SHADY SAILS
Named after a fictional Scottish village in the 1947 Broadway musical Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, the shapely steel yacht was drawn by the Dutch designer, Enricus Van de Stadt.
The story goes that a larger version of the design visited Auckland in the 1960s. Local menswear retailer, Brian Johnstone, fell in love with the yacht and commissioned a smaller sister ship to be built by Cable Price Ltd.
Building started in 1967 and two years later Brigadoon settled into the tide for the first time. The 13.4m hull was built in 5mm corten steel, an alloy developed for outdoors use, and weighed in at 15 tonnes, giving her a staunchness that would serve her well during the next notorious periods of her life.
Johnstone kept the boat briefly then sold her to an unknown buyer, who, in turn, resold her to Martin Johnstone (the son’s first owner) in 1975. And that was when things began to go wrong for the graceful yacht.
