gl watson yachts

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SUPERYACHT DESIGN WHICH WORKS

We offer a portfolio of superyacht and classic yacht design services which are backed up by a keen understanding of both the regulatory environment and the possibilities of life afloat. As the oldest yacht design studio in the world, we are experienced in meeting design challenges and creating superyacht designs which meet the often conflicting criteria of comfort, aesthetics, sea-kindliness and regulatory compliance.

YACHT EXTERIOR DESIGN   YACHT INTERIOR DESIGN

YACHT EXTERIOR DESIGN

Designed to be fit for purpose and beautiful, our designs are relevant and reflect our understanding of life afloat and the possibilities that yachting offers.

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YACHT INTERIOR DESIGN

With strong experience of life aboard  classic yachts and historic styles we design period interiors that are faithful to the original style and which offer modern day functionality.

G.L. Watson & Co. Ltd. 20-23 Woodside Place, Glasgow G3 7QL, Scotland

Tel: +44 (141) 501 0480

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The archives of yacht designers GL Watson

Visiting GL Watson’s offices in Liverpool explains a great deal about this company. From elegant top floor premises in what used to be the headquarters of Martins Bank, it enjoys stunning views across the Mersey and North Wales and a studious atmosphere reigns.

The office’s fit-out is modern and sleek but peppered with mementos of the history of yachting with which the firm is so closely connected. A framed letter from Buckingham Palace records the scuttling of_ Britannia_, perhaps the firm’s most famous design; a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia, is a thank you present for the successful design of _Meteor II_; and a collection of models highlights the role the firm has played in yachting since it was established as the world’s first yacht design office in 1873.

All be it one of the great venerable names in yachting, the firm wears its history lightly. This is perhaps because through some 1,500 designs, in some senses, little has changed in the firm’s approach. Managing director William Collier explains that although the firm has always had a core value of design excellence, it has also always been involved in construction supervision and in-service support. The detailed engagement with high-quality design and long-term relationships with the resulting yachts and their owners has never changed.

The firm has recently invested significantly in conserving its archive. The room that is set aside for this has something of a museum atmosphere until we start looking at individual drawings. Far from being overwhelmingly archaic, the drawings still appear fresh and the staff that deal with them explain them with an easy familiarity.

This stems not just from an enthusiasm for the dramatic designs that include four America’s Cup challengers and palatial steam and sailing yachts for virtually every significant yachting family in Europe, pre-revolutionary Russia and the US, but also because the archive remains in frequent use.

Watson’s role as designer and project manager in the 2007 restoration of its 1938 design Blue Bird won it a World Superyacht Award and access to the original design material was key to the success of the project.

Around the office I see evidence of work on a small 1880s sailing yacht which Collier explains is a replica project for a French client and drawn directly from the archives. In fact it seems that with the firm’s on-going projects and the significant number of archive enquiries there is rarely a day that passes without reference to this precious collection of thousands of drawings and photographs.

Of the firm’s more current projects, the most eagerly awaited was the re-commissioning of Nahlin , the 91.4m steam yacht that Collier rescued from Romania 13 years ago. Of this the only evidence is a framed photograph presented to the firm by_ Nahlin_’s first owner, Lady Yule, noting her appreciation for ‘the most beautiful and seaworthy yacht in the world’.

After a stop-go period, the major works were completed with Watson exercising a typically multifaceted role. It is the exterior designer, interior designer for crew and service areas as well as being the owner’s representative at the Blohm + Voss yard where the project was undertaken.

If further details on what remains a confidential project are not forthcoming, Collier is more open with regard to the challenges of restoring such vessels using technologies that span from the era of steam and riveting through to today’s cutting-edge techniques.

For him, the key is to identify the features that made a vessel significant and ensure that these are accurately restored while also acknowledging that private yachts are not museum pieces and modern owners require uncompromising accommodation and services.

The impact of the current regulatory environment is not insignificant either, but this is not apparently an area for compromise since with quality design it is possible to comply with the most onerous current requirements.

