The Log of the Stroma

Summer Cruise 1977

Note: Stroma is a twenty eight foot racing yacht built in 1929, number 4 of the first group of Islanders, designed by Alfred Mylne and incredibly fast as well as seaworthy. They were intended to be sailed by a crew of three, originally had an engine, but Stroma had none. I had bought her the previous September and this was my first serious cruise, also the longest trip I ever made in her and the longest holiday I ever took. I found her log when clearing papers during lockdown. The photo is from 1930.

Crew Ewan and Peter

Day One, 16th July 1977
Oban
Wind NNW 2-3, cloudy, showers
Departure delayed due to theft of dinghy from Donald Currie’s shed, reported to Police and new one purchased. Left the Brandystone at 15.45
Passed between Maiden Island and Ganavan, tacked to Lismore,
Passed the Lismore light at 17.10, wind dropped, slow progress up the Sound of Mull.
Ardtornish light at 19.00, wind died away, ghosted to Salen, anchored at 22.25. In hotel by 22.55
22 miles, 7 hrs 10 mins

Day Two
Wind fresh SE. Rain
Left Salen 09.45, rann before freshening breeze up the Sound, past Tobermory Bay at 11.00, wind backing ESE,
Ardnamurchan Light 12.15. Severe squalls and wind strengthening, ran under full sail for a time, then dropped main and doing 3 knots under jib alone
15.00 wind moderated, reefed main, good progress to Mallaig, passing entrance at 17.00, heavy rain, poor visibility.
Wind dropped and went NW. Arrived Isleornsay at 19.30.
Spent evening chatting with Black Angus Nicolson (Aonghas MacNeacail) in the Inn
51 miles, 9 hrs 45 mins

Day Three
Wind light, N, dry, cold
Spent morning checking rigging and repairing various fittings, halliard cleats etc, that had been damaged the previous day.
Left 15.00 wind now NNW 2 - 3.
Passed Kyle Rhea 17.30, Kyle Akin Light 18.45, got forecast of fresh N - NE so decided to go to Plockton rather than Broadford, anchored 20.45
20.3 miles, 5 hrs 45 mins

Day Four
Wind light, NE, heavy rain, poor visibility
Left 10.45, close reach past oil platform, Crowlin Islands passed at 12.25
At Sound of Raasay wind went North, rain squalls for one hour. Porpoises in shoals of fish, gannets diving.
Passed An Tom Point in extraordinary winds, light and all directions, anchored Portree 16.05
21.6 miles, 5 hrs 20 mins
Called on Peggy (my then wife’s sister and a nicer person) and Harry (married to another sister)

Day Five
Very heavy rain all day, wind moderate.
Boat very wet inside, decks leaking. Spent day trying to keep dry.
Met Dick Ede and Jean Inman, dined with them and Peggy aboard off mackerel Dick had caught.

Note about Dick: He was a fisherman who had been working single-handed out of Newlyn, hunting bass in the English Channel, a robust activity, who was up on holiday with his then partner Jean. He had moved up to London and was missing the sea. I haven’t seen him for many years and hope that he’s fine.

Day Six
Very heavy rain all day. Wind strong S to SE
Spent day in Portree, then Dick wanted to go sailing. Went out with him, while Peter and Jean headed off to Tianavaig to visit Danny Sleigh, with intention we would all meet up there. Savage squalls off the Point, turned back, re-anchored and hiked six miles over to Tianavaig. Made fire on shore, ate sausages.

Note: Those squalls still haunt me a bit. They came down over the tall cliffs and pinned the boat down, so that easing the sails didn’t help.

Day Seven
Very heavy rain, light wind.
Dick wanted to go fishing and turned up with two lines, with about two dozen hooks on each. Spent day drifting around while he caught mackerel.

Note: Dick worked the two lines together, hauling them over his shoulders and all the while calling to the fish “come fill up me lines, fill up me lines”. He could tell when all the hooks were taken and quickly stripped off the struggling mackerel. They soon had filled the cockpit, then, as I wouldn't allow them into the cabin, the dinghy and he only stopped when we were knee deep in fish and had no space left to put them. We ferried them ashore and found some fish boxes, gave a lot away to tourists, then took residue to the Fishselling Company at the pier, where the manager weighed them at eleven stone, deducted one stone for “water” and paid us £5. We were being watched by local fishermen and considered it wise to go to the Taigh-osta a Cidhe, put the money on the counter and got out alive.

