde19-24.org.uk/

Reflections on the Scottish Islanders

2011-09-03T02:36:00.000-07:00

Setting out on Shona, image by Richard Pierce

It is unlikely that the current Scottish Islands Class owners will ever recapture the spirit of friendly competition and daring enjoyed by the original bunch, but at least in recent years there have been serious attempts to resurrect the Class and return the surviving boats to their original configuration.

Butterflies on the Clyde, image by Ian G Gilchrist

This process was started by Martyn Webster about twenty years ago when he brought Cara back from Wales and had her professionally restored. Having found a new owner for her he repeated the exercise with Isla and Bernera. During this period David Spy recovered Gigha from the shore at Kings Cross on Arran, where she had lain for many years, and restored her to perfection. My own boat Stroma was on loan to the Scottish Maritime Museum for a time, as she had become unseaworthy and I did not know what to do with her. By 1995 she had deteriorated further and it was clear that the Museum had no resources, so I started what was to become an eight year restoration. Then Paddy Shaw took on Canna and restored her, incredibly, over just one winter. In the meantime Martyn, having sold Isla and Bernera, commissioned a new yacht, Shona, from Richard Pierce, formerly of Windermere and now of Luing. As a result of all this there are now seven boats in Class and the Association has been reformed with a new constitution.

There is an enormous volume of material available to those who wish to undertake yacht restoration. The problem is that much of it is contradictory, being invariably written by persons in one of a number of camps and often with no actual experience of such projects. Some believe that old vessels have a soul that will be destroyed by restoration. They expect their boats to leak through decks and coachroofs, through the hull when at rest but especially if they ever sail in winds above the most gentle. Some will glue a new glass skin to an ill-prepared old hull, stiffen the interior with girders, fit a new, highly-stressed rig and take on the racing circuit. It is very difficult nowadays to find a traditional six metre yacht that has not had this treatment.

A third and very much smaller, but high profile, group believe that restoration must be done precisely in accordance with the original plans and specifications, using original materials and methods. The obvious problem with this approach is the cost involved. Less obvious are the difficulties in complying with modern safety requirements, requiring non-original engines, navigational and safety equipment and so on. Authenticity is fine for those who want and can afford to pay for it, but for most ordinary people it is not an option.

The obsession in much of the yachting press with this last group, typified by the extensive coverage of events in the Mediterranean, only encourages elitism and must frighten off many who would otherwise see the acquisition of a traditional yacht as a viable option.

When I started the restoration of Stroma I had no clear idea about how this should be done. I wanted only to do the best job possible within my means, which did not extend to employing specialist ship-wrights. On the one hand I have always liked and respected traditional ways. It is reassuring to know that something works and with new methods you can never be sure. On the other hand I had seen yachts beautifully restored using traditional methods that after a couple of years had reverted to their previous condition. This was probably always so, because racing yachts were not built or adequately maintained to last indefinitely. I think that the expense of maintenance was accepted as a fact of life by owners in former years.

It seemed to me that if the structure could be kept together better and water excluded properly the future costs would be kept down. I had built a few small boats using epoxy saturation techniques and they had held together pretty well. I read a great deal about the various methods and became even more confused.
Some of the literature suggested that it was a bad idea to have a rigid hull structure. On reflection however, the important consideration is to keep flexing within the elastic limit of all the materials and coatings used in the structure, and this vital consideration is well illustrated by the frequent failure along planking lines of the paint on traditionally constructed yachts. Once the paint skin film breaks, water enters the planking, and a downward spiral of deterioration starts.

I became convinced that the main reason why owners would have William Fife build them a new racing-yacht every year was not just a search for a faster boat, but because a new yacht being stiffer would always beat an old one. When an old vessel with loose fastenings strikes a wave she shudders and slows as the energy dissipates through the structure. After two or three such waves she will have lost a proportion of her kinetic energy. The stiffer vessel will punch her way through and maintain her speed.

The end result was that Stroma was restored using a mixture of old and new techniques. Woods such as mahogany and teak are too scarce to be used in quantity. Even if they could be sourced it seemed to me that I should have hang-ups about using them in great quantity. To give one example the original transom was hewn from a solid block of mahogany about four feet by eighteen inches and, to get the radius, about six inches thick. To replicate this went quite against my principles, let alone levels of skill. The new transom was laminated from marine plywood over a building jig.

