G.L. Watson 73 ft Twin Screw Motor Yacht 1932

Most nonagenarian classic yachts have tales to tell, but few can match CHICO’s provenance, ownership history (she was one of Sir Malcolm Campbell’s BLUE BIRDs), wartime exploits and commemorations. As one of the Dunkirk Little Ships, in May 1940 CHICO was responsible for embarking and ferrying over 1300 troops from the beach. Since 2011 this characterful classic motor yacht has worked as a successful owner-operated MCA-coded Hebridean charter vessel with much repeat custom. As a private yacht CHICO can accommodate ten (two cabins as doubles) in five cabins, and on charter five to seven guests with skipper/engineer and chef/deckhand. CHICO offers the possibility to remain as she is – and has been since the 1940s – or restoration to her original profile with an impressive funnel. But could you really do without that delightful deck saloon?

- MCA Commercially Coded for Charter since 2011
- MCA Code Cat 2 (60 Miles from Safe Haven) for 10 persons

2021
By Noble of Girvan
- Localised re-planking
2016
At Corpach, Scotland
- Localised re-planking
1998
- Fitted with present reconditioned Gardner engines
1990s
- Much structural work and new deck

G.L. WATSON & CO. DESIGN NO. 551
J.N. MILLER & SONS YARD NO. 502
Launched Monday 28th November, 1932

In early July 1933, Sir Malcolm Campbell entered a twin screw motor yacht named FREBELLE III in the Royal Motor Yacht Club’s London to Rochester Race with an unusually modest (for him) declared speed of 8.75 knots, though she doesn’t seem to have started. The (pursuit) ‘Race’ was a feeder for the Club’s annual and delightfully loosely titled ‘London to Cowes Race’ - in 1933, actually from Rochester on the Medway to Poole, Dorset. FREBELLE III did start the main race on Saturday 8th July, by now renamed BLUE BIRD. She was one of 17 in an original entry of 22 to complete the sometimes lumpy course, taking 2nd place in the ‘Gold Cup Awards' and winning one of three cups for Best Log. This was Campbell’s third comfortable motor cruiser BLUE BIRD, but it’s a much bigger story.

FREBELLE III had been launched only seven months earlier at St. Monans in the Kingdom of Fife, the largest in a trio of fine and stoutly constructed motor yachts of that name designed by G.L. Watson & Co. and built by J.N. Miller & Sons between 1926 and 1932 for Newcastle resident retired marine engineer, merchant marine and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve captain, and model engineer, Frank Robinson Beavan. Then in his 50s and a lifelong bachelor, a large part of his funding must have been from his share of profits in his family’s highly successful retail drapers and ironmongers department store on Shields Road, Newcastle. The business was founded by Frank’s father, Frederick, and his mother was Isabelle: hence FREBELLE.

As always with Frank Beavan’s FREBELLEs, number three was launched very late in the year, on Monday 28th November 1932; perhaps summer builds came cheaper to a canny Geordie. After sea trials, she motored down the east coast to a berth for the winter at the (now Royal) Northumberland Yacht Club, Blyth.

But if Frank Beavan ever managed to enjoy his new FREBELLE, it was only to be briefly. The Yachtsman magazine of 23rd June 1933 reported the sale to Sir Malcolm Campbell; her former owner having been “obliged to part with her owing to his inability to secure mooring facilities convenient to his place of work.” In fact, Campbell had already collected FREBELLE III from Blyth on Sunday June 18th and sailed south with friends as crew.

Was it really the berth problem for Frank Beavan, or had such conspicuous consumption at the depth of the Great Depression succumbed to either personal or family pressure when turnover and profits would have been severely diminished in such an industrial place? We may never know.

In Martin Summers’s 1990 book ‘Bluebird: a dream of a boat in six acts’ based around his ownership of Campbell’s second BLUE BIRD motor yacht, he states that FREBELLE III had been offered for sale by her designers as broker “… at little more than £7000.” It’s interesting to compare that with her J.N. Miller & Sons build cost recorded in the archives of the Scottish Fisheries Museum as £2739 plus extras of £98 and 15 shillings.

