Yacht Glengour 1934
Glengour has delighted many during her first 9 decades afloat.
GLENGOUR OWNERS
​1934 Douglas Fulton, Yarn Merchant
1936 Cuthbert Grasemann, Southern Railway Officer
1948 John Aherne-Heron, Aeronautical Engineer
1952 Robert Whyte Blackwood, Woollen Yarn Manufacturer
1955 Henry Bowen, Company Director
1958 Margaret Bergius Cowan
1992 Barbara Ruffel
2001 Robert McCafferty, Shipwright & Raychel Cameron, Solicitor
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Finding Articles Galore on the Famous Glengour !
Admirers have put pen to paper over many decades and it's no surprise to find Glengour cropping up in magazines and books. They provide some historic glimpses of Glengour:
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​Enticing Uffa Fox sailing in the early 1930's to become Chapter 22 of his renowned 340 page bunkside companion of favourite vessels, published in 1937.
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Providing adventures for a family of 6 and a sea-going labrador in the 1960's. Captured in three cruising logs in Yachting Monthly, with dramatic illustrations by the highly rated marine artist Winston Megoran.
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Becoming, in 1992, a 'dream little ship' for the American author of "Thirty Classic Boat Designs - The Best of the Good Boats".
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Sailing across the front cover of the prestigious Classic Boat Magazine in November 2010 for their Cover Story "The Famous Glengour - a famous motor-sailer loved by Uffa Fox, among others..."
RESEARCH AND RESTORATION The Famous Glengour
CB No.269 pages 16 - 20
UFFA FOX was No.1 fan featuring Glengour as Chapter 22 of his prestigious 4th volume - Racing Cruising & Design in 1937
As a highly celebrated and successful naval architect and yacht designer, Uffa Fox favoured a positive approach to life, teaching by avoiding the bitter way (taking bad examples and pointing out the faults). As he compiled his book of vessels of note, he preferred the better way - taking perfect examples and pointing out the perfection for people to admire and love.
"Glengour is a remarkable little ship; her owner and his wife can, and do, handle her alone, their cruising taking them into small harbours where even such a short vessel has to turn in her own length. Though she is a full-powered motor boat she is also very able under sail, and strangely enough is as fast as a 23-ton Bristol Pilot Cutter to windward in a good breeze, all of which we wonder at until we look at her lines - the result of a great deal of thought - her designer has given her a remarkably clean under water bottom."
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"The sails are easily set, stowed and handled, for her mainsail is only 377 sq. feet in area. Her total area of 671 sq. ft. enables her to sail so well on all points of sailing that we are amazed until we see her out of the water, for one seldom suspects that power craft have underwater lines so suitable for sailing, and there is no doubt McBryde has produced a wonderful little vessel in Glengour."
" I can place my hand on my heart and say I would love to own any one of the vessels in this book."
UFFA FOX - 1937
p. 148 pictures Glengour in Loch Keills, south of Tayvallich on the West Coast of Scotland.
​UPDATE: Uffa would have approved of a recent improvement to Glengour's underwater profile - two new feathering propellors. Details on the [Updates] Tab at the end.
In the [Sailing] Tab there's a short Video with a glimpse of Glengour at 90 being typically "amazing under sail...!"
Plans with Provenance Pop up !
Delighted to acquire from Uffa's nephew: Three ink on linen plans drawn for Uffa's renowned 1937 book featuring Glengour.
What about the War years for Glengour and her like?
We don't know how Glengour survived the War unscathed, presumably on the south coast with her second owner, Cuthbert Grasemann.
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Her "sister ship" DORCAS was reportedly near completion at Adam's Yard in Gourock, Scotland as they launched Glengour. Not quite a sister but nonetheless a McBryde design - Plate 12 - a motor-sailer version with a cut down sail area.
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During the War Dorcas was allegedly requisitioned by the Navy and painted grey from stem to stern. With a big gun bolted through a steel plate on the foredeck she patrolled the Clyde Estuary protecting the good folk of Glasgow. Seen decades later on the West Coast of Scotland she appears to have made a full recovery.
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Glengour affords a mention in the Royal Cruising Club Journal of 2002 in the obituary of her 3rd owner John Heron. An avid sailor, he worked with Frank Whittle on the revolutionary jet engine with a production process for turbine blades. In Roving Commissions 43 it is reported as one of his proud assertions that Glengour was the first British yacht to visit Honfleur in Normandy after the war.
YACHTING MONTHLY 1962 to 1964 - Bailey Cowan (and family)
In YACHTING MONTHLY in 1962 Bailey Cowan described Glengour romping from Falmouth to Scotland in 2 days 18 hours.
"Glengour was like a horse heading for the barn during the entire passage. She was on her best behaviour and might even have been accused of getting too skittish in one or two squalls off Wigtownshire."
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Two further Articles in 1964 narrate family holidays on West Coast: Shooting the notorious Gulf of Corryvreckan with its steep overfalls and roaring whirlpools. Anchoring in the awe-inspiring "Cauldron" below the Black Cuillin Mountains of the Isle of Skye. A daring climb to the summit merited a bottle of champagne - chilled over the side in a canvas bucket.
The family trawled for mackerel (salted and sun-cured on deck) and gathered cockles and clams for chowder. They telephoned to Mallaig for other provisions to come across to Canna for unloading amidst the excitement of the Saturday Island Steamer.
Roger C Taylor was a marine historian from across the Pond. In 1992 he wrote of Glengour as one of his '30 dream boats'.
Taylor liked to embark on a "dream cruise" and substituted a dream boat for a real boat in which he'd taken a real cruise. It was Maine, in October, so he turns to a vessel with the comfort of a wheelhouse. He imagined steaming past Fox Island at nearly 8 knots watching the sunset and lolling in Glengour's toasty warm wheelhouse in his shirt sleeves, enjoying all the loveliness through clear glass.
"Glengour's deckhouse adds to her looks, to my eye. It gives her a certain air of distinction. And there is something very different about a boat with a real wheelhouse. Standing and leaning in there looking out at the watery world through a glass window you get the definite feeling that you are involved with something that can be called a ship."
Roger C Taylor 1992
CLASSIC BOAT MAGAZINE
Snippets from 1993
A Big Splash in 2010
1993 saw Glengour make a wee appearance in Classic Boat's October Issue shortly after winning the Concours d'Elegance at Shotley Point Classics. She'd not long returned from a Classics Regatta in Holland. The owners had a trip round the Mull of Kintyre and through the Caledonian Canal, taking on Loch Ness on a reach, hitting a top speed of 10.7 knots. Not bad for a 12 and a half tonner, they reported!
In 2010 Glengour was back in the limelight sailing across the front cover of Classic Boat's November Issue of 2010 for an article on RESEARCH & RENOVATION.
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The owners give a flavour of their long-running renovation project with a successful mix of winters ashore in a big shed and summers still sailing on Scotland's West Coast.
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They recall an encounter in Rhu Marina with another world-renowned yacht surveyor, Ian Nicolson. It was a nostalgic visit aboard as his father used to survey Sunderland flying boats with McBryde as well as many classic yachts. Ian sometimes tagged along as a young lad. Familiar with McBryde's designs he enjoyed referring to Glengour as
"...Ah yes, the Famous one..."
After much work, the owners reflect that "As she sails gracefully into the future... one thing is certain - this grand old celebrity is destined to outlive us all."
"Great care was taken to preserve the 1930's ambiance of the saloon - an intimate cabin, shimmering in the glow of paraffin lamps with mahogany panelled bulkheads, crimson velvet settees and a mellow ivory deckhead."