I was lucky that friends gave me wood including an ancient mahogany log and some church pews from which by careful use I was able to make all the visible woodwork around and inside the boat without conscience problems.

I do not regret having sheathed the hull in epoxy/glass internally and externally. When Stroma was relaunched in September 2003 she floated perfectly, disproving at least the moaners who predicted she would be weighed down with all the glue and cloth I had added. In fact I think the weight added is probably about equal to the weight of the water which she no longer absorbs. She no longer displays cracks between the planks but otherwise looks as she did before.

The project was to consume about five thousand hours of my time. Being spread over eight years the cost was easily affordable and of course I saved the cost of a social life during that period.

Stroma at Crinan, image by Clive Brown

The other restorations have been done in a much more traditional manner and have been entirely successful. Clearly there are various options which will work. There seem to have been no significant differences in boat speed on the occasions when the new and restored boats have met.

Shona, the new boat, is of monocoque woodstrip core epoxy glass construction, which can be quite light. Because the yacht was required to demonstrate traditional sailing properties Richard Pierce kept the weight distribution as original by increasing the scantlings, which resulted in a massively strong hull. He has confirmed that she took 3400 professional man-hours to plan and build from scratch, excluding spars and rigging. The result is a beautiful powerful boat combining traditional looks and the lack of maintenance of a modern yacht.

The Islanders are now virtually the only surviving indigenous Scottish one design class. I hope that these recent developments show that they remain ideal for their intended purposes of round the buoys racing and occasional short cruises on the West coast. With two or three candidates for restoration still available as well as a set of drawings for new construction there are opportunities for anyone interested.

If you want to find out more about the Scottish Islanders please visit my dedicated blog, http://www.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com, where this post first appeared a year ago.

The Toberonochy Lemon Shop

2011-08-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Each year an event takes place in conditions of secrecy only rivalled by the Bilderberg Conference, but less damaging by far to global peace and prosperity, consuming no oil whatever and attended by a much nicer bunch of people, on a small island off the West coast of Scotland.

It takes place in the open air, but participants are untroubled by the vagaries of the weather, viewing extremes of rain, strong wind and temperature as stimuli to, rather than distractions from, their water-borne adventures. In all conditions they congregate. Strong winds and adverse tides present challenges to ever-longer turns to windward; in fact one year the weather obliged with a 180 degree wind shift while the crews were lunching after tacking half a dozen nautical miles South, coinciding with high water which gave a return journey of equal unpleasantness against a cold wet Northerly and a strong ebb tide. Despite, or maybe because of, such things participants, who like those at Bilderberg are all personal invitees, return year after year.

In 2004 there was little wind and on the morning in question the fleet was becalmed under a dreich grey sky, the drizzly rain trickling down their necks. I have no photograph of that morning, as the scene was too grim for anyone to bother recording and the image above comes from a cheerier day. To add to the miserable atmosphere the Brother had brought along the Great Highland Bagpipe, with which to regale the little ships as they drifted along on the tide.

Through the Sound came a commodious plastic-hulled vessel, which dropped anchor in Kilchattan Bay and sent a lady crew member ashore on a mission, to acquire some lemons for the gin and tonic. Asking a local resident where such a purchase could be made she got the reply "I regret, Madam, that there are no lemon shops in Toberonochy, in fact there are no shops here at all."

At that moment out on the water the Brother filled the bagpipe with blaw and started on a tragic lament, in keeping with the mood of the morning. On hearing this the lady said, obviously stunned at thinking she had gate-crashed an aquatic wake, "I'm terribly sorry to intrude on your small community in this time of grief," and made her way back embarrassed to her yacht.

Daring (maybe not so) Young Men in their Flying Canoes

2011-08-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Canoe men, all images courtesy Jeff Broome

One blustery day at the end of May I was amazed to see a fleet of little sailing machines travelling down our loch at great speed before a Westerly breeze. Soon after they were hauling out in front of the house and we were able to offer them a little shelter in our humble abode.

Their visit gave Anne and me an insight into the crusing sailing canoe, pioneered by some great Victorians and now taken to a fine modern art by these latter-day McGregors. They've now written up their exploits in Argyll in their Canoe Gossip and have allowed me to publish them as a guest posting.

