Rinamara returns to Rhu and Clynder after 33 years

Rinamara was James McGruer’s final design before he handed the design office over to his son George in 1968.  James had apprenticed for 3 years to Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Rhode Island in 1930-32 working on designs with S&S resulting in her having a touch of American influence.   Rinamara was James’ 7th and largest one-off yawl design, built to Lloyds 100A1 for an Irish owner from Dublin, Peter Odlum, who who wanted ‘a cruising boat for a racing man’ and had previously commissioned two successful McGruer Eight Meter Cruiser/Racers NAMARA and INISMARA - he named her RINAMARA, which is Irish Gaelic for Queen of the Sea.

 Odlum kept her for 6 seasons cruising and racing her in Scottish and Irish waters including taking her to Palma.  In 1973 Rinamara passed into the ownership of Northern Irish yachtsman Peter Clark, who continued to moor her on the Firth of Clyde at Clynder and Fairlie before moving her to Strangford Lough, County Down.   Tony Palmer of Valencia, Spain bought her in 1980 for a 3-year circumnavigation ending in Ibiza before selling her to Ibiza-based Dutch scholar and writer Leo Hartong who undertook a major refit at Mashfords of Cremyll, Plymouth in 1987 when her accommodation was altered to double cabins.  In 1992 she passed into the ownership of an American property developer and friend Richard Bassi, who took her back to McGruer's for a further refit, including a new deck, prior to joining the then burgeoning Mediterranean classic regatta circuit with increasing success and overall wins in Trofeo Conde de Barcelona at Palma, and at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.  

In 2007 RINAMARA returned to northern waters under the ownership of the late Guernsey advocate Roger Perrot, who had previously owned the smaller 40' McGruer yawl Elona.   She cruised and raced in the Channel Islands, and at the British Classic Yacht Club's Panerai Regatta at Cowes.  Calum and Amanda Sillars bought her in 2020, refitted her at Stirling & Son, Plymouth, and have since cruised to the Isles of Scilly, the Channel Islands and the west coast of Ireland as well as winning races and trophies in the 2022 Channel Classic Regatta out of Dartmouth and Paimpol and the 2023 British Classic Week at Cowes.  She is currently based at Kip Marina (she’s registered at Greenock) and at their holiday croft house on Eriskay, Western Isles 2025-26.