John E. Powell 37 ft Motor Yacht 1956 - Sold

In MARY ISLAY, John E. Powell - Aeromarine’s highly proficient in-house yacht designer who would subsequently become better known as an alloy spar maker - perfected a highly attractive and purposeful fusion of workboat type with yacht styling and construction standards. Dubbed a “fishing yacht” on launch, this teak wonder achieves a whole lot in her overall length, with well thought-out space above and below for cruising and pottering by family and friends. Sensibly and economically powered by a trusty Gardner 4LW, and given more than just deserts professionally in current ownership, MARY ISLAY is a very special love affair waiting to happen.

Having been laid-up on a spring tide mooring at St Helier from 2006, she was shipped on a 40ft platform unit from Jersey to Poole in August 2016. Towed to Traditional Shipwright Services, Poole, she was hauled into their shed and engine removed. She was given a through clean and most fittings, shaft, tube and rudder assembly removed. Over the next 2 years, steady work was done around regular customer operations.

The main hull structural work included a new oak inner stern knee. Other work included replacing a section port and starboard of the main aft deck stringer/shelf at the fo'c'sle step. Sections of the main cabin and wheelhouse roofs were replaced and new epoxied cloth covers fitted. The engine room roof and mast step beam were replaced with new. Oak fenders each side replaced and new brass strip added.

New stainless steel fuel tanks and pipework were fitted and some engine room insulation replaced. The engine wiring loom, instrument panel, switchboards and all electrical wiring replaced and new LED lighting fitted to original brass fittings. All seacocks removed, re-seated, new bolts, new toilet pipework, sink drains, bilge pump hoses and new pumps fitted. A new exhaust pipe, watertrap, u-bend and outlet were also fitted.

Surveyor inspected all hull planking and fastenings and except for 5 bronze screws, which were replaced, all found in good order. Hull and houses stripped back to bare wood, houses epoxy coated and re-varnished. Hull re-stoppered, primed, undercoated, antifouled and topsides finished. About 100 bronze deck screws were removed, holes re-countersunk, refitted and re-plugged. RNLI Scuppers were removed, overhauled and refitted. The mast had new internal aerial & electric cables fitted.

In 2019 the mast was re-varnished and new SS standing rigging fitted. In 2020 a new starboard beaching leg was made and fitted.

MARY ISLAY was launched in early 1957 for aviator, merchant banker and eventual airline industry executive Sir Giles Guthrie, Bt., and named after his mother. He had been an RAF fighter pilot in WWII and would become a board member of British European Airways (BEA) and chairman and chief executive British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), predecessors of British Airways. Guthrie moored MARY ISLAY on the main channel moorings of the Hamble River off the Royal Southern YC & The Bugle pub. Yachting Monthly magazine covered her build and first year in Dec 1956 and March 1958, and she appeared in their 1957 Annual. In 1962 Guthrie sold her when he became chairman of BOAC and she was then based on the Beaulieu River. Subsequent owners kept her in Northumberland, then on the River Thames at Datchet. She was fitted with beaching legs and davits at Cowes on her way to Jersey in 1986 to be based at St Aubin. The present owner purchased her in 1992, with her longest voyage being to the 'Brest 96 & Douarnenez traditional boat festivals. Regular shorter runs are mainly to local bays, Les Minquiers, and Île de Bréhat in Brittany.

- Originally built to Lloyds 100A1
- Carvel 1¼ in teak on oak frames and rock elm timbers
- Bronze and copper fastened
- Oak centreline
- 1½ Tonne lead keel
- 1 in / 25 mm Teak deck
- Teak superstructure with western red cedar roofs
- Semi-balanced wooden rudder

FROM AFT
- 2 x rubbing strakes port and starboard
- Open aft deck; stepped foredeck
- 100mm Bulwark; raw teak broad capping
- 550mm stanchions with guard wires; stainless steel pulpit
- 3 x Bronze 1950s RNLI-type NR scupper drains port and starboard
- Opening/ locking RNLI-style taffrail mooring fairleads port and starboard
- Midships open taffrail mooring fairlead
- Fixed aft spring mooring fairleads at rail port and starboard
- Quarter lockers port and starboard: exhaust u-bend, shore power socket; stowage
- 1 x Pair galvanized steel tube davits
- Steering flat hatch aft deck aft
- Shaft and gland access hatch aft deck fwd
- Aft trunk cabin over engine room
- 1 x Fixed port light port and starboard
- 2 x Revon Bronze vent cowls
- Midships outlet cowl vent
- Stowage chocks for liferaft
- Lift off painted roof for engine access
- Wheelhouse at step to foredeck
- Sliding doors access port and starboard
- Steps lockers port and starboard house for Camping Gaz cylinders
- 2 x Revon Bronze vent cowls
- Radome
- Grab rails port and starboard
- Running lights port and starboard
- Fwd trunk cabin over saloon and part of forecabin
- Painted roof
- Grab rails port and starboard
- Varnished teak Butterfly hatch over saloon
- Stainless steel diesel heater flue
- 2 x Revon Bronze vent cowls
- Varnished teak forehatch over forecabin; bronze portlight
- 5 x Fixed port lights port and starboard
- Closed fwd spring mooring fairleads at rail port and starboard
- Original Simpson-Lawrence, manual pump action, SL500 windlass
- Completely overhauled at refit from best parts of 2 units (2018)
- New plinth pad with new fastenings (2018)
- 20kg Danforth type anchor chocked on foredeck
- 65m 10mm galvanised anchor chain
- Spare Fisherman anchor with 20m of chain and 50m x 18mm rope
- Stowed under the port saloon berth
- Anchor chain snubber
- Closed headline mooring fairleads port and starboard
- Galvanised bow roller in bulwark with pin and pawl