What does this mean for Nahlin ? In simple terms, for a yacht that was acknowledged to be the most beautiful of the counter stern and clipper bow type when she was launched – a highly authentic and detailed exterior. As to the rest, circumspection reigns.

Another Watson design around which there has been a great deal of speculation is the replica of_ Britannia_, due to compete in the Westward Cup this summer. Extraordinarily, the firm has not had any involvement in this whatsoever.

Some drawings, such as lines and sail plans, are in the public domain and it is on these that the new yacht is based. Was more archival data available? The answer is in sheet after sheet of immaculate, detailed drawings decorated with the Prince of Wales feathers filed under design number 270 in the archive room.

As to whether there will be other replicas of large Watson-designed yachts, this is a near certainty. With Eleanora , Elena and the soon-to-be-commissioned Atlantic , the trend is very much alive and Watson is sitting on one of the largest archives of large classic sailing yachts.

Does the firm have favourites? The range of choices is large but America’s Cup challengers Thistle and_ Valkyrie III_ clearly appeal as does the schooner Rainbow , which Collier describes as ‘one of the greatest offshore racing yachts of all time’, or more modestly, the now little-remembered Bona , a smaller version of the legendary Britannia , built for the Italian royal family.

Will Watson’s legacy and current engagement with classic yachts mean that this will always be the firm’s core business? Certainly, there is a great knowledge and skills base in this area and this is invaluable for future projects but for this firm, classics are primarily about quality design and mere antiquity does not in itself justify restoration or contemplating a replica.

Noting the company’s work with existing designs and collaborations with interior designers such and Bannenberg & RowellBannenberg & Rowell and Rémi Tessier, Collier presents another vision of the firm’s strengths.

‘With so many potentially conflicting demands within one project, much of our role is in harmonising these to assist all those contributing design work to achieve coherent and quality solutions. If existing design means that some parameters are in effect crystallized, the challenge is all the greater;’ he says.

‘On classics in particular, much of our design work is in finding elegant solutions to the lack of space and incorporating modern infrastructure. The success of this type of design work is in its invisibility. While this is rewarding in itself, the appeal of a more outwardly visible creative role is self-evident.’

In the future we can expect to see a new generation of Watson designs that will seek to continue the firm’s reputation for excellence and the firm hopes to take on roles that are more comprehensive than solely that of designer. Its on-site presence and detailed project knowledge is a key factor in the Watson approach. Could it extend to a supporting role in the realisation of third-party designs?

‘Certainly, if the quality of the design is there as well as a desire to see a high-quality implementation, there is the possibility of a meaningful contribution of the type the firm welcomes,’ says Collier.

As GL Watson & Co approaches 13 years in the ownership of William Collier and partners it is clear that its strengths lie in a strong knowledge base and a commitment to yachts that spans from the earliest stages through to years of sustained enjoyment.

The range of in-house expertise is surprising, with the firm straddling various aspects of design, project management, owner representation and a wide range of consultancy activities.

Apart from the attention its projects attract, it has also been remarkably low key and this seems to be driven by the nature of the firm’s clients. The Liverpool location is an intriguing one but there is no mystery: walk-in clients are not a feature of the business, Liverpool is a city they like and with two international airports within 40 minutes of the office it is a practical location for a company where two-thirds of the staff are based at shipyard site offices.

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DAWN HUNTER

Gl watson 55 ft mfv 1960.

These details are provisional and may be amended

BROKER'S COMMENTS

DAWN HUNTER is a remarkable vessel - robustly built to a GL Watson design – the maintenance regime she has enjoyed during her last 2 ownerships has left little to chance. The potential options for usage of this vessel are seriously exciting - a motor sailer with enough sail area to be an effective sailing boat is a rare thing. Her deck space is extensive and incredibly well protected; her interior finish and fit out is to a standard one would simply not expect on this style of vessel and with 3 double cabins and 11 berths in all DAWN HUNTER is an impressive motor yacht that could go almost anywhere. This is a vessel you feel you could spend a lot of time on with very few sacrifices.

