McGruer 42 ft Int. 8-Metre Cruiser-Racer 1965/2015

The rejuvenated ALTRICIA, all brightwork glistening on display indoors at the 2016 edition of London International Boat Show, is an abiding memory for many. Not in the spirit of tradition, but of the real deal, a fine representative of the super elegant way we used to go yacht racing and cruising – and still can with the added benefit of modern, ergonomic sail handling systems. The penultimate McGruer 8-Metre Cruiser-Racer, ALTRICIA joined this fiercely competitive grand prix class at its swinging sixties zenith, racing against designs by James McGruer, Sparkman & Stephens, and David Boyd, when up to a dozen beautiful forty footers would race hell for leather whatever the weather on the firths and sounds of the West Coast of Scotland. Restored in Cornwall for the 21st Century by her previous, passionate owner, ALTRICIA will take you classic racing in style, safely cruising or offshore in comfort, and in either mode she won’t hang about!

2015-2018 - MYLOR YACHT HARBOUR
- All bronze keelbolts replaced

2013-2015 - MYLOR YACHT HARBOUR
- Steel floors re-galvanised
- Full cosmetic makeover
- All new systems
- New steering
- New stainless steel fuel and water tanks
- Re-engined and all associated
- Re-plumbed
- Re-wired

McGRUER & CO. YARD NO. 613
- 8mCR SAIL NO. K18
- Built to Lloyd’s ✠100A1
- Named after 1st owner Kenneth Mackinnon’s children, Alastair and Patricia

Between 1951 and 1967, nineteen sleek 40-footers were built in the UK (one for Romania) to the ‘8-Metre’ division of the International Yacht Racing Union’s Cruiser-Racer Rule which had been devised by Bjarne Aas (Norway) and James McGruer (Scotland) in an austerity effort to encourage value for money, multi-purpose yachts - the metric classes being then considered too expensive for post-war tightened belts.

There was no mathematical connection to the International (‘Metric’) Rule. The Cruiser Race Rule is thought to have been somewhat influenced by the Cruising Club of America Rule, the basis pre-war in Scandinavian offshore racing, though the yachts it produced came out with the ‘Metric' traits of relative narrowness and elegant, long ends, and there were the usual design trade-offs to be considered in ratios of length, beam, sail area, and displacement. These are easily-driven, wonderfully sporty yachts to sail and race, yet excellent sea boats. In other words, truly racer-cruisers. They are also beautiful to the eye.

Most of the few 8-Metre Cruiser-Racers not built for racing on the Clyde eventually gravitated there to join the Firth’s healthy fleet. When ALTRICIA debuted in 1965, she joined a 'Clyde Week' fleet of up to 12 of these beauties that raced hell for leather whatever the weather.

Having previously enjoyed two Nicholson 35 ft ‘Jolinas’, in 1963 ALTRICIA’s first owner, Troon-resident textile entrepreneur Kenneth H. Mackinnon, had graduated to the Cruiser Racers - and level-rating racing - as the second owner of NAMHARA (K5) once Peter Odlum took delivery of his next 8mCR, INISMARA (K15). And there was the rub.

By the mid-sixties the most successful owners in the class were racing their second boat to the rule with much experience gained in how to sail them fast; it was a tough class to join to win. Mackinnon (who would later own Ted Heath’s MORNING CLOUD II) did well with ALTRICIA crewed by family and friends and was rarely out of the top places.

In her third and fourth seasons, two results undoubtedly proved ALTRICIA’s potential as a winner. She won the 1968 edition of the Clyde Cruising Club’s prestigious ‘Blue Water Trophy’ offshore race from Rothesay (Clyde) to Bangor (Belfast Lough), and, in September 1969, the Le Mans 24-Hour Race 1956 winner Ninian Sanderson – who had smoothly transferred his race-winning mentality from the highest levels of motor racing to yachting in owning three 8mCRs – guest helmed ALTRICIA to a quietly remarkable end of season victory over Peter Wilson’s Sparkman & Stephens-designed NAN OF GARE, knowledgeably reported by George Findlay in the Glasgow Herald 8th September 1969:

“This year in the Clyde's class of cruising 8-metre yachts, Ninian Sanderson has emerged as one of the best helmsmen on the river. His victory on Saturday at the helm of ALTRICIA emphasised the point.

“The occasion was the closing regatta at Kilcreggan of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club which attracted 70 starters. It was sailed on an overcast day in light to moderate easterly winds.

“Mr Sanderson's claim to fame rests on his performance in the two DEBBIEs and SALEDOUZAINE. As a former racing driver, he-brought to the sport of sailing the will to win, which he amply demonstrated in his two yachts named DEBBIE. When he raced SALEDOUZAINE [ex CHARM OF RHU], he brought out for the first time the latent potential of this Fairlie craft. On Saturday he was guest helmsman aboard ALTRICIA, as the yacht's owner had a wedding engagement.

