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McGRUER


beat Sonoma on her first outing. A 12ft (3.7m) dinghy was built for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to learn to row at Balmoral Castle. A new slipway was built to launch Watson’s 68ft (20.7m) motor yacht Oronsay. Ewing’s 1924 ‘otter keel’ prototype was tested on a canoe and then a Gareloch, marking the beginnings of a wing keel. He also developed a hollow, unstayed mast tapering up from a base of 2ft 6in with a lattice wing structure that supported twin aerofoil sails. He installed a wheel below decks that turned to heel the mast to the optimum position for sailing with the twin sails together, or to square off the mast with the wings spread either side for downwind sailing. He also constructed a rigid cell foam boat and considered sandwich construction. Rona Fleming, one of the McGruer grandchildren, remembers this period with delight. “Great Uncle Ewing had a huge kapok dinghy built – it must have been 20ft long with six rowing benches – and he recruited all us wee uns to row him around the anchorage. We were a sight to see, as the boat was like a giant pram dinghy painted a light blue; all of us youngsters straining at the oars (McGruer hollow oars), with Uncle Ewing standing proudly in the stern with his steering scull and the saltire on the ensign staff behind him.”


James returned from the US in 1936 and designed some very successful 6-Metres. He forged a reputation for fast one-designs and cruisers using top materials and


craftsmanship. His 1939 Six, Johan, represented Britain in the 1948 Olympics, and for 20 years he was involved with the Games, becoming Chairman of the Jury of the Measurements Committee.


Ewing used laminates, multi-skin and cold-moulded techniques as soon as the glues became available, having worked again for the Admiralty during the Second World War, and McGruer won a reputation for being at the forefront of research in timber construction. Ewing also introduced the Dragon, which had never been built outside Norway. McGruer built 44 of them, and Johan Anker told his son to ensure British builders paid no royalty in thanks for the help that British seamen were giving Norway during the war. McGruer was also building Motor Torpedo Boats, one with an experimental semi-hydrofoil hull, as well as 72ft (22m) Harbour Defence Motor Launches, and other boats. One hundred women were bussed there each day to help, a dozen of them becoming boatbuilders for those years.


CRUISER-RACER DEVELOPMENT After the war, racing boats became high-cost and stripped-out. James McGruer tried to develop a boat that could both race around the cans and take the family sailing, helping to formulate the International Cruiser- Racer Rule. His 8-Metres did not become an Olympic class, but he did build some very fine boats, such as


CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012 45


Top left: 6-Metre Kim racing off Cloch with James McGruer at the helm Top right: Gareloch Class including Thalia, Juno, Teal and Luna Above left: RIIS I Above right: Gigi of Clynder, built in 1958


C/O FRASER NOBLE


CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: C/O FRASER NOBLE, KATHY MANSFIELD, GORDON DRYSDALE


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