Interested in DAWN HUNTER in more detail.

Enquire About DAWN HUNTER Download PDF Specification

REFITS 2018-2023

2022-2023: NETHERLANDS - New galley equipment - Painted wood lining to lower accommodation bulkheads - New navigation equipment - New communications equipment - New CCTV equipment on deck and in engine room - New Eberspächer Hydronic heating system - 80% of on deck brightwork re-coated - Rig check 2018-2019: STIRLING & SON, PLYMOUTH, UK MAJOR REFIT SHIPWRIGHT/ CARPENTRY WORK - 30% of topsides planking replaced in oak - New topsides rubbing band - Galvanised spike fastenings - Topsides recaulked - Covering boards and fillers between stanchions replaced - All bulwarks replaced in utile - New knightsheads - Every second bulwark stanchion removed - New utile capping rail - Revised bulwark sheerline - Stem repairs - Some frame repairs - New Douglas fir bowsprit FINISHING - Repainting and revarnishing MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL/ SYSTEMS - General service of Gardner engine - New Webster's electric windlass fitted - New hawsepipe - Bilge pumps overhaul - Grey and black water system overhaul

JONES BUCKIE SLIP & SHIPYARD LTD. YARD NO. 101 It’s not unusual for a classic yacht to have an interesting past life, often in quite another guise. But how many yachts can claim three very different lives? DAWN HUNTER can. This striking ‘converted MFV’ type motor-sailer began life in 1960 as the Inshore Fisheries Research Vessel RV TELLINA, commissioned by the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to work from their Directorate of Fisheries Research laboratory at Lowestoft on the east coast of England. The fishing industry at this time was increasingly introducing new technology, both in trawling techniques and in fish-finding, and it was important that fisheries research kept up with this. So RV TELLINA as launched in 1960 by Jones of Buckie was equally at home as a floating laboratory as she was working gear. To authentically achieve her remit, she had to be a bona fide fishing vessel; the massive White Fish Authority structural scantlings her illustrious designers, G.L. Watson & Co., had to follow assured this - and her longevity, together with the work of one of the most respected of builders, Jones of Buckie on Scotland's Moray Firth. It was in her post-commissioning second life from the early 1980s as a working trawler, based at various east coast ports including Whitby and the River Tyne, that RV TELLINA became DAWN HUNTER, occasionally returning on charter to operate again as a research vessel. Her last commercial role was for Belfast Marine. By 1991 her commercial lives were over when she was purchased for conversion to the unique and world class motorsailer we now know. She's been a very comfortable cruiser, a floating home, and in current ownership has enjoyed a major refit in the capable hands of Will Stirling at Plymouth, who from deep personal experience prepared DAWN HUNTER for high latitude cruising. Her owner’s plans changed, but she is still ready to explore. ©2024 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

CONSTRUCTION

- Pitch pine planking on oak frames - Mahogany superstructure - Teak laid decks - Interior joinery rosewood, chestnut, oak and mahogany