Day Eight
Wind SW 3, heavy rain
Left Portree 12.25, reached out of bay, wind freshened in the Sound of Raasay, fast run to North of Rona, passed at 14.45, weather cleared and had great broad reach in force 4-5, passed Carra point at 16.15. Anchored in Shieldaig, Loch Gairloch at 17.15
Evening in the Badachro Inn
29 miles, 4 hrs 50 mins

Day Nine
No wind, heavy rain
Went to hotel for breakfast, spent day drying out.
Dick and Jean turned up, having watched us leave Portree and driven round. Dick had found a broken creel and fixed it, also had caught some whiting and cod, which we cooked aboard and ate with them. After dinner baited pot with a Gurnard Peter had caught and set it.
Gale warning.

Day Ten
Gale from North, heavy rain. Recovered pot, got two large crabs and ate them. Evening in hotel.

Note: That pot had been set over a mile from where we were anchored and was a hard upwind against the gale, which Dick enjoyed.

Day Eleven
Wind NW 3 - 4 heavy rain
Left Loch Shieldaig 10.05, tacked down loch, passed Port Henderson at 11.00. The Ballad “Scalliwag” motored up to join us and set sail. Wind veered North, freshened and day cleared. Raced Scalliwag South, Passed Applecross 1.20, Lonbain 13.20. North end of Crowlin abeam at 15.15, gybed onto Port tack and reached down to Kyle Akin, passed light at 15.47, seven minutes ahead of the Ballad, arrived at top of flood tide, then South going stream carried us down, severe squalls between Glenelg and Isleornsay, anchored there at 18.10 just in front of the Scalliwag.
Evening in the Inn
48 miles, 8 hrs, 5 mins

Note: This was surely sailing at its very best, hour after hour at maximum speed before a following breeze, with a strong tide the entire distance.

Day Twelve
Wind light, variable, sunshine
Left Isleornsay 10.20, ghosted down Sound of Sleat, passed Armadale 13.00, wind died and caught mackerel on way into Eigg, where anchor down at 17.15
21.5 miles, 6 hrs 55 mins

Note: We anchored in about two fathoms inside the island that protects the bay. Our efforts at fishing were just as pathetic as our day's sail had been. The fish that swam about under our keel were so small that they had no difficulty in nibbling the bait from our hooks without any risk to themselves. After a walk ashore, when after we discovered that at that time there seemed to be no facilities whatsoever on Eigg we turned in for an early night.

Day Thirteen
Wind fresh NW, bright

Note: At about five in the morning I was woken by Stroma rolling on an Atlantic swell which seemed to be setting in. I took a look outside and noticed that there had been a definite change in the weather. We now had a very clear dry summer morning and there was a breeze. By this time Peter was also awake and after some discussion he agreed to assist with getting the anchor and setting sail, provided he could then return to his bunk to complete his night's repose.

Thus at about 5.45 am Stroma was underway. We slipped out Southwards from the bay and were soon on a close reach in a fresh Northwesterly breeze. I was pleased that I was alone in the cockpit and could treat the bright, sparkling morning as my very own. Actually I was sharing it with various seabirds and the occasional fishing boat could be spotted far off when we rose on the big Atlantic swell.

The Islanders are wonderful boats on a reach, when you really feel the power of the mainsail. Soon the Cairns of Coll started to appear on the horizon and then we were in flatter water as we sailed down the East side of the island to Arinagour.

If you are engineless it is always better to pick a safe spot to anchor where if necessary you won't have difficulty getting underway during the night. I was glad that Peter was now awake as we had some tight tacking to get into the chosen spot some distance from the steamer pier. By nine thirty we were anchored and ready to spend the rest of a lovely summer day ashore. It would have been fun to carry on, but we only had a couple of days left.

20 miles 3 hrs 50 mins

Day Fourteen
Wind SW 3, bright
Left Arinagour 11.10, broad reach to Ardmore Point, wind dropped and caught five mackerel before it returned. Close reach to Tobermory Bay, sailed round the bay to see if any boats we knew were in, left again at 15.30, fast reach to Salen, anchored at 17.10
15 miles, 6 hrs
Back to hotel.

Day Fifteen Wind N 3-4, cloudy, slight rain.
Left Salen 09.15, got spinnaker up and had fast run down the Sound, passed Lismore Light at 11.30, moored at Brandystone at 12.30.
15 miles, 3 hrs 15 mins

We had sailed on ten days out of fifteen and covered about 240 sea miles at an average speed of about four and a half knots.