Martin Summers wrote about the comparison with Campbell’s previous boat: “… it was the comparative opulence below which gave [him] the taste he was to express in his last motor yacht some six years later. BLUE BIRD (3) [now CHICO] had a superb arrangement of staterooms and cabins; spaciousness for both owner and crew… an elegant saloon, a well-equipped galley with coal-fired heating and a practical engine room with workbenches and a 240 V alternator.”

Campbell enjoyed BLUE BIRD (3) for at least two seasons before his record-breaking exploits allowed little time for her. At some point in 1935, ownership transferred to the Countess of Onslow, an early 20th Century sympathiser of the Suffrage movement. In the Countess’s ownership she remained BLUE BIRD.

In late 1939 she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport and by 28th December her Blyth registration had been cancelled. She was fitted with echo sounding equipment and Lewis machine guns at Camper & Nicholsons’s Gosport yard, renamed CHICO in January 1940, commissioned in March 1940 and based at Dover after a period at Brightlingsea.

At the end of May 1940, she was ordered to Dunkirk to assist in the evacuation, ferrying troops off the beaches to ships waiting offshore and then returning twice to bring exhausted men back to Dover. She saw further action with enemy aircraft in the Channel, including contributing to the shooting down of a Junkers bomber in May 1941. Later in the war she was part of the Medway Mine Watching Patrol at Chatham. After a period laid up at Mears Yard, Twickenham, CHICO was paid off in August 1946, but she may not have found a civilian owner until 1949.

It is believed this first post-war owner was Glasgow based by marriage New Zealander, Charles Tenison, but Lloyd’s Register of Yachts only recognises him from 1954 until his death in December 1959. At this time CHICO had a berth at Bowling Basin, Dunbartonshire, the western terminus of the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Subsequent ownerships were:

1960
Marine Security (Glasgow) Ltd.,
Home Port: Shandon, on the Gareloch

1963
F. Fowler, Birmingham
Home Port: Severn Motor Yacht Club, Worcester

1971
J.B. Christie & S.V. Wilkins, Poole
Home Port: Poole
- Chartered to Marconi Marine as a demonstration vessel for their marine products
- Thames to Baltic and back May to July
- Transited Kiel Canal and visited 12 Baltic ports
- including Stockholm, Helsinki and Leningrad

1972-1981
Commercial Yacht Charters Ltd.
Home Port: Poole

1981-1990
Maxwell Beresford Brown

1990-c1992
Phillip Goddard

c.1992-1997 Alexandra Naoumoff
- Attended the ADLS Dunkirk visit 1995

1997-2010
David Knight, Commodore ADLS 2003-2006
Thames
- Major refit 1997-1998
- Took her to Dunkirk in 2000
- Commodore ADLS 2003-2006

2010
Present ownership
- Successful and popular West Coast of Scotland charter vessel
- Much repeat business
- Regular Committee Vessel at 'West Highland Yachting Week'

©2025 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.
(with acknowledgement also to the writings of Martin Summers, the websites of CHICO and the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS), and the East Neuk Boatbuilders Facebook Page)

- Pitch pine underbody planking
- Pitch pine and European larch topsides planking
- on mixture of grown and sawn oak frames
- Copper clench & bronze/ stainless steel screw fastened
- Wood floors, believed to be oak
- Full length bilge stringers
- Copper sheathed underbody
- External iron ballast keel c. 3.5 tons
- c. 13 tons of internal secured lead ballast
- Traditional 1¾ in / 35 mm laid teak deck
- Teak and teak faced marine plywood superstructures

GENERAL
- Teak swept laid deck
- White painted scuppers
- Low iroko bulwarks
- Bulwarks varnished outside; painted inside
- Varnished iroko capping rail
- Stainless steel guardrail stanchions stop short of bow
- Varnished iroko rail
- Stainless steel mid guard rail