DECK LAYOUT EQUIPMENT AND GROUND TACKLE

FROM AFT AFT DECK - Simpson S250 electric stainless steel davits for tender - Mainsheet for mizzen to taffrail - Large raised varnished lazarette with detachable upholstery - Bronze mooring fairleads at rail - 2 x Barient ST winches for yankee, 1 x each side - Large painted iron mooring cleats on teak chocks port and starboard - Varnished teak stairway to cabin roof top - Door into deck saloon DECK SALOON/ WHEEL HOUSE/ SIDE DECKS - Deck saloon and wheelhouse combined in fishing boat style - Wide side decks; waist high bulwarks with varnished rail - 5 x Large cleats mid deck for staysail - Yankee jib cars fixed to side of hull - Staysail car through Tufnol blocks on forward teak capping - Wide varnished hand rails - Fender baskets both sides - Varnished cleat; 1 each side DECKHOUSE ROOF - Mizzen mast position - Stainless steel pin rail - Liferaft stowage - Solid fuel stove Charlie Noble - Engine air intake - Engine exhaust - Searchlight WINCHES - 2 x Barient 36 primaries - 2 x Arco 48 main mast halyards - 2 x Arco 44 main mast halyard - 1 x Meissner 58 main sheet - 2 x Arco 40 mizzen mast halyards - 1 x Enkes 22 ASC for mizzen FOREDECK - Mainmast position - 2 x Barrels of mooring lines - Raised butterfly hatch over forward cabin and head compartment - 4 x Ventilators - Bowsprit through varnished bitts with stainless steel fittings - Large iron mooring cleats on varnished teak chocks each side - Stainless steel Panama fairleads port and starboard GROUND TACKLE - Webster's No. 3 Heavy Service electric & manual windlass (2019) - Chain gipsy to starboard; warping drum to port - 1 x Stockless bower anchor stowed in hawsepipe - 1 x Stockless spare anchor stowed on deck - 400 ft / 122 m galvanised chain - Engine driven deck wash pump; deck connection for 10m flex hose

ACCOMMODATION AND DOMESTIC EQUIPMENT

GENERAL - Rosewood, chestnut, oak, mahogany, teak finish - Lower accommodation bulkheads white painted lining - Eberspacher heating system to all cabins DECK SALOON/ GALLEY - Accessed from aft deck and wheelhouse - Polished table; seating for 9 persons - Cream hide upholstery - Neff electric induction hob (2023) - Neff oven (2022) - Fridge - Hotpoint deep freeze FORWARD TO WHEELHOUSE - Seaglaze toughened glass opening windows - Navigation instruments as detailed - Traditional ship's wheel - Helm stool - Chart table to port - L-Banquette to starboard - Doors each side to side decks VARNISHED STEPS TO LOWER ACCOMMODATION PASSAGE FORWARD TO OWNER EN-SUITE - Engine room door to port OWNER ENSUITE CABIN - Butterfly hatch over - Double berth; drawers and lockers under - Sofa to starboard - 4 x Deckhead lights - 2 x Reading lights - 2 x Full length hanging lockers - Doorway fwd to en-suite WC compartment - Electric WC - Basin with hot and cold fresh water - Large shower area with varnished teak grating - Radiator - Ample stowage - Access to chain locker AFT IN PASSAGE TO AFT ACCOMMODATION PORT EN-SUITE GUEST CABIN - Double berth - 2 x Deckhead lights - 2 x Reading lights - Dressing unit with drawers and light - Full length hanging locker - En suite WC/ shower compartment - Blakes manual WC - Basin, hot and cold fresh mixer tap - Shower area with varnished teak grating - - - Lockers - Access to engine room STARBOARD EN-SUITE GUEST CABIN - Double berth; drawers under - Deckhead lights - 2 x Reading lights - Full length hanging locker - En suite WC/ shower compartment - Doubles as day head - Electric WC - Basin, hot and cold fresh mixer tap - Shower area with varnished teak grating - - - Lockers Starboard cabin AFT 'CREW' CABIN - Light oak joinery with Burgundy upholstery - 5 x Pilot style single berths - 2 x Child berths under - Mess style table with U shaped sofas - Flat screen TV - 9 x Deckhead lights - Access to aft deck via deck head hatch - Extensive and ample stowage

RIG, SPARS AND SAILS

Cutter headed ketch rig with Proctor masts; custom in mast furling both main and mizzen - Norseman stainless steel standing rigging - Pro furl Genoa and stay sail furling - Double spreader main mast stepped forward of wheel house - Main sail sheeted via Lewmar traveller across cabin top to Meissner 58 winch Sails total over 1,500 sq ft; say 140 sq m sail area, all by Jeckells - Genoa 721 sq ft / 67 sq m - Staysail 215 sq ft / 20 sq m - Main 441 sq ft / 41 sq m - Mizzen 13 sq m

