To say that Rob Mason of Milford Haven has an eye for a boat is a bit like saying that the late Vincent O’Brien was quite a good judge of horseflesh. The retired Milford Haven tugboat skipper turned up from southwest Wales at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017 with his newly-restored 1897-vintage Alexander Richardson-designed cutter Myfanwy, and this classic’s sweeping lines of elegant double curves, allied to a formidable performance, was a reminder that though the Liverpool-based designer’s most famous boat was the all-conquering Irex of 1884 for John Jameson of Dublin, Myfanwy was the real masterpiece, the unexpected gem of his later years.

She won all hearts in Dublin Bay, and she won the overall champion trophy too, in what was the main celebration of Dun Laoghaire Harbour’s Bicentennial. Not surprisingly, she was soon snapped up by a discerning buyer for the Mediterranean Classics circuit, as Rob already had his eye on another boat which neatly filled the eternal requirement of “a motor-cruiser suitable for a dedicated sailing enthusiast”, and here too there is special Irish interest.

John Jameson’s 88ft Irex RStGYC of 1884 vintage, seen here after winning the Royal Harwich YC regatta in Essex in 1888.

Rob Mason’s restored 1897 Richardson design Myfanwy on her way to becoming overall champion at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’BrienRob Mason’s restored 1897 Richardson design Myfanwy

He found the 42ft Blue Hills in a place called Hayle on the north coast of Cornwall. Although Hayle is just across the bay from picturesque St Ives, it’s not one of those cute places you’ll see on Rick Stein’s Cornwall-promoting television shows. On the contrary, it’s a nondescript estuary port where boats go to die, and that seemed the future for Blue Hills when Rob and his shipmates rescued her, and road-trailed her the hundreds of miles round to Milford Haven, for she wasn’t fit to attempt the direct crossing of the Bristol Channel.

But after they had her hauled on the foreshore at his house in the sheltered upper reaches of Milford Haven, he was able to confirm his reckoning that most of the boat was directly restorable, although some timber would need renewed. But it was the engine and auxiliary rig and other gear that really needed lengthy attention or replacement, and every job completed was another step towards a new life for a seriously interesting boat with history to match.

Blue Hills in Mulroy Bay in Donegal in 1938. Photo courtesy RCC

Blue Hills was originally created in 1938 by noted fishing boat builder William Weatherhead of Cockenzie on Scotland’s east coast for Frank Gilliland of Derry, who sought a motorised trawler yacht after many years of cruising the 17-ton Mylne-designed McGruer-built sailing ketch Melmore. But as a leading figure in the Royal Naval Reserve, Gilliland only had a year or so of cruising in Donegal and the Hebrides with his new boat before he persuaded the Admiralty that she would be ideal for conversion for use in conveying spies and resistance fighters to Norway and Denmark after World War II broke out in 1939. 

The big tidal range of Milford Haven enabled Blue Hills to be hauled into a drying restoration berth beside Rob Mason’s house where Myfanwy was also given new life. Photo: Andy Whitcher

Consequently, she spent much of the 1940s back on the east coast of Scotland with all sorts of secret compartments being installed, though whether or not she was ever used on the famous Shetland Bus clandestine route across the North Sea to Norway has never been completely clarified. However, by the time she was decommissioned from Admiralty use, Frank Gilliland was so advanced in years that she went to another owner, and she worked her way south to become a familiar sight on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, eventually assuming semi-houseboat status in Hayle.

But now she is alive again, and while the summer of 2021 saw her afloat and under way for sufficient time to demonstrate her elegant sea-keeping qualities, this current winter has been devoted to completing the many interior jobs which will make her fit for longer passages. With any luck in the summer of 2022, we in Ireland will again be able to see that Rob Mason has a great eye for a boat.

A hull so graceful she scarcely disturbs a calm sea

Veteran skipper Rob Mason, from Milford Haven in southwest Wales, made a dramatic impact on the Irish sailing scene in 2017, when he turned up at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta during its special year of the Kingstown Bicentenary, sailing his drop-dead gorgeous 37ft cutter Myfanwy which was designed in 1897 by one of the connoisseurs' favourite naval architects, Alexander Richardson of Liverpool.