"Waiting for the Tide (and Wind) - Jeff Broome

A select band of five congregated in Oban on the last Saturday in May for a cruise, initially intended to be a circumnavigation of Mull. These were myself, the two Daves, Gavin and Keith. There were no spouses in attendance as other activities, such as growing vegetables, seem to have been more attractive, although the underlying concern was that us lads want to sail too far and for too long. As things turned out this would not have been a problem. The forecast was dire for Sunday and so we weren't in any great hurry to get away. Besides, the prospect of camping for at least one night on Kerrera could not compete with the comforts of the campsite and bright lights of Oban.

Sunday turned out to be as grim as predicted, so we walked into Oban for lunch. I can recommend the freshly cooked mussels from the stall behind the ferry terminal and also the cafe found by the others. In the pub, ambitions were reined in and the plan was now for a cruise down the Firth of Lorn and to play it by ear as the weather was clearly going to be unpredictable; this option would give us both sheltered water and convenient opportunities for escape, if necessary.

Monday morning was still windy, but manageable, and the weather forecast was for it to improve, although a serious low was predicted to hit us later in the week. By the time we had packed up the tents and loaded up the boats, things were looking a lot better and we set off down the Sound of Kerrera into lumpy seas. The five boats varied in size from Dave P's ocean going trimaran down to Dave S's Fulmar. We called in at Barrnacarry Bay on the south shore at the entrance to Loch Feochan for a leisurely lunch.

The west coast of Seil promised to be rather uncomfortable and so the plan was to sail through Clachan Sound and we were in no hurry. Even so we set off knowing that the tide would still be against us in the sound, but this gave us the opportunity to explore the Puilladobhrain anchorage before going through. This is a deservedly very popular stop for yotties, it is very sheltered and has beautiful views across the Firth of Lorn to the mountains of Mull.

Clachan Sound is remarkable. It is a narrow and very straight channel between the island of Seil and the mainland which is spanned by the 'Bridge over the Atlantic', a single arch stone bridge completed in 1793. Next to it is Tigh an Truish Inn (the house of trousers!), allegedly where islanders stopped to change out of their banned tartan and kilts on their way to the mainland. Fortunately the Sound was sheltered from the wind because I found that sailing into the wind and with the tide can produce some very disconcerting effects. We had a very enjoyabl sail down Seil Sound as the wind had veered to the west a little and we made good time down to Degnish Point. The beach suggested by Keith was rejected as an unsuitable place to camp as it is rather exposed to the south and so we set off to Bagh Lachlainn on the east coast of Luing. which turned out to be a lovely sheltered location to weather a storm.

In the morning we set off for an exploration of Loch Melfort where none of us had sailed before. This took us down the Sound of Shuna and back north again where we encountered a Wayfarer being sailed by two OCSG members, Charlie and Bernie. We parted company and then had exhilarating sail up to Kilmelford in search of a café. We gathered on the road above the beach where we had landed to be greeted by Ewan Kennedy who had watched us sail in and come out to meet us. He gave us a choice: walk a mile or so to a cafe in Kilmelford Village; or accept his hospitality. Naturally we accepted his offer and spent a very enjoyable time drinking tea and coffee and eating a magnificent fruitcake that his wife produced from a cupboard. It would seem she keeps one in reserve for occasions like this when her husband invites in bands of hungry strangers. We had a fascinating conversation that ranged over the recent gales and the number of stranded yachts (four in Loch Melfort and we saw another two near Oban) and the fact that the tide didn't go out that day, Islander class boats, such as his own, mutual acquaintance with Richard Pierce, who it turns out was in the Lake District and not at home on Luing, his blog and more besides. We also could not leave without inspecting his dinghy and the restoration project in his garage.

We finally tore ourselves away and set off beating back up the loch. The weather had started to deteriorate by the time we got back to our campsite where Charlie and Bernie joined us and we had a very convivial evening around their campfire. Wednesday was as miserable as predicted and we all decided to go for a walk to Cullipool to check out the attractions of the post office, which boasts a machine dispensing Nescafe and stocks bird seed and wallpaper paste in addition to the usual very basic selection of groceries. I posted a postcard to my mum that took a mere 22 days to reach London! Charlie, Bernie and I walked around the north end of the island past the slate quarries and along the Cuan Sound to watch the tide racing through the Sound and the confused seas where the stream hits the open water.