MECHANICAL ELECTRICAL AND TANKAGE

MECHANICAL - Gardner 6L3 114 hp @900 rpm diesel - Fully rebuilt by Gardners 1997; low hours - Maintained by Gardner engineers - 1,300 nautical miles range motoring - @ 3.5 Gal per hour @ 8.5 knots - 3,150 nautical miles range motorsailing - @ 1.5 Gal per hour - Clutch and gearbox driven variable pitch propeller - Workbench in engine room - Complete set of professional snap-on tools - All spares for engine service - Lombardini 3 cyl 240 V 13 kVA generator ELECTRICAL - Transmotor A VC155 24 V 140 A alternator - 2.4 kW inverter - 50 A charger - Electric water boiler - All deck head lights are now LED - 4 x Mast spreader deck lights TANKAGE - Fuel: 550 Gal / 2,500 L - Racor fuel filters - Water: 506 Gal / 2,300 L in 2 x tanks - Main and auxiliary pressure water sets - Black water 150 Gal / 692 L - Shore and sea pump out - Sight gauges for fuel and fresh water tanks - In corridor fwd and engine room OTHER - Wiels Ridley electro-hydraulic steering - Celtic 35 HP bow thruster controlled at wheelhouse - Eberspächer Hydronic heating system

NAVIGATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS

NAVIGATION - Furuno TZT9F 9 in Timezero Touch 3 multifunction display (2022) - Time Zero navigation and radar software (2022) - Time Zero Vector or Rastor MM3D Megawide charts (2022) - Furuno DRS4D-NXT non-magnetron Doppler radar (2022) - Vesper Marine XB-6000 AIS transponder with AIS splitter (2022) - Airmar P617V IDST810 speed/ temp transducer (2022) - Airmar 44-858-1-01 Weather Station 120WX (2022) - MiniPlex-3 series NMEA multiplexer (2022) - Alizés II Central Unit PC 250GO; Windows10 PRO 64 BIT IUC36A (2022) - 2 x Dell 24" FULL HD 1920 x 1080 S2421HN PC Monitors (2022) - Robertson AP40 autopilot COMMUNICATIONS - Sailor SSB T124 and R110 Tr / Rx - Sailor RT144 VHF radio - Icom MC-M58 VHF radio - Pepwave 3G/4G worldwide router pack with wifi (2022) - Associated antenna and scanners (2022) - Satellite internet hotspot (2022) OTHER ELECTRONICS - AX8 E70321 thermal camera in engine room (2022) - 2 x Raymarine CAM220 IP Marine deck cameras (2022)

- Engine room fire protection system - Engine driven bilge pump - Viking RDF 8 pers life raft in need of service - 4 x Life rings

OTHER EQUIPMENT

- Avon R3.41 RIB tender with 4-stroke Mariner 15 outboard motor - Teak and stainless steel boarding/ swim

Contact us to discuss DAWN HUNTER in more detail.

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OTHER YACHTS FOR SALE

These particulars have been prepared from information provided by the vendors and are intended as a general guide. The purchaser should confirm details of concern to them by survey or engineers inspection. The purchaser should also ensure that the purchase contract properly reflects their concerns and specifies details on which they wish to rely.

Sandeman Yacht Company

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Classic Boats for Sale: GL Watson & William Fife III on the Market

Two of the yachts most pivotal to the classic boat movement are on the market at the same time, through Sandeman Yacht Company – check out these remarkable classic boats for sale… 

The first, the Fife-designed schooner Altair , is among the world’s most famous and beautiful classic yachts; some would say Altair was the first authentic ‘big boat’ restoration back in the 1987 and the pivotal project that started the whole classic boat movement. The other is the 36ft (11m) GL Watson-designed gaff cutter Peggy Bawn from 1894. We would say that it triggered the second phase of the classic sailing yacht restoration movement, being among the first small yachts to be restored to the very highest standard, something we covered in a long series of articles in 2007. Both boats come from the boards of two of the world’s most celebrated designers: Wm Fife III and GL Watson , both Scottish. Both yachts were the best of their sort in their day, and both must be considered today as among the crème de la crème of the world classics fleet. There, though, the similarities end.