Rob – a former tugboat skipper on those massively powerful vessels you see at Milford Haven - had restored Myfanwy in a four-year project by his own efforts from a state of virtual dereliction, transforming her into a classic among classics. And she didn't just look good. She sailed like a witch, and at regatta's end, she made the passage back to Milford Haven with the regatta's special Bicentenary Trophy for the event's star boat stowed safely below.

The Star of the VDLR Bicentenary Regatta in Dublin Bay in 2017 – Rob Mason's own-restored 1897-vintage Myfanwy from Milford Haven. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien

Mysfanwys successful crew in 2017 were (left to right), Max Mason (Rob's son), Gus Stott, Andy Whitcher, and Rob Mason. Photo: W M Nixon 

Soon afterwards, Myfanwy was snapped up by an international buyer to join the highly-developed Classics scene in the Mediterranean, for the ever-active Rob already had another project in mind. He'd got to hear of an interesting vintage motor cruiser of classic Scottish fishing boat style but now in a tired state, berthed in the drying river port of Hayle on the north coast of Cornwall.

Regular longtime readers of Afloat will know something of how this attractive and historically interesting vessel Blue Hills has come to spend some time in a refit and restoration berth right outside Rob's house on the shores of Milford Haven.

The 42ft-boat was originally built in 1937-38 by for Commander Frank Gilliland of Derry, who'd previously owned attractive sailing cruisers. But with advancing years, he sought "the kind of able fishing boat style motor-cruiser that would be suited to a sailing man", and he made a significant personal input into the design of Blue Hills, which was built by Weatherhead & Son at Cockenzie on the Firth of Forth on Scotland's East Coast.

Blue Hills moored in Mulroy Bay in Donegal in 1938  

But although Donegal was where Blue Hills spent some of the summer of 1938, by 1939 she'd been commandeered by the Royal Navy as having potential for Special Forces use in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway after the latter had been occupied by the Nazis, smuggling underground agents who could be hidden in specially-constructed secret bunks for the sea passage.

There is still some evidence of these secret compartments in Blue Hills, though whether she played a significant role in the "Shetland Bus" operation away in the far north is still unclear. Be that as it may, over the years after the war, she became known as a boat with a mysterious past. But Robbie Mason's interest in her was exactly the same as Frank Gilliland – he wanted a motor-cruiser in which a sailing man could feel at comfortable.

Getting her home to Milford Haven from the far end of Cornwall was quite an effort on the limits of the road trailing with the vehicles available, but a mid-winter attempt on a direct sea crossing of the Bristol Channel was not a sensible proposition, a viewpoint which has been fully borne out by the amount of work which has had to be done to restore the hull and equipment to full seaworthiness.

The tides of Milford Haven are big, but only a few are big enough to carry a boat the size of Blue Hills within hauling distance of Rob's handy fit-out berth at his waterside house. The right tide was expected in March 2018, so with the boat re-launched at Pembroke Dock, all was set up, and it went well, albeit in freezing conditions with snow still in the ground.

March 2018 – after road trailing from Cornwall, Blue Hills is briefly afloat again in Milford Haven, waiting for the last push of a "super-tide" to be heaved into Rob Mason's fitting-out berth. Photo: Andy Whitcher

Made it! After windlassing and man-handling Blue Hills into the fitting out berth at the top of the super-tide, getting her upright was a doddle. Photo: Andy Whitcher  

Secure in the berth, Blue Hills was brought upright, and Rob has been busy ever since with a massive work programme which had reached the stage of thinking of re-launching after exactly three dedicated years, with any jobs still remaining coming within the "Work Afloat" remit.

In Spring 2021, the magic super-tide was beckoning. It duly arrived in ultra-cold weather yet again, and Blue Hills was persuaded along the short ways into deeper water and back to being a living creature once more. She's a unique and handsome ship, and in due course we'll doubtless see her gracing Irish waters.