We had a leisurely start the following morning because we had decided to head out through the Cuan Sound with a vague ambition to visit the Garvellachs. Reaching them was unlikely because we would have to wait for the tide to change in the Cuan Sound and this would not really leave enough time to get there without meeting foul tides. In the event we snuck through the sound against the last of the ebb and decided to head for the island of Belnahua. We set a cut off time of midday due to the light winds and the need to get to somewhere we could camp that night. In the event we made it within our time limit and landed with some difficulty, there still being a lazy swell and a rather steep beach. In fact Dave S nearly came a cropper as the backwash pulled his boat from his grasp. We had a very brief stay, as we were nervous about the safety of the boats on the beach. Belnahua is a bleak place, one of the 'slate islands' that supported a population of more than a hundred quarry men at the peak of activity. The quarry workings in the centre of the island are now flooded leaving a narrow strip of land around the edge with ruined buildings and rusting machinery scattered around. Our chosen destination for the night was Port Donain on Mull, about ten miles to the north. We had the tide with us and light winds and so it was a relaxing sail. Keith decided part way that his back, which had started to ache that morning, would prefer sleeping in his van to another night camping, so he headed straight back to Oban. The sun came out as we approached Port Donain and we spent a very pleasant time setting up camp and drying out.

Friday morning was sunny and warm too and we eventually set sail towards Loch Spelve. I say sail, but drifting and paddling were more the order of the day. As we approached a light breeze sprang up, just sufficient for us to be able to make progress against the ebbing tide and we made it about a mile up the entrance of the loch and stopped for lunch. We couldn't stay long because the tide was due to turn and having made a note to return and explore the loch further, we departed. The wind picked up a bit as we got back out into the Firth of Lorn and made for our starting point at the Puffin Dive Centre at Gallanach. Keith was there to greet us as we approached and to warn us of the divers in the water just off the slipway.

All in all a very enjoyable trip with some excellent sailing, some fairly unpleasant weather, good company and a new friend in Ewan Kennedy."

You can find out more about the canoe men (and women) on their website Open Canoe Sailing Group

It is most timely that the canoe men have supplied this account, in view of the threat to one of the stretches of water they sailed over from a fish farm. To read about our campaign to stop this click here:- http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk

Setting up a Website

2011-08-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

image courtesy David Ainsley

Regular visitors to this blog will realise that my efforts recently have been largely taken up with campaigning to save Seil Sound and its wildlife from an enormous salmon farm development, which a company largely owned from Poland intend to install in this precious part of Scotland's scenic coastal heritage.

I've already posted extensively about the threat on this blog, but that isn't what the blog was intended to be about. Our campaign group, consisting of a number of local residents and others with varying backgrounds but a shared interest in preserving our ecology, local economy and quality of life, decided that we should set up a dedicated website for the campaign.

We quickly discovered that setting up a website requires a great deal more expertise than blogging and our group were delighted to recruit Garry Milligan, a computer expert and website whizzkid with a great interest in the ecology and heritage, to our ranks.

A weekend of frantic activity resulted in many days work being compressed into the time available. From a standing start on Saturday morning http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk went live last night.

Please join our campaign and enjoy the new site, which will contain lots of useful and sometimes disturbing information about the effects of factory marine farming on our delicate eco-systems.

Meantime, I've got a mass of materials gathered over the Summer on more gentle matters, which will enable this blog to return to its usual business of random musings, historical information and nice images of our West coast and its denizens.

image courtesy of David Ainsley

Ardmaddy Fish Farm - Briefing Notes

2011-08-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

View of the threatened site

Update as at 18 August 2011

Since these notes were prepared the campaign group has set up http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk where there are now comprehensive pages incorporating everything in the notes and much more besides. Also the group has received more information about the proposal and a number of points have been cleared up.

In particular the applicants have confirmed that when they referred to the "existing" installation in their application they were referring not to their existing operation further North but to a proposed mussel farm for which a local fisherman got a licence from the Crown Estate many years ago, but never actually constructed. Accordingly what they described as existing didn't exist and what did exist wasn't described.

The applicants have now provided details of their existing farm, in the sense of the one that really, actually does exist in the real world, which can be read about on the new website. What follows is the text of my original post. Please follow http://www.saveseilsound.org.uk for developments and updates.