Classic Boats for Sale

Design GL Watson Build Hilditch of Carrickfergus, 1894 LOD 36ft (11m) Beam 7ft 11in Draught 6ft 2in Disp 5.2 tonnes Sail Area 715 sqft Lying UK, Asking E300,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

“The number of surviving vessels from George Lennox Watson’s lifetime (1851-1904) can be counted on a careless carpenter’s fingers,” as broker Iain MacAllister, who was also project manager behind Peggy ’s refit, puts it. “Long gone are his huge America’s Cup challengers and ‘Big Class’ racing yachts, and only two of the fleet of palatial steam yachts from his Glasgow drawing boards are known to survive. It is left to Peggy Bawn to carry the flame for Watson’s ground-breaking mid-1890s work in setting the standard for moderation in sailing yacht design, work that has never been challenged; only endorsed by those who followed his lead through the 20th century, especially Olin Stephens, who was a self-confessed Watson fan.”

“Peggy Bawn ’s gilded fiddle bow was anachronistic even in 1894, partly a past fad, partly practical, undoubtedly beautiful – an interim stage in the development of extending immersed waterlines for faster sailing when heeled with a more buoyant hull. But it conceals the fact that when her award-winning restoration team began assessing what they’d found in a County Waterford hay barn in 2003, they quickly realised that the numbers were a scaled-down version of Watson’s famous royal racing cutter Britannia launched just the year before Peggy Bawn in 1893. Her name gave rise to the so-called “Britannia Ideal”, considered the epitome of sea kindliness. Peggy Bawn ‘s present owner can vouch for that after 14 seasons of racing and cruising her in northern and Mediterranean Europe, and the east coast of the USA.”

After a lifetime of mostly light use, Peggy Bawn was bought by her current owner, the Irish sailor and yacht historian Hal Sisk, in the winter of 2002/3 for restoration and formed a dream team made up of project manager Iain McAllister, who had known Peggy since the early 80s, boatbuilder Michael Kennedy, the late naval architect Theo Rye and marine engineer Harry Hannon. The two-year rebuild started in April 2003 in a workshop in Ireland’s County Waterford. At the end, Peggy Bawn emerged as a completely new hull and deck atop the original lead keel. Internally, about 90 per cent of the yacht is still original, as are other visually important elements like the fore hatch, skylight, companionway hatch, cockpit seating, tiller, rudder head and most of the rig. Since restoration she has continued to be professionally maintained. This has included replacement of the batteries powering her motor in 2019, reducing battery weight by a third, with the result that the yacht sits on her true waterline again. Back in 2005, she featured on the cover of Classic Boat and in nine successive issues outlining the restoration process, and on the cover of WoodenBoat. Today she is competitive under CIM and Baltic Racing Rules.

The custom-built articulated king-pin trailer, incorporating a removeable cradle, was made in 2007 by leading German boat trailer specialist Harbeck. It’s very much part of the package and adds several dimensions to her security, in transit and in storage, and makes her suitable for attending events worldwide. The trailer allows roll-on roll-off transportation, avoiding the dreaded crane dangle, and includes a Brenderup Cargo box trailer under the stern overhang, giving as a secure, dry store in transit, especially for her cotton sails. Peggy Bawn winters on her own substantial cradle which is incorporated into the trailer but removable. 

