This week there is a gathering of 20 strong fleet of 'fast and bonnie' wooden sailing yachts. They were built by Fife boat builders of Fairlie, on the River Clyde, for the people who became wealthy from Britain's industrial revolution at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was third generation, William Fife, who built these and other larger elegant yachts, for example, Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock I and Shamrock III.
Today they raced up the Clyde from Largs to Rhu. I went down to Rhu Marina to see them arrive where they will be laying over in Rhu Marina tomorrow.
The weather is definitely of the damp variety; the photos show the misty, mosity atmosphere. Hopefully tomorrow I will learn the names of the yachts. (Even when up close the names are on the under side of the counter stern.) Then on Tuesday we are going out in Seol na Mara to follow the fleet on their race from Rhu to Rothesay.
This lovely yacht, Mariquita, built in 1911, arrived along with the rain. She is 19 metres (96 feet) long and the length over the water line is 66 feet. Beam is 17 feet. Draft 11.8 feet.
No life lines along the deck. Phew! I sure wouldn't want to cross the Atlantic in this type of boat!
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