I have prepared these notes for the assistance of those who are just joining the 400 or so people who have already made their views known to Argyll & Bute Council and also as an aide memoire for the rest of us.
The proposal

The operators of an existing salmon farm at Ardmaddy Bay in the Seil Sound, Argyll propose to close down that facility and open a new one further South in the Sound. They describe this as a proposed "relocation" but arguably this is misleading, because:-

1 Although not far distant the new site is much more prominent and conspicuous. It is in the centre of one of Argyll's finest visual panoramas, much visited by tourists and close to the Cuan Sound, which is believed to form a major run for the local wild fish population and is much used by passing commercial vessels and yachts.
2 The existing farm is said by the applicants to consist of six square fish cages, each ten metres by ten metres The new farm would contain two rows, each of six circular cages, described as 100 metres circumference, that is about 32 metres diameter, increasing the area involved from 55,803 square metres to 179,800 square metres. I'm not a great expert on football pitches, Olympic swimming pools or the size of Wales, but this seems a massive increase, by a factor of 3.2.
3 The existing operation is serviced by boats from Craobh Haven and the applicant's base in Loch Craignish. The new one would involve a concrete feeder and servicing barge of which the dimensions are given in one of the applicant's supporting documents. The proposed barge is rectangular and has a deck area of 26 metres by 18 metres. On top there are a number of units, including a feed silo and a personnel room with on top of this a further deck area surrounded by railings, giving a total height of about 3 metres. The structure would be built from grey concrete and surrounded by tyre fenders.
4 The existing unit has a maximum permitted biomass of 1,350 tonnes, whereas the new one would be 2,500 tonnes.
5 The proposed new unit would involve underwater lighting between the months of December and May, consisting of 2 x 1,000 watt lamps per cage powered by a diesel-fuelled generator on the barge.
6 To scare off wild-life "approved acoustic deterrents may be used if and when required."

I suggest that these features sufficiently distinguish the new proposal from the existing one to make this effectively a new proposal and not a relocation.

Further misleading statements.

The applicants state that the site has an "existing use" as a mussel farm. It is true that a local fisherman got a lease from the Crown Estate many years ago for this site (and two others) for this purpose, but he never operated the site as such. This statement may be calculated to make anyone unfamiliar with the locus think there is an operation there already. I am unable to see why else it was made.

What is relevant, but the applicants don't refer to it, is that many years ago Pan Fish Scotland were scoping this site for salmon farming and rejected it after local objections, some based on the fact that the adjacent bay was seen as a "harbour of refuge."

The applicants state:- "A Farm Management Agreement has been defined for this area and has been signed by Lakeland Marine Farm and Kames Limited." This is no doubt true but is not the whole story. There was a "Lower Lorn Area Management Agreement" in place between 2006 and the end of 2010, but it collapsed, per the Atlantic Salmon Trust:-

"Now the Lower Lorn AMA has collapsed, after wild fish interests in Argyll decided they could no longer support it. The Association of Salmon Fishery Boards (ASFB) says that this calls into question the viability of the entire policy.

The collapse is blamed on the 'serial failure of one side to the agreement to honour its commitments.' "

You can read more about this on the Trust website here:- http://www.atlanticsalmontrust.org/latest-news/scottish-area-management-agreement-collapses-126.html

While the agreement between the two companies is better than nothing this history does nothing to inspire confidence. Area Management Agreements are a key part of the Scottish Government's strategy for controlling the spread of infection and sea lice and the lack of one in a largely contained stretch of water such as Loch Melfort is highly disturbing.

Nor for that matter does it inspire confidence that Lakeland Marine Farm Limited were in 2006 fined for the criminal offence of over-stocking their unit at Shuna.

Full details of the proposal and the comments received by Argyll & Bute Council can be found online here:-

http://publicaccess.argyll-bute.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=LN76RBCH06O00

The benefits of the proposal.

Farmed fish are by far the largest export from the Scottish economy by value at the present time, bringing in great sums to local economies not just in terms of direct employment but in the supporting industries and the spin-off multiplier effect beloved by economists. One consequence of this is that there is undoubtedly pressure on government bodies to downplay the side effects.

In the present case the applicants claim that the proposal will support "3 to 4 full-time and two part-time employees." Even in terms of the micro-economy in this part of Argyll this does not seem a lot. The automatic feeding system makes the unit less labour-intensive than a traditional unit.