FROM AFT

AFT DECK
- Stainless steel ensign staff socket
- Closed bronze mooring fairlead on 'taffrail'
- Manual bilge pump
- Varnished raised hatch to steering flat; chromed ventilator
- Bronze emergency steering fitting
- Raised scuttle hatch to aft accommodation
- Raised skylight over aft accommodation; half-skylights incorporated to port
- Gas bottle stowage, drained overboard
- Bronze mooring fairleads at quarters port & starboard
- Large bronze mooring bollards at quarters port & starboard
- Varnished teak slatted dining table
- 4 x Folding chairs
At aft bulkhead of deckhouse
- Benches/ lockers port & starboard
- Servery part glazed double door to galley
- Bronze opening port to starboard
- Wind baffles port & starboard
- Stereo speaker port & starboard

PORT AND STARBOARD SIDE DECKS
- Closing access 'gates' in bulwark (lift out) and rail
- Large bronze spring lines mooring bollards

DECKHOUSE (FROM AFT)
- Galley windows to port & starboard aft
- Access door with glazed panel to galley port aft
- 4 x Saloon window as port and starboard
Roof
- Stainless steel mizzen mast tabernacle
- Mizzen mast rigging anchor points
- Raised butterfly skylight over galley
- Stainless steel engine room room vent cowls port & starboard

RAISED FORWARD PART OF DECKHOUSE INCL. WHEELHOUSE
- Saloon access door to starboard
- Wheelhouse and saloon access door to port
- 1 x Starboard window at fwd lower accommodation companionway
- 2 x Starboard windows at wheelhouse
- 1 x Starboard angled sliding window pane
- Windscreen with Einar Wellbach 'Seaview' clearview screen
Roof
- Flue for central heating and hot water boiler
- Port & starboard nav light boxes
- Chromed air horn
- Chromed searchlight
- Koden and Raymarine Quantum radomes
- Mizzen forestay/ main
- Sheet padeyes for foremast boom
- Brow over 3 x forward wheelhouse windows/ windscreen
- Bench/ stowage box forward, under windscreen

FOREDECK
- Raised butterfly skylight over double guest cabin
- Liferaft stowage point
- Fore (main) mast position; stainless steel tabernacle
- Ship's bell at leading edge
- Raised fore-scuttle; half-skylights incorporated to port
- Bronze aft angled springline fairleads port and starboard
- Large bronze mooring bollards port & starboard off centreline
- Lofrans Titan Windlass
- 2 x Chain gypsies; 1 x vertical warping drum
- Warping drum
- Port & Starboard hawsepipes
- Deck wash
- Davit for anchor ball
- Galvanised Panama mooring line fairleads through knightsheads
- Stainless steel stemhead fitting
- incorporating flag staff socket and forestay anchor point

GROUND TACKLE
- 1 x Sarca 60.5 kg bower anchor
- 100 m 12 mm Galvanised anchor chain
- 1 x Stockless anchor stowed at port hawesepipe
- 100 m 12 mm Galvanised anchor chain
- Chain stoppers

FROM AFT

GALLEY
- Doors to port, and to aft deck dining area
- Servery and passage forward to saloon
- Front opening fridge
- L- Counter top forward and starboard
- Inset 1.5 x bowls and drainer stainless steel sink
- Mixer tap
- Hotpoint Ultima gas cooker starboard aft
- 4-Burner hob with flame failure devices
- Oven
- Leaded glass dresser to port aft
- Many lockers, drawers and stowage racks
- Food mixer
- Toaster
- Deckhead lamps
- Butterfly skylight in deckhead
- Opening port starboard aft
- 2 x Windows to starboard

OTHER DOMESTIC EQUIPMENT
- Zanussi chest freezer lower deck aft
- LEC Elan A class fridge in lower deck utilities room
- Zanussi Aquacycle 1300 washing machine in utilities room

DECK SALOON
- L-Sofas to starboard
- Small sideboard to starboard
- Doors to side deck port and starboard forward
- Sideboard and 2 x armchairs to port
- Drop leaf table
- 3 x Large windows port and starboard; roller blinds
- Middle windows slide open vintage train carriage style
- Companionway to lower deck to starboard forward
- Tiled fireplace forward midships; electric heater
- Door to wheelhouse to port forward

