I'm pleased with the progress of this blog so far. It's heading for 700 pageviews and I've had a number of encouraging messages.
I'm really keen to gather all available information about the history not only of the Islanders, but also of our boat-building tradition in the West and of the yacht racing that took place around the Clyde. There was a great deal of interest in the latter, with the races being regularly written up in the Herald and Scotsman and the yachts being featured in postcards such as the above.
Perhaps the tradition of different hull colours facilitated a bit of gambling on the results. It would be fun to know.
In the meantime I've discovered that of the first five boats, numbers 1 and 2, Westra and Cara, opted to have no engines, while Bernera, Stroma and Sanda had Watermotas.
The sailing season started formally on Friday 24 May 1929, but only Westra, Cara and Bernera were ready, so it was decided to postpone the inauguration of the Class. On Saturday 1st June these three went ahead regardless, at the Royal Gourock, as the others were still not ready.
I've also come across a copy of the new Constitution and Rules that were adopted in 1999, so here they are:-
These rules were intended to be sufficiently flexible to encourage the construction of new boats in the Class, while preserving the main things that matter. So far only the indefatigable Martyn has risen to the challenge and the result is his beautiful Shona, engineered and built by Richard Pierce. Richard still has his drawings and calculations, should anyone be interested.
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