One thing that will not happen is for any of the profit to stay in Scotland, or indeed in the UK. Lakeland Marine Farm Limited is owned by Morpol, an operation with numerous foreign shareholders, but mainly owned from Poland. You can inspect the list of shareholders here:-

http://morpol.com/investor-relations/share-information/shareholders.html

The Grounds of Objection

The Science

As with many scientific issues where money is involved there is a furious debate about why our native fish stocks on the West coast are in proven, serious decline. Wild salmon are apparently plentiful in our great Northern and Eastern rivers where, surprise, surprise, there are no fish farms.

Marine biologists are providing convincing evidence of cross-infection between caged fish and wild stocks not just when the former escape but with the spread of the deadly sea-lice.

Many experts are worried that our waters could experience catastrophic increases of lice, one describing our sea-lochs as "bombing alleys."

The routine anti-biotic treatment of caged fish leads to the development of super-viruses.

The quantity of salmon faeces produced by 2,500 tonnes of salmon (about 400,000 fish) is equivalent to that produced by a town many times the size of Oban. Richard Pierce has calculated that the total human population of Seil has a weight of about fifteen tonnes. And the government spent eleven (or was it eighteen) million Pounds on a sewage system for them to keep our seas clean!

Very little is known about the behaviour patterns of our native sea-trout. There still are some in Loch Melfort and it is known that they run in Seil Sound.

How much pollution can the site in Ardmaddy take? I am informed that the bottom is rocky and so less able to take the constant dumping of waste food and faeces. By contrast, with a sediment bottom marine borers come to the surface and diligently clear up the mess left by human enterprise.

Finally to those who say we must eat something and why not salmon we must respond with the question "what do the salmon feed on?"

The most widely-accepted opinion seems to be that it takes three tonnes of fish-meal to produce one tonne of salmon. The fish-meal consists of sand-eels and similar fish that have been hoovered from the sea-bed, dried and processed. As fish are themselves mainly water it must take several tonnes of fish to create one tonne of meal. The industry itself claims a conversion ration of about 1.5 to 1, which seems improbable but is still inefficient.

Incidentally the destruction of sand-eels impacts on the populations of sea-birds and marine mammals too.

There is a helpful and highly readable article about all this available online here:-

http://www.atlanticsalmontrust.org/concerns/concerns/salmon-farming-in-scotland-economic-success-or-ecological-failure.html

Last, but I hope not least, some may spare a thought for the wretched salmon thrashing about in the cages. A very senior former government adviser in these matters considers "farming" a misnomer and told me that caged feeding would be a better term.

To all of this the industry will say, either that its methods are perfectly safe and there are other reasons for the loss of our wild fauna, or that these having already been destroyed there is nothing left to damage.

I am frankly astonished that Argyll & Bute Council appear to have decided that an Environmental Impact Assessment is not required in this case and have asked the planning officer in charge to explain the reasoning behind this. Others with better scientific knowledge than I have are also asking more detailed questions about this.

We can't expect too much from our national politicians, but local ones should be very concerned indeed about our ecology and the impact its destruction would have on our main local industry, tourism.

Tourism

While salmon-farming is important nationally tourism is the main driver of our local economy in Argyll. Including its supporting industries it employs by far the greatest number of our private sector workers.

Increasingly foreign visitors are coming to see Scotland's unique ecosystems, often bringing with them canoes and bicycles to explore her remote corners. Those of us lucky enough to be here year-round perhaps become used to the scenery, but to visitors from, say, the industrial heartland of Germany or the intensively-farmed flatlands of the Netherlands it presents breathtaking views of the unspoilt fringe of Europe.

Yachting has a traditionally elitist image, but water sport in all its forms, be it small boating, canoeing, diving or indeed yachting has always been one of the major pastimes of our island nation. Increasingly people are trailer-sailing, bringing small relatively inexpensive craft with them. There are also our excellent facilities for sea trips to see seals, dolphins, birds and other wild-life.

Bluntly, fish-farming and tourism don't mix. The sites are ugly and industrial and you won't see a lot of seals near them, because operators shoot them. (The present applicants have declared their intention to seek a shooting licence.)

In the present recession parts of our tourism industry are struggling and it's vitally important not to damage them further. This should be the main focus of our objections, as the threat to the local economy should be pretty obvious to both the planning officials and members of the planning committee.

Public Health and Safety

Seil Sound and Cuan Sound are in constant use by commercial fishermen, pleasure boats and yachts and excursion boats. Ardmaddy is a favourite spot for the Hebridean Princess and the Waverley occasionally passes near.