WHEELHOUSE
- Entrance lobby to port
- Access from deck saloon and port side deck
- Upholstered banquette to port
- Shelf to port
- Traditional ship's wheel
- Swivel 'Captain's Chair'
- Foot rest
- Dash with engine controls and monitors
- Navigation displays
- Magnetic steering compass
- Einar Wellbach Seaview clearview screen
- L-Chart table to starboard
- Lockers and chart drawers under
- Bookshelves aft
- Radiator
- 6 x Windows incl windscreen
- 45° Windows port and starboard slide open railway carriage style
- Period bulkhead lamps port and starboard

WHEELED STAIRCASE DOWN FROM DECK SALOON TO PORT

FORWARD ACCOMMODATION

'NO. 2' DOUBLE GUEST CABIN TO PORT
WC, basin and shower adjacent to starboard - see below
- Light and airy with large portholes and a skylight
- Double berth
- 2 x Bulkhead reading lamps; brass with glass shades
- Chest of drawers with brass fiddles and drawer pulls
- Book rack
- Dressing table with mirror
- Chair
- Bulkhead lamp; brass with glass shade
- Large mirror
- Radiator
- Sole rug
- Large butterfly skylight in deckhead
- Deckhead lamp
- 3 x Chromed opening ports

'NO. 1' FULL BEAM EN-SUITE DOUBLE BERTH CABIN FORWARD
- Beautifully lit by skylight and portlights
- Accessed via a lobby passage forward to starboard of 'No.2' Double Guest Cabin
- 3 x Chromed opening ports in lobby passage; sole rug; bulkhead mirror
- Double athwartships berth
- Chest of drawers with brass fiddles and drawer pulls
- Large mirror
- Book rack
- Wardrobe
- Bulkhead mirror with small drawer to starboard
- 2 x Gimballed electric lamps
- Deckhead lamp
- 2 x Chromed opening ports
En-Suite Forward
- Electric flush sea toilet forward
- Towel rail
- Washbasin to port; hot and cold taps
- Shelf and mirror
- Radiator
- Deckhead lamp
- 2 x Small chromed opening ports
- Access panel to chain locker

MOVING AFT IN PASSAGE:

'NO. 2' DOUBLE GUEST CABIN WC SHOWER COMPARTMENT TO STARBOARD
- Walk-in shower with curtain
- Electric flush sea toilet
- Washbasin; hot and cold taps
- Mirror bulkhead cabinet over
- Radiator
- Deckhead lamp
- 2 x Chromed opening ports

'No. 3' TWIN BUNKS CABIN TO PORT
- Well-lit by 2 x large bronze opening ports
- Open shelving outboard aft
- Bunks outboard; stowage under lower bunk
- Bunk ladder
- 2 x Davey & Co brass, glass shade bulkhead reading lamps
- 2 x Bulkhead mirrors
- Chest of drawers with brass fiddles and drawer pulls
- Wardrobe
- Chair
- Sole rug

'No. 3' TWIN BUNKS CABIN WC SHOWER COMPARTMENT TO PORT
- Walk-in shower with curtain
- Electric flush sea toilet
- Washbasin; hot and cold taps
- 2 x Bulkhead mirrors
- Towel rails
- Radiator
- Deckhead lamp
- Chromed opening port

UTILITIES ROOM TO STARBOARD
- Front loading washing machine
- Fridge
- Inset stainless steel sink with drainer
- Hot and cod taps
- Lockers
- Top surface
- 2 x Small chromed opening ports
- Deckhead lamp

WALK-IN ACCESS TO ENGINE ROOM

AFT ACCOMMODATION - MOVING AFT
- Passage
- Deckhead light
- Ladder aft to aft deck companionway scuttle
- Chest freezer
- Radiator
- Mirror
- Reading lamp

TWIN BUNK CABIN TO PORT
- Bunks outboard
- 2 x Reading lamps
- Director's chair
- 2 x Bulkhead mirrors
- Sole rug
- Small chest of drawer with brass fiddle and drawer pulls
- Hanging locker
- 2 x Small chromed opening ports
- Deckhead lamp

