Gylen Castle from the sea

Gylen Castle stands guard at the South end of Kerrera, a former MacDougall stronghold built in 1582 and occupied until the inhabitants were besieged by General Leslie in 1647, Deprived of water, they surrendered on the faith of Leslie's promise to spare them, on which of course he promptly reneged, allowing only one young MacDougall boy to survive.

I've written before about my acquisition of the sailing vessel Gaudeamus, here; The Crinan Canal not quite for me. I eventually made it through the canal in 1974 and moored my ship at the Brandystone in Oban Bay, thanks to the wonderful Donnie Currie, then one of our last surviving boatbuilders. Our old friend Donald Brown soon heard of the move and demanded that I take him to see Gylen Castle from the sea. 

Mr Brown was not a man whose demands you could easily refuse. Born and brought up in the family farm at the head of Loch Feochan he had walked daily the five miles to school in Oban. Standing well over six feet he was a commanding presence, also a loud one, as his wartime service as a front line doctor had left him quite deaf. A man of principle, as a medical student he had refused to take part in University boxing. Like many from Argyll he had cousins everywhere, John Stevenson the procurator fiscal and the inspiration for Sutherland's Law, in which he was played by Iain Cuthbertson and Jimmy Macdonald the Oban undertaker being two of them. Jimmy's hearse proved useful when Donald bought a grandfather clock in Oban, but started rumours when it was seen parked outside his house in Glasgow.

We had arranged to meet at the boat, the Browns being already in Oban. On the appointed day I left Glasgow early, but my car developed problems on the way and on arrival I had to leave it in a garage. This was fortunate as by the end of the day I was to be in no fit state to drive.

At the Brandystone I was met by Donald in full white surgical dress, which he assured me being bloodproof was also waterproof, his wife Barbara in more normal clothing and their golden labrador, Juno. The Browns were namely for matrimonial discussions, both being of wonderfully strong character. Donald felt that wife and dog should stay ashore, Barbara disagreed and had Juno had a vote she would have been with Donald. Barbara of course won and we duly made a somewhat risky trip out in the eight foot pram dinghy to my ship.

Gaudeamus is a Loch Long, number 98 in the class, twentyone feet overall and with minimal shelter. here's a picture of a sistership.

Celeano II, built by Robertsons in 1949

We were quickly underway in quite a brisk following breeze. From the outset Juno was distinctly unhappy and cowered under the wee cuddy that you'll see in the photograph. Donald took the helm, while Barbara held on tightly and I did my best to keep calm. We were soon past Horsehoe Bay, avoided the Cutter Rock and made a swift turn to starboard at the bottom of Kerrera Sound.

There followed a nice fast reach in a flat sea under the lea of the island, with a wonderful clear view of the castle, before clearing the coast for the trip back North.

Loch Longs are tough wee boats and I had no doubt that we would make it, but they're not comfortable in a blow with the nasty short waves that we get when there's a good strong tide running. It took several tacks to work our way back to the entrance to the bay, after which we had a run down to the Brandystone. As we picked up the mooring Juno saw her chance to jump into the water, swim ashore and make off.

Once all stowed, dinghy back in Donnie's shed and  Juno recovered, Donald drove us to the summit of one of Oban's peaks, where we were met by the above mentioned John and Jimmie. They said they had been concerned about us and greatly relieved when they saw the Gaudeamus coming round into the bay and flying down to her mooring. Once we were seated we were each handed a pint glass of whisky topped up with strong ale to fortify us for the trip back to Glasgow in Donald's Rover.

Has anyone seen Karita?

More Mystery Yachts

 

Another intriguing image has come my way, courtesy of David Bradshaw, who has been going through old family albums. 

David believes that the above image was taken at Helensburgh and I'm inclined to agree, as we can see a Clyde steamer at the pier to the left and the distant landscape opposite looks about right. It's obviously been regatta day, as the Firth is littered with the little livery boats beloved by generations of Scots Doon the Watter, many turned out by the Bute Fyfes.

As to the date and the design of the two interesting little yachts in the foreground I've got some ideas but don't want to spoil the fun.

To date we've had a 100% success rate in finding the mystery yachts (see She's a Herreshoff  and  She's a Fife  ) so let's see how it goes this time.

Blue Books, Blue Ensigns

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!