The proposal would make the only bay nearby effectively inaccessible, denying the harbour of refuge that was the basis for then Scottish-owned Pan Fish withdrawing years ago.

More than one half of the navigable part of the Seil Sound would be out of bounds. Just beyond the site the apparently clear part contains dangerous unmarked rocks. Richard Pierce has contributed the following:-

"This is the only sheltered safe beach landing / anchorage/ refuge in many miles of otherwise hostile coastline. Its orientation, and position provide an unusually well protected refuge in all wind directions and tide conditions, particularly for the ever increasing number of cruising yachts and small cruise ships visiting the area....

I am concerned that by omission, the application does not fully illustrate the impact that the proposed development would have on safe navigation. For instance the submitted chart is cropped in such a way that anyone unfamiliar with the area will see no potential hazards. Reading the chart in the way a mariner does, to plot his course or safe refuge, requires a more extensive view....[which shows]... that no other vessel can anchor not only in the black zone, but in a significant region beyond, for fear of fouling anchor warps on mooring lines.

This mooring area will thus preclude other vessels from anchoring in the shelter of Torsa from the prevailing SW and NE gales.

...from the scans it is difficult to appreciate the hazards to navigation to the North East Torsa at the entrance to the fiercely tidal Cuan Sound."

In the online version of this Richard has posted some images that clearly illustrate his point. He has also posted a photograph of a stranded yacht with the words:-

"This recent RNLI rescue was effected just a few hundred metres to the NW of the proposed cages. The unmarked submerged rocks are in what would appear to be the centre of the 'new' fairway. Thankfully these visitors made their mistake in calm weather."

You can read Richard's full posting and see the photographs here:-

http://scottishboating.blogspot.com/2011/08/ardmaddy-fish-farm-latest.html

This is not just posturing by demented yachties. Visitors to our waters, even from as near as the Firth of Clyde, often don't appreciate the hazards presented by Argyll's unmarked reefs and isolated rocks. The public have the right to use the sea for the purposes of both navigation and leisure. This is inalienable, that is to say the Crown Estate Commissioners do not have the power to take it away, although in the past they have come close to doing so.

Quality of Life

I have left this to the end, because I suspect a decision will be made on economic rather than on the unquantifiable effect of forcing local residents to endure constant noise, artificial light and water pollution. For local residents the effects of the development, apart from the obvious visual one, would be:-

1 The constant background noise from the day-round operation of diesel generators. The existing one at the North end of Shuna can be heard thumping all day from miles away. On Luing recently I heard locals remarking that the noise had actually stopped for a short period!
2 Periodic noise from the helicopters and supply vessels. Those of us already experiencing these know how intense the disturbance can be.
3 Lack of access to a beautiful stretch of water and shore for fishing and pleasure boating.
4 Light pollution from the underwater installations. A major joy of country living is the darkness of our winter nights.
5 Loss of wild life, resulting form the shooting of seals and the acoustic scaring devices.
6 Pollution of the sea caused by food debris and faeces.

The Irony

What is depressing about this application is that the interests of fish-farmers and others such as tourists and local residents only come into conflict when one intrudes on the territory of another. By locating farms in remote locations far away from centres of tourism and population the problems seen with this application would largely be avoided. Further the most modern and enlightened methods of fish farming incorporate:-

1 Locations on the open sea, where sea-lice is less of a problem.
2 The use of double-netting, which minimises the risk of escapes and makes it unnecessary to shoot seals.
3 Locating the units on land, or developing enclosed sea-based units where the environment can be totally contained. This puts the farmer in total control of the nurture and health of his product.

Postscript

I owe a great debt of gratitude to numerous people who have helped me to put these notes together. I have taken a lot of care with the text and have tried to make it as accurate as possible, but if you spot anything that should be questioned or corrected please let me know.

I'm posting the notes up on www.scottishboating.blogspot.com, where comments can be made, anonymously if people wish (although that is obviously not my preferred option) or I can be emailed on ewangkennedy@gmail,com.

As comments come in I will edit the text as appropriate, so that it remains up to date and accurate.

Notes prepared by Ewan G Kennedy, Kilmelford, 7 August 2011

Ardmaddy Fish Farm - The Latest

2011-08-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

Yacht aground in centre of what would be left of the channel

The closing date for formal submissions closed yesterday with over 400 comments, mostly objections. This must be close to a record for a single application.

