SAIL ON, SAOIRSE

Now in her 10th decade, this little boat has defied the odds to remain afloat and in commission

NIGEL SHARP

In 1933, T Harrison Butler – the professional eye surgeon and amateur yacht designer – entered a design competition organised by The Little Ship Club. His entry was a 25ft 6in (7.7m) Bermudan cutter, the first of which was built in Hull the following year and named Bogle (after Butler’s daughter-in-law, the actress Joan Bogle Hickson who subsequently found fame playing Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple). Two years later, another boat to this design, but this time a Bermudan sloop, was built in pitch pine on oak by RJ Prior in Burnham-on-Crouch and was named Myfanwy. She had a Stuart Turner 2-cylinder petrol engine and The Yachtsman reported that she “represents a compromise for a 6-tonner on a fifty-thirty basis, the thirty per cent belonging to the engine. She is a…

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Classic Boat (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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