Cruiser for the Clyde” read the Yachting World headline in September 1937, and yet this is a boat that has proved to be so much more than that. Islander was designed by GL Watson and Co and built by Messrs AM Dickie and Co at Tarbert, Loch Fyne in 1937. George Lennox Watson himself had died in 1904 so the company’s senior designer James Rennie Barnett would have had overall responsibility for her design. She was built with teak planking on American oak frames, and had a 15hp paraffin engine and Pygmylyte lighting.
Her first owner was Archibald J Barr of Kilmacolm. He and his family had previously had a 1934 Silver-built 49ft (15m) twin screw ketch of the same name, but this was changed to when she was put up for sale. The new was described by The Yachtsman as “a wholesome ketch built for comfortable cruising…The appearance of the yacht is pleasing, and gives an idea of a staunch ship, easy on the helm, and handy,” while a Yachting World correspondent reported