“It is apparent that Watson was already fully in control of all the aspects of hull design that later designers would come to regard as important,” said project naval architect Theo Rye. “Engineless for much of her life, this fairly generous sail plan allows her to make progress in just about any conditions; it is really only the most complex of marina berths that prompts use of her electric motor these days. Her prismatic coefficient, an indicator of her distribution of underwater body, is 0.53, pretty well exactly where most textbooks would place it; it is a sweet-spot for low-resistance at the usual speeds of a displacement hull. Olin Stephens came to regard the prismatic as probably the most important single factor in hull design; some 40 years before, it is pretty clear that Watson already understood that fact. In fact, the more you go into Peggy Bawn’s hydrostatics, the more she seems to sit in a sweet spot, often hitting ‘ideals’ set in textbooks many years if not decades after Watson’s untimely death. Mr Watson, we salute you.”

Design and build Wm Fife III, 1931 LOD 107ft 7in (32.8m) Beam 20ft 6in (6.23m) Draught 13ft 9in (4.2m) Disp 155 tonnes Aux Gardner 6LXDT 275hp turbo diesel Lying Spain, Asking E6.5 million, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

By 1930, Fife III had reached the age of 70 and the world was in its first great financial crisis. These are hardly the most conducive elements to receiving instruction for a 107ft schooner, but it didn’t stop a 45-year-old retired cavalry officer called Captain Guy Hardy MacCaw from placing the order, and Altair was launched the year after from the Fife yard. His desire, recorded for posterity in a letter to William Fife that is on board, was for a boat “capable of sailing to the South Sea Islands with no anxiety.” He held onto the boat for just two years and never reached those islands. Fast forward to 1985 and the Swiss inventor, businessman and car collector Albert Obrist, known for his purist Ferrari collection, was on a charter aboard the Fife ketch Belle Aventure in Sardinian in the mid-180s. Captain Paul Goss had Fife evangelists Donn Costanzo and Jeffrey Law in his crew, all three of whom knew that Altair was by that point, available for restoration. 

After an epic voyage from Barcelona to Southampton that revealed much of what Altair urgently needed, she hauled out at Shamrock Quay for a major 18-month restoration led by Captain Paul Goss that set a new bar in authenticity carefully married to keeping Altair practical and comfortable by modern standards.

After re-launch in the summer of 1987 Altair ‘s life changed forever, with a sailing programme far removed from her gentle first half century, but nothing more than William Fife designed and built her for. Apart from, of course, looking like new, the most noticeable feature was her suit of “Altair Cream” Dacron sails by her original sailmakers, Ratsey & Lapthorn of Cowes – made to look like the original cotton suit. She became a regular at the growing number of Classic yacht regattas on both North Atlantic coasts.

In 1993 ALTAIR returned to Spanish ownership with highly successful businessman Alberto Cortina. Through the mid to late 1990s she gained a reputation as an incredibly efficient sailing machine, with Mediterranean duels against the Alfred Mylne ketch THENDARA and the Herreshoff gaff schooner MARIETTE becoming the stuff of legend.

Under later ownership, and a major refit at Fairlie Restorations in 2008, she carried on winning, and her bullets include the 2008 Fife Regatta, countless wins at the Mediterranean and Caribbean classic events, even the 2015 Panerai Transat Classique – on line honours and corrected time, covering the 3,000 miles from Lanzarote to Fort de France in Martinique in 13 days 3 hours and 13 minutes, at an average of 8.8 knots. During the past seven years she finally accomplished Guy MacCaw’s dream, sailing all the way down to New Zealand. New Zealand’s strict handling of the Covid pandemic put paid to further voyaging, and she was shipped back to Europe in 2022.

“The original French-polished walnut interior of Altair is considered one of the most beautiful and authentic in any yacht,” says the broker. Much of it has been recently refinished, and below this lustre is every comfort you might expect aboard a modern superyacht. Altair offers accommodation for eight guests in five cabins, and accommodation for eight crew. She’ll win races and concours, turn heads, or take you around the world. She’s long been the favourite yacht of broker Barney Sandeman who put it: “ Altair is the ultimate vintage yacht – and surely one of the world’s most beautiful works of mind and hand.”

In the market for a wooden boat? Here’s some more classic boats for sale …

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