BERTHS FOR 4 IN 2 CABINS

WHEELHOUSE
- Traditional ship’s wheel to port
- Hinged companionway hatch to fwd accommodation to starboard
- Closed companionway hatch forms folded Admiralty chart table
- Chart stowage in wheelhouse roof





DOWN FORWARD TO GALLEY PORT AND STARBOARD
To starboard
- Fridge box with cooler plate and remote compressor (2018)
- Plastimo Atlantic 2-burner hob with grill and oven (2018)
- Cover over hob
To port
- Stainless steel sink
- Work area
- China and utensil stowage
- Lockers under
- White/ red LED lights
- Food locker aft doubles as electrical/ electronics/ steering gear locker

FORWARD TO SALOON
- Settee/ berths port and starboard
- Stowage behind backrests and below
- Lockers and shelves outboard
- Drop leaf table
- Blakes-Taylors 079D drip feed diesel heater fwd to port
- Supplied by an SU electric pump from port main fuel tank
- 2 x Brass reading lamps
- 1 x LED lantern

FORWARD TO WALK THROUGH WC COMPARTMENT
- Fore and aft doors close off compartment
- Blakes Lavac sea toilet to port
- Slide in/out china washbasin with hot and cold fresh water
- Hanging locker and drawer to starboard

FORWARD TO FORECABIN
- V-berths port and starboard
- Slots for fill in panels to make double berth
- Drawers under
- Open boot locker forward
- Access to chain locker
- LED lamp above
- 2 x Brass reading lamps

MECHANICAL
- Gardner 4LW Diesel engine (1964 – rebuilt 2006 and 2017)
- 62 hp @ 1500 RPM
- PRM 500 Gearbox
- Flexible drive to 2 in/ 50mm Stainless steel propeller shaft
- Twinflex Layrub joints with intermediate shaft
- Timken thrust block with roller bearings
- Bronze, oil lubricated shaft tube
- Traditional packing gland inboard
- 27 in 3-bladed bronze propeller
- Bronze steering fittings – cable steering

ELECTRICAL
- 24 V System (2018)
- 4 x Rolls 6FS-220FS lead acid house batteries
- 2 x Yuasa 12V, 115Ah, 1000A engine start batteries
- Electrical panel in wheelhouse
- Prestolite Leece-Neville 8LHA 24 Volt 45/75 Amp alternator
- Original engine dynamo drive by a 1” toothed flexible belt
- CTek 4A Multi XT4000 and 14A MultiXT14000 smart battery chargers
- 2nd 240V feed supplies a 13A socket and switch for immersion
- 24 & 12 Volt supply panel stbd side of wheelhouse engine instrument panel
- High temp. engine exhaust alarm; engine and gearbox temp. and pressure gauges/alarms
- ISSPRO tachometer (0-2000 rpm) run by electric pulses off the alternator.

TANKAGE
Fuel
- Stainless steel fuel tanks port and starboard of engine (2018)
- Capacity c 300 litres each
- 2 x Separ 2000 primary fuel filters
Fresh water
- Stainless steel 240 Litre tank under wheelhouse
- Fresh water pump to galley and WC
- Isotherm calorifier and immersion heater
Salt water
- Deck wash pump with hose connection

NAVIGATION
- Stowe Dataline-X log and echo sounder
- Analogue meters above the wheelhouse windows
- 24 V Belt-driven Kent Clearview screens port and starboard
- Plastimo Offshore 135 steering compass in brass binnacle
- Emergency binnacle oil lamp
- Analogue readout for KVH electronic compass
- Garmin GPSmap 10” chartplotter screen unit
- NMEA2000 system
- Garmin 18HD 4kw Raydome on hinged Scanstrut tower
- Garmin GPS 19X antenna on wheelhouse roof mast
- Garmin Airmar B744 Triducer log/echosounder
- Digital Yacht ‘AIS 100’ AIS receiver
- Navico Wheelpilot WP5000; toothed belt drive to steering wheel
- Controller/compass unit at extreme stbd side of the Instrument/switch panel

COMMUNICATIONS
- ICOM DSC IC-M232G VHF transceiver
- Changeable aerial leads to a masthead or roof 6 ft whip (used for AIS)

RIG
- Silver spruce mast and boom
- Original galvanised fittings
- Mast is tabernacle stepped and can be lowered forward
- Portable galvanised steel crutch at pulpit
- Mast re-glued (1987)
- 2 x Bronze halyard winches

SAILS
- Provision for a 107 sq ft / 10 sq “Mizzen” (sail not in inventory)
- Boom sheets port and starboard cleated outside wheelhouse doors
- 277 sq ft Genoa
- Sheets to bronze winches port and starboard on aft trunk cabin

- RFD 4-person canister ‘Seasaver Plus’ liferaft (1997)
- Oceansignal’ RescueME EPIRB1 in wheelhouse (2018)
- Electronic Distress Flare EDF1 (2018).
- 20m throw-line bag
- KIM MOB rescue sling
- 2 x Horseshoe lifebuoys, one with Light and flag buoy
- A set of distress flares in a waterproof
- 1 L water mist fire extinguisher in forecabin
- 1L foam fire extinguisher amidships
- 3 L water mist fire extinguisher at companionway
- ‘SeaFire’ FD175A FM200 auto fire extinguishing unit in engine room
- Auto electric bilge pumps in forecabin, engine room (manual switch) and shaft gland
- Manual bilge pump is fitted in engine room
- Emergency steering galvanized steel tiller stowed in steering flat

- Beaching legs
- Selection of engine consumables spares in a toolbox
- Tools in toolboxes
- 8 x Fenders
- Various mooring and other lines mostly in plastic crates
- Hella rubberised portable hand searchlight

Under power: Nigel Sharp