The troubles with old boats (and old bloggers)

I've not posted anything for a couple of weeks, one of the longest breaks since this blog began. Partly I've been reflecting after the first hundred, but also I admit the weather here has been utterly unseasonal and great for varnishing. Also there is the (not so) small matter of my part-time subsidiary career campaigning against the relentless destruction of our underwater habitat and our wild life by the activities of industrial-scale fish farmers and scallop dredgers. Two industries that are allowed to police themselves are getting away with destruction on a massive scale, justified by unproven claims of economic benefit and the principle "out of sight out of mind" because of course only recreational and commercial divers are seeing what is going on beneath the surface. I try to keep this blog uncontroversial but occasionally one's anger boils over.

It's been interesting to review the various posts so far and the extent to which they have been gaining hits.

In an earlier post about a top secret event in mid-Argyll, which may (or then again may not) happen somewhere at some time in the near (or distant) future I made a reference to the Bilderberg Conference, which resulted in a flurry of hits. If you're reading this because I've done the same again, then welcome to a better World. Your life will improve if you give up the love of greatness and huge wealth and get close to nature in a little boat. You may even get an invitation from our revered convenor.

One of the most popular posts has been The Trouble with old Boats, which was really just a feed to Adrian Morgan's excellent site, but perhaps the hit level suggests that there is a demand for advice on this subject. I am privileged to regard Adrian as a friend and I hope he'll forgive me for saying that his blog is more about new boats than old ones and that they seem remarkably trouble-free. His descriptions of the traditional building process and images of the results certainly give me moments when I feel like throwing out the epoxy, sticking the remaining stocks of plywood in the stove and putting in a call to Ullapool.

That the North-west hasn't got a new customer is mainly due to the fact we don't have a great deal of space or time for any more boats here. Over the last twenty five years or so I've built six boats, of which three are still on the policies, my very first a Joel White Nutshell (how many of us have started that way?) an Iain Oughtred Acorn dinghy and the very versatile Walt Simmons Christmas Wherry. No longer around are the John Gardner Swampscott Dory (unimproved version, but a great boat) and his Quincy skiff, both given away to good homes and I hope still around somewhere and finally Sonas, my biggest and most challenging build to date.

I've done two restorations. The first was the Islander, Stroma, which took me about 5000 hours over eight years between 1995 and 2003. She and her sisters have their own website, www.scottishislandsclass.blogspot.com. After nine seasons afloat she is showing no signs of deterioration and needs only minimal maintenance, but her topsides paint is fading and this Summer she's being kept out for a thorough going over, which should see her well on her way to her centenary. We are truly custodians rather than owners of these old ladies.
.
My second restoration is current. Juni was brought back from Sweden in 2005 in an expedition which I chronicled here, An Expedition to Stockholm. I had to buy her after sailing on one of her sisters, Miss Juli, whose image appears above. I completed a certain amount of conservation work then had to shelve the project to allow the small matter of building a house to proceed. That now over I'm getting to work with a vengeance and hope to be launching in a month or so. She's a lovely little yachtlet with a history by a designer, Tore Herlin, who deserves to be much better known outside his native land. In between completing the work to get her afloat I'll be writing about some of the problems faced in the restoration and also looking into the stories about Juni and the Juni-type boats.

Post No 100, time for a party

There are now 100 posts here, ranging from short demented jottings to my attempts to record some serious bits of boating and yachting history, anecdotes and other stuff that shouldn't be allowed to disappear. I'm going to have a wee party, with some nice  lemonade and orange biscuits straight from the stove, in tune with the music from newly health-conscious Scotland (update - the recipe can be found below among the comments).

For anyone who started visiting here recently I should point out that most of my efforts are not time-specific and some of the more useful historical pieces appear early on, such as the Juni expedition and the story of the Ralli II, although I've also recorded events that seemed significant as they occurred, such as the stranding of the HMS Astute, surely now one of the most unlucky and certainly the most inappropriately named ship in the Royal Navy of all time (astute- shrewd, sagacious, wily). Personally I hate these things and think that the World would be a better place if they all got stuck, but preferably not in the Kyles. As for aircraft carriers with or without planes for them, don't start me.

Thinking about names reminds me of my late dear friend John Gardner explaining the origin of La Belle Poule. Apparently there was a tradition in the French navy to allow the commander of a new ship to supply her name and in this case he had provided "La Belle Pauline" after his wife, but something went wrong with Admiralty communications and the result had rather a special meaning around the coastal towns.

John Gardner has inspired a lot of what I've posted here and his images have resulted in numerous hits. I intend to do what I can to keep his memory alive and share his images. Being of a generous disposition his family do not seek compensation for the non-commercial use of his images, but if anyone who appreciates his work would like to send me a message I'll pass it on.

