aptitude for boat design and was apprenticed to George Watson, later working at Herreshoff in the US, then Sparkman & Stephens. David became a specialist in tropical hardwoods, Alec managed the slipway, Jessie ran the clerical side, and during the war, a good number of women worked in the boatyard at all jobs. Work was instantly challenging: George Watson’s 56ft (17.1m) twin screw motoryacht Ottawa was one of the first boats built at the new premises, followed by another Watson commission. The Admiralty placed orders for cutters, whalers and gigs as the First World War approached, and steam and motor launches were also built during the war.


HOLLOW SPAR TECHNOLOGY But perhaps McGruer’s biggest contribution to boat design was a development in hollow spars made by Ewing Jr. In his twenties, he noticed that the planks of wood cut with end grain at 45˚ to each face, somewhere between quarter-sawn and half-sawn, were “flexible, stable but not rigid, elastic in the direction of the width, and shrinkage shakes are absent”. This neutral grain, Ewing explained in his fascinating little book, Engineering in W


ood, uses the strength of the annular


rings and the radial tissues. By sawing a piece of clear Sitka spruce this way, it can be bent around a hot metal core, swelling the other side with water, and then rolled


CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012 43


Above: Tomis was built for the Romanian Communist Emil Bodnaras, who kept her at the port of Constantza on the Black Sea Right: McGruer barges on the Royal Yacht Britannia Below right: McGruer stand at the Kelvin Hall Boat Show, Glasgow early 1900s


C/O FRASER NOBLE


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