“At the start, NAN OF GARE had clear wind down to leeward, whereas ALTRICIA was boxed in by FEOLINN and SONDA. Having shaken them off, ALTRICIA menaced NAN's lead on the short beat up to Portkil Bay, and she got through on the next spinnaker leg to Rosneath Patch.

“The surprising thing was that off the wind in the light weather in which NAN goes so well, ALTRICIA continued to draw away to win by three minutes. ALTRICIA had no advantage at the start, so everything she gained had to be worked for.”

For various reasons, the late 1960’s and early 1970s were the sunset years for class racing in the ‘Cruiser Eights’. The reintroduction to the Clyde of the “straight Eights" (8mRs) through the middle to late 1960s – a particularly strong class 1968-1970 – brought about a divergence of crew and owner demand among a younger generation that might otherwise have been new young blood to the Cruiser Eights. And yacht design and production was about to go through the huge changes brought about by production GRP boatbuilding and, particularly in the case of racing yachts, the IOR Rule.

ALTRICIA (K18) was the penultimate McGruer 8mCR, Ninian Sanderson’s second DEBBIE (K22) followed, also from McGruers, in 1966, and finally the David Boyd-designed/ Robertson of Sandbank built SUNBURST (K23) in 1967.

Despite reduced numbers, 8mCR fleet racing on the Clyde, and on the West Coast of Scotland in the Tobermory Race and at West Highland Week, remained competitive and the social life lively. The class’s final Clyde Week start was in 1975, by which time the ‘Straight Eights’ were gone again and the march of the IOR was hot. Interestingly, those 8mCRs subsequently optimised to IOR did very well, and there is no reason why an 8mCR can’t be competitive under the current IRC Rule.

After Kenneth MacKinnon sold ALTRICIA in 1972, she was raced on the Clyde for a few seasons by the London-Scottish Baird family.

During the 1980s ALTRICIA gravitated to North Wales, but may have continued to winter, at least some years at McGruers, and she remained in-Class with Lloyd’s (✠100A1) until 1984.

It was from Porthmadog in North Wales that former British Marine Federation (BMF) president Peter Methven, OBE, purchased ALTRICIA in 2012 and she subsequently enjoyed a well-publicised 2013-2015 restoration and makeover by Mylor Yacht Harbour, Cornwall

At the 2016 London Boatshow, the rejuvenated ALTRICIA was a much-admired exhibit, leading to her nomination in the ‘Restoration of the Year Over 40ft’ category of the 2017 Classic Boat Awards. She entered current ownership in 2022 and is gently sailed out of Falmouth, Cornwall.

ALTRICIA TIMELINE

1965 – 1972
Kenneth H. Mackinnon
Troon

1972 – 1977
Ian Moffat Baird
then
Brian Moffat Baird
London

1977 – 1980
John F. Wilson
Enfield, Middlesex & Banchory Kincardineshire

1980 – into 1990s
Anthony J. Furnival, Bury, Lancs
Colin L.M. Smith, Heswall, Cheshire
Christopher Woolfenden, Conwy, Wales

1984
Lloyd’s ✠100A1 Classification discontinued

? – 2013
Dr John Jones-Morris
Porthmadog, Wales

2012
Purchased at Porthmadog, Wales by Peter Methven, OBE

2013 – 2015
Major restoration by Mylor Yacht Harbour

2016
Exhibited London Boatshow

2017
Nominated in Restoration of the Year Over 40ft category, Classic Boat Awards 2017

2022
Present ownership

©2025 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- Mahogany carvel planking, splined
- Awlgrip AllWood finished
- Oak centreline
- Laminated hardwood frames
- 2 x Steamed oak timbers between
- Galvanised angle floors (regalvanised 2015)
- Galvanised ring frame at mast (regalvanised 2015)
- Lead ballast keel
- Bronze keelbolts (new 2015-2018)
- Teak laid deck on marine plywood
- Mahogany superstructures

GENERAL
- Teak laid deck
- Varnished covering boards and uncapped toerail
- Stainless steel split pushpit and pulpit
- Stainless steel stanchions and 2 x guardrails
- 'Gate' to starboard

FROM AFT

AFT DECK
- Chromed mooring fairleads at taffrail port and starboard
- Ensign staff socket on stainless steel plinth
- Raised chromed mushroom vent
- Stainless steel 'folding wing' mooring cleats port & starboard
- Raised stainless steel and acrylic lazarette/ gas locker hatch

