Sails of Dawn

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Sails Of Dawn is a bermuda yawl-rigged ocean racing and cruising yacht, one of the last boats that the designer, John Laurent Giles, saw launched before his death in 1969.[1][2] The wooden-hulled yacht was built, to both Lloyd's Register and Royal Ocean Racing Club certification, by McGruer & Co Ltd in their yard at Clynder on Gare Loch, Argyll and Bute, Scotland as Yard No.625.[1][3] The price was £UK 48,000 plus 8% design fees to Laurent Giles.[4]

The yacht had an length of 57.0 feet (17.4 m) feet overall and 40.0 feet (12.2 m) at the waterline, a beam of 13.5 feet (4.1 m) and depth of hull 7.0 feet (2.1 m), and measured 26 GRT.[3] On completion in 1969, Sails of Dawn was registered at Greenock, with British Official Number 334314.[5]

The yacht was built for David Morell, then chairman of Mitchell Construction, Peterborough, UK.[3] Following his retirement from his chartered surveyor career in 1975, he made a year-long cruise with Sails of Dawn to New Zealand.[6] After Morell's death in 2007, Sails of Dawn remained out of use, until sold in 2015 to David Kirkby and restoration was begun.[3][7] Resold in July 2019, restoration is continuing on Manoel Island, Malta.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "McGruer & Co Ltd - Design and Build Register" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  2. ^ "Sails of Dawn". Scottish Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Sails of Dawn". London: National Historic Ships UK. Archived from the original on 15 June 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  4. ^ Yachting Monthly, February 1970 issue, page 90
  5. ^ Lloyd's Register of Yachts. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1974.
  6. ^ "How the Sheriff came to head off the pirates". Rutland & Stamford Mercury. No. 13787. Stamford. 18 March 1977. p. 36. Retrieved 14 July 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ Morrell, Paul (19 January 2007). "David Morrell". Building. London: Assemble Media Group. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2022.