Blogging is an odd activity, which of course no-one had heard of until recently. Indeed I remember when I got the first computer in my office back in 1985, a huge ugly expensive box of tricks installed by so-called experts, but who in a previous incarnation would have sold second-hand cars or insurance policies. My old secretary was sure that the lines of gaudy green text glaring out at her like messages from Outer Space would affect her fertility (she was then about fifty and unmarried) so she turned the screen towards the window and continued touch-typing as before, with interesting results. I never imagined for an instant that we were seeing the start of perhaps the greatest development in letters since 1450.

Herr Gutenberg

Scottishboating started as a spin-off from my scottishislandsclass blog, which in turn was started to record the history of those lovely yachts with the general intention to produce a book in due course, which is still an ambition. It's grown to produce a nice little cyber-community with 35 followers and about 41,000 page views to date. I'm sufficiently realistic to understand that most of them probably come here by mistake, but there's a good solid nucleus of readers who sometimes email me with information, occasional guest posts or just encouragement, so I'll keep going.

better with a little dark chocolate

Now I'm off to the party. Cheers!

Another Buchanan and some Olympic Nonsense

 

John Buchanan was born on New Years Day 1884 into a family of fabulous wealth. His father Francis C Buchanan described his employment in the 1891 Census as "living on own means" and at that time the family were living in a seventeen-roomed house in Rhu. Further back in history the family belonged to that elite group of Glasgow merchants whose fortunes were founded on the tobacco trade, slavery, shipping and finance. They lived in a massive townhouse on Blythswood Square opposite the Smith family whose lovely and dangerous daughter Madeline famously charmed a jury of Edinburgh gentlemen. It's possible that Buchanan Street was named after a distant relative. I don't think John would have had to work very hard, if at all, and he certainly devoted most of his 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 the age of twenty four John Buchanan was part of the crew aboard Sir Thomas Glen-Coats' twelve metre yacht Hera taking part in the 1908 Olympics. This yachting event or match, as it was termed, was a little strange because there were only two entries, so everyone was guaranteed a medal, be it gold or silver. Further, both entries were British, so they helped the country's tally regardless of how well they did.

There was a slight international flavour, as the other entry, Mouchette, came from Merseyside, 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 toss of a coin the match took place on the Clyde. Hera duly won, helped a little when Mouchette found the way ahead blocked by the moored steam yacht Hebe.

John Buchanan owned a number of yachts during his sailing career, including the 19/24 Shireen, two big old boats called Llygra and Pallas, then the Fife eight metre Falcon, before buying Stroma from her first owner George Nisbet in 1937.

Hirta, formerly Llygra, in Argyll 2011

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

James Buchanan of Govancroft, potter and yachtsman

An enthusiastic supporter of the Scottish Islanders was James Buchanan, the owner of the Govancroft Pottery, which he founded in 1911. It was situated 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 the early days the pottery made nothing but utilitarian stonewares with a Bristol glaze and in 1922 was described by one rival firm as having almost cornered the market in jam jars. During the 1920s there were vicious trade wars among the Glasgow potteries. J & R Tennent the brewers had established the Possil Pottery to produce bottles for their beer, mainly for the Chilean export market, but that market collapsed and thereafter there was serious over-capacity, with the result that the potteries were often selling their wares more or less at cost. The General Strike and the Coal Strike of 1926 caused severe retraction in the industry with many companies going out of business and by 1929 there were only three significant Scottish potteries left, Possil, Buchans of Portobello and Govancroft, 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 THE ISLANDERS

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

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

"The Scottish Islanders as usual provided keen and interesting racing. Mrs W M Bergius's Jura again tops the class, but this year only by a very small margin from Mr James Buchanan's Sanda, which had 4 wins more than Jura, but 4 fewer flags. Mr R K Sharp's Bernera is again in third place, close to the two leaders and 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 on after the Saturday race Jura would be off down the Firth with her crew and out of this came the islander’s annual race to Colintraive, with first prize an oil painting of the winner by the accomplished painter James Buchanan of Sanda. Second prize was a 40oz decanter of whisky to be returned empty! I still cherish James’ painting of Jura bowling down the Holy Loch on an evening race with straining spinnaker and crew in their red sock caps. These were jolly occasions when  most  competitors slept in Colin Rae’s hotel but the Juras had to slum it aboard."

Before 1946, Govancroft's wares are the most ordinary of commercial and domestic stonewares. But from then on the range was massively expanded.  Ordinary stoneware, particularly for the kitchen, continued to be made but a series of bowls, pitchers and baskets was designed, often with dabbed colour 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 deliberately around 1980, for what reason and precisely how we do not know. Some reports are that she was towed out past Hunterston and scuttled, others that she was broken up 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 from Westra 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.)