Seonaid
Seonaid (formerly known as Seaquin) was built in 1962. The Clyde Cruising Club journal published at least two logs of cruises in Seaquin. The first, reproduced below, is a log of 12 days cruising the west coast of Scotland, and judging by the account it seems that the west coast of Scotland may experience a certain amount of rain and wind. Pictured to the right in 1964.
The second of Seaquin’s logs report the captain and crew daring to steer their ship through the silence of a Stornoway Sabbath. Possibly it was this sacrilege that brought an end to the run of sunshine - or as the skipper reports, ‘oh, how it rained’. For the benefit of non-Scots readers, ‘dreich’ - as in ‘Coll looked pretty dreich’ - is an old Scots word meaning dull, overcast, and drizzly. A word that probably gets quite a lot of use in Scotland.
Seonaid is now in the ownership of Evander Macrae of Kyleakin, Isle of Skye.
Evander writes, "I purchased Seonaid in 1991 from the late Patrick Crichton of Dumfries, who was the third owner of Seonaid,’ writes Evander Macrae on the Isle of Skye. ‘She was originally called Seaquin, but the name was changed by the second owner to Seonaid, as it is the Gaelic for Janet, his wife’s name. Seonaid was cutter-rigged when I purchased her (I believe this modification was completed by Patrick Crichton who had installed a three foot bowsprit), but following some very rough experimentation by ourselves, we felt performance was not an issue rigged without the bowsprit - in fact, believe she is better balanced now than she ever was. In the late 1990s I painted her in her current Britannia Blue colour scheme, following years of varnishing. In 2007, I removed Seonaid’s second engine [a Volvo 2002] and installed a 13 hp two-cylinder fresh water cooled Beta driving a new 'Darglow' three-bladed feathering prop. This reduced weight from aft and the reduction in drag from the previous fixed prop really upped Seonaid's performance. In 2008, following the failure of original mast (due to internal rot above spreaders) and difficulty in sourcing a replacement wooden mast, I took the difficult decision to fit the current tin mast. I did however specify an increase in mast height of 12 inches, which is why in some photos the main looks so short in the luff".
Under sail...