Despite the closing date there is still time for anyone to post a comment. Argyll & Bute Council have confirmed that they will have regard to all material submitted up to the date the actual decision is made.

To post a comment please click here: - Argyll & Bute Council website for the Ardmaddy Fish Farm

We have an excellent, experienced team working on all aspects of this matter, the ecological, the biological, the economic, the navigational, as well as the threat to the quality of life for local residents, who will be subjected to round-the-clock noise from the diesel generators that power the automatic feeding systems.

One of our team, Richard Pierce of Luing, has permitted me to publish in full the text of his letter to the planning officer in charge:-

"It seems to me that this is not an application to move an existing facility. It is an application to establish a new facility, and therefore I understand it should be considered by an entirely different planning process. Please tell me if I am right or wrong in this assumption bearing in mind the following:

1 Being at least twice the size of the existing facility, the proposed installation will require many new cages, and a service barge that the present facility does not have. From the submitted documents it is not easy to see that the barge is 26m x 18m, with a building approx.18m x 15m on top, which rises at least 3m above deck level. The submitted documents do not enable an informed comparison to be made. In addition there is no indication of the plant that will be installed, or the sound pressure levels thereof , and judging by the North Shuna installation this could be a very serious consideration.

Existing Fish Farm 2011

2. The proposed new site is in an unspoiled, non-industrial, wild environment. Such areas are easily irreversibly destroyed and are increasingly rare. The following pictures may help those who may not be able to visit the site in the near future.

The proposed site is in the middle of this panorama taken from Torsa. To the left is Seil Sound, to the right is Loch Melfort.

Looking South over the proposed site from Port na Morachd

...and looking North

This is the only sheltered safe beach landing / anchorage/ refuge in many miles of otherwise hostile coastline. Its orientation, and position provide an unusually well protected refuge in all wind directions and tide conditions, particularly for the ever increasing number of cruising yachts and small cruise ships visiting the area.

3. I am concerned that by omission, the application does not fully illustrate the impact that the proposed development would have on safe navigation. For instance the submitted chart is cropped in such a way that anyone unfamiliar with the area will see no potential hazards. Reading the chart in the way a mariner does, to plot his course or safe refuge, requires a more extensive view:

This shows the Proposed Extent of Moorings... meaning that no other vessel can anchor not only in the black zone, but in a significant region beyond, for fear of fouling anchor warps on mooring lines.

This mooring area will thus preclude other vessels from anchoring in the shelter of Torsa from the prevailing SW and NE gales.

Even from the above scans it is difficult to appreciate the hazards to navigation to the North East Torsa at the entrance to the fiercely tidal Cuan Sound. So to illustrate:

Summer 2010 RNLI in attendance to rock-bound yacht. Not a rare occurrence.

This recent RNLI rescue was effected just a few hundred metres to the NW of the proposed cages. The unmarked submerged rocks are in what would appear to be the centre of the 'new' fairway.

Thankfully these visitors made their mistake in calm weather."

Ardmaddy Fish Farm - Still time to object

2011-07-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

The above is a panoramic view of the area under threat.

For those just coming on board our campaign the site in the middle of Seil Sound has great environmental and scenic value and historical importance. The threat comes from a proposed 2500 tonne biomass salmon farm with a substantial grey concrete feeding and servicing barge, interfering with a run much used by sea trout and other wild fish and blocking more than half of the navigable channel, as the part of the Sound left open contains extremely hazardous unmarked rocks.

The good news is that to date about 350 people have found the time to register their objections on the Argyll & Bute Council website and THERE'S STILL TIME. It's been confirmed that the official time limit for comments on the proposal is 4 August and comments can be registered by clicking here:-

Argyll & Bute Council public access for comments

In practice in a matter of great importance the Council will have regard to new matters raised in comments made right up to the date of the decision, but that is no reason to delay.

Not everyone has computer access and as I write this leaflets are being delivered by hand to every house on the islands of Seil and Luing. They will be most immediately affected by the noise of generators running 24 hours per day and the visual impact, but it's terribly important that everyone who is concerned about our environment, our wild-life and the health and safety of residents and visitors alike should register their views. The address for written comments is:-

Argyll and Bute Council, Kilmory, Lochgilphead, Argyll, PA31 8RT, quoting planning ref: 11/01066/MFF