COCKPIT
- Raised coaming
- Aft (helm) and fore and aft seating as extension of deck
- Locker in starboard seat forward
- Jefa steering pedestal
- Jefa stainless steel ship's wheel; leathered rim
- Plastimo steering compass
- Raymarine wind display
- Single lever engine control
- 2 x Winch handle pockets
- Yanmar engine panel aft
- Harken mainsheet traveller
- Selden mainsheet purchase blocks and jammer
- 2 x Andersen 46 ST winches on mahogany plinths
- 2 x Andersen 52 ST winches on mahogany plinths
- Access to engine space via cockpit sole hatch

AFT SIDE DECKS
- Downwind sail cheek blocks port & starboard
- Headsail furling sheave and jammer to port

MID SIDE DECKS
- Stainless steel 'folding wing' sporing line mooring cleats port & starboard
- Genoa tracks and cars port & starboard
- Car control lines to jammers port & starboard

CABIN TRUNK WITH RAISED DOGHOUSE
- Varnished mahogany uprights
- Awlgrip painted roofs
- Double doors and sliding hatch
- Andersen 40 halyard/ line winches port & starboard (2016)
- 4 x Spinlock jammers port & starboard (2016)
- 2 x Line lead sheaves port & starboard
- 2 x Large chrome framed doghouse windows port & starboard
- 2 x Small chrome framed windows doghouse forward
- 3 x Smaller house side chrome framed windows port & starboard
- Grab rails port & starboard
- Chocks for liferaft
- Raised stainless steel and acrylic hatch over saloon
- 2 x Vetus 'UFO' chromed deck ventilators
MAST POSITION
- Dorade boxes and chromed cowls port and starboard
- 1 x Vetus 'UFO' chromed deck ventilator
- Attractively radiused forward mahogany trunk upright

FOREDECK
- Raised stainless steel and acrylic hatch over saloon
- Maxwell vertical electric windlass
- Chain gypsy and warping drum
- Covered foot switches and remote
- Stainless steel 'folding wing' mooring cleats port & starboard
- Custom stemhead fitting; bow rollers/ anchor stowage port & starboard

GROUND TACKLE
- Maxwell vertical electric windlass
- Chain gypsy and warping drum
- Foot switches and remote
- 50 m Anchor chain
- Stainless steel Bruce anchor 20 kg

GENERAL
- 1 x Step to engine box; 1 x step to sole
- Eggshell varnished mahogany, mahogany faced plywood & white paint finish
- Mahogany sole

DOGHOUSE
To Starboard
- Upholstered seat
- Hanging locker; chart plotter and VHF radio above
- Sideboard/ chart table; hinge-up extension; drawers under
To Port
- Quarter Berth
- Galley
- Grab rail at carlins
- Custom stainless steel top incorporating sink and drainer
- Mixer tap
- Gimballed Dometic Moonlight THREE gas cooker
- 3 x Burner hob; oven
- Drawers/ lockers/ stowage under and outboard

SALOON
- Settee berths port & starboard
- 'Trotter box' extensions: forward to port; aft to starboard
- Locker/ shelves outboard
- Drop leaf table slightly offset to starboard
- Clock and barometer
- Fusion 700 series stereo system
- Modern hatch in deckhead
- Grab rails port & starboard

FORWARD PASSAGE
Hanging locker to port
WC Compartment to Starboard
- Dometic electric toilet
- Inset sink bowl; mixer tap
- Lockers
- Deck head light
- Chromed opening port
- 1 x Deckhead light
- 2 x Bulkhead lights

FO'C'SLE
- 2 x Berths
- Lockers under
- Banquette central
- Forehatch in deckhead
- 1 x Deckhead light
- 2 x Bulkhead lights
- Chain locker forward

RIG
- Sparcraft alloy mast and boom (2016)
- Vang
- Standing rigging new 2017
- All running rigging new 2018

SAILS
By Sanders 2017
- Dacron mainsail, 3 x slab reefs
- Dacron Genoa
- Genoa on Profurl
- Code 0 with Profurl
- Asymmetric #1
- Asymmetric #2

CANVASWORK
- Blue mainsail boom cover

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 3-cylinder 30 hp diesel (2005)
- Removed, checked, reinstalled 2017
- Aquafax cooling water strainer
- Aquadrive
- 1 in propeller shaft
- Darglow 3-blade feathering propeller
- Spur rope stripper
- Jefa RP150 rack and pinion steering

ELECTRICAL
- Shore power system with ring main
- Waeco inverter
- Odyssey AGM domestic battery
- Engine start battery

TANKAGE
Fuel
- Stainless steel tank (2015)
- Racor fuel filter
Water
- Stainless steel tank (2015)
- Aquafax water strainer

NAVIGATION
- Magnetic steering compass in binnacle
- Raymarine chart plotter
- ICOM AIS transponder MA 500TR
- Raymarine Tack Tic system; displays at mast

COMMUNICATIONS
- ICOM IC-M506 DSC VHF radio

- Emergency steering
- More TBC

- Mooring warps
- Fenders