TWIN BUNK CABIN TO STARBOARD
- Bunks outboard
- 2 x Reading lamps
- Director's chair
- 2 x Bulkhead mirrors
- Small chest of drawer with brass fiddle and drawer pulls
- Hanging locker
- 2 x Small bronze opening ports
- Deckhead lamp

STORE TO PORT
- Shelving and hanging
- 1 x Small chromed opening ports
- Semi skylight in deckhead

AFT WC COMPARTMENT TO PORT
- Electric flush sea toilet
- Washbasin; hot and cold taps
- 2 x Bulkhead mirrors
- Towel rail and shelf
- Radiator
- Deckhead lamp
- 1 x Small chromed opening port

- Exceptionally spacious walk-through engine room
- Work bench with vice to port outboard
- Work bench to starboard forward and stowage
- Benches and stowage shelving to starboard outboard and aft

MECHANICAL
- 2 x Gardner 6LXB diesels c120-150 hp each (reconditioned 1998)
- Both 6000 hours
- Consumption 10 L/ hour both running @ 7 knots
- Top speed 10 knots clean hull
- 2 x Stainless steel propeller shafts
- 2 x Bronze 3-Blade propellers

MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL
- Fischer Panda 8000i diesel generator (2017)
- 6000 hours
- Fischer Panda PMGi 8000 inverter

HYDRAULIC
- Wills Ridley steering

ELECTRICAL
- 12 V & 24 V DC / 220 V AC Systems
- 3 x Battery banks, domestic/ engine start
- Dedicated generator start battery
- Adverc battery management system
- AC System supplied by generator, inverters, and shore supply
- Sterling 600 W 2 A inverter/ battery charger
- Alphatronix PV12 24 V to 12 V inverter
- 2 x Victron Energy Phoenix charger inverters 24 V 3,000 VA 70 A

TANKAGE AND ASSOCIATED
Fuel
2 x Stainless steel tanks (2 x Stainless steel day tanks)
- 2 x 2,727 L / 600 Gal
- Electric and hand pump fuel transfer
Water
- 2 x 2,275 L / 500 Gal in 2 x stainless steel tanks
- Accumulator tank
- Pressure water system
Butane
- 32 lb bottle at aft deck, drained overboard

OTHER
- Firebird Olympic S oil fired hot water boiler

RIG
- Varnished Douglas fir spars
- Main mast with single spreader set and boom
- Boom tackles
- Mizzen masts
- Stainless steel standing rigging
- Generally 3-strand running rigging

CANVASWORK
- Blue acrylic aft deck canopy
- Stainless steel frame; wooden battens
- Blue acrylic dodgers at aft deck
- Blue acrylic overs for all deck skylights and hatches

NAVIGATION
- Magnetic steering compass
- Furuno GPS GP-32
- CEC-CM10D Colour Monitor with rear facing camera
- Laptop with SeaPro navigation software
- Raymarine Quantum stand alone radar
- Koden radar and Comar CSB200 AIS transponder
- integrated with SeaPro
- Navico Corus Depth, Speed, Compass
- ComNav 1101 Autopilot Controller
- ComNav Helm Indicator
- 2 x Chronometers
- 1 x Barometer

COMMUNICATIONS
- Navico Axis RT 1200 VHF Radio
- Raymarine Ray54E VHF DRC Radio

Lifesaving
- ADEC Marine 12-person canister liferaft
- MOB Sling, stowed aft deckhouse roof
- 2 x U-lifebuoys port (with light) & starboard aft

Bilge Pumping
- Auto electric aft bilge
- Auto electric engine room bilge
- Auto electric forward bilge
- Electric scavenge pump working through a manifold to drain the 3 bilges
- Hand pump on deck for all bilge spaces

Fire fighting
- Sea-Fire suppression system in engine room
- Smoke detectors in engine room
- Bluetooth connected to detectors in accommodation and wheelhouse
- Portable extinguishers throughout boat
- Fire blanket at galley

Other
- Port, starboard, stern and steaming lights
- Radar reflector at mizzen mast

- Tender: Excel 3.6 m inflatable with aluminium floor
- Outboard motor: Mariner 15 hp, 4-stroke
- Mooring warps
- Fenders