A RACING yacht built on the Gareloch more than 90 years ago has been formally relaunched following a three year restoration project.

The Gareloch One Design racing yacht, Dione, was formally relaunched by Gordon Mucklow, president of the Gareloch Class Association, at Rhu Marina last Friday.

Retired Royal Navy engineer, Bill McLaren, who led the rebuild, dressed the yacht with Navy signal flags which read “welcome Dione”.

The vessel took to the water with a ceremony after 35 years on land.

Peter Proctor, class convener, welcomed the crowds gathered for the relaunch which included friends from the other classic classes of yacht design – the Mersey Mylnes, Howth 17s and the Yorkshire One Designs.

A number of special guests also turned out to see Dione take to the water once again.

Dorothy McGruer, one of the last surviving members of the McGruer family that built the Garelochs in 1924, was in attendance, as were several former owners of Dione, including Donald Hardie, who owned the vessel from 1958-59.

Also attending was a former owner and former boatbuilder who started the restoration project some 30 years ago, David Spy.

He made two half scale models of Dione at the request of the Class Association.

David owned and restored several Garelochs and is now a highly regarded model maker.

Presenting the half models to Mr McLaren and Mr Henderson, Mr Proctor said: “Words cannot express our gratitude for what you have achieved in this rebuild.

"It seemed at times, especially in the later stages, you had no alternative life. I have been overwhelmed by your dedication to the project.”

Mr McLaren accepting the models joked that both he and Tim “now felt like fathers handing over their daughter in marriage, on the one hand relieved to see the back of her after the torrid teenage years, but also anxious that she would be properly looked after”.

Dione’s new owner, Barry Choules, made all the proper promises.

A supporter of the restoration project was Rhu Marina, whose yard manager, Eddy Young, presented Mr Choules with the keys to Dione and a small box of sawdust.

Often when the Garelochs are lifted back into the water in the spring they leak badly. Gareloch owners and Marina crew developed a technique of holding sawdust over the leak until the water sucked it in and the leak stopped.

Dione won the first ever Gareloch Class race in 1924 under her first owner, Agnes Stephen, of the Stephen shipbuilding family.

Agnes’s nephew, Sandy Stephen, spoke at the relaunch. He remembered Agnes’s generosity in sharing Dione with her nieces and nephews. He had sailed on Dione as a child in the 1930s.

He was delighted to see the vessel take to the water once again as she joined the first race of the Gareloch Annual Championships on July 22.

The conditions were difficult but she made a good start up there with the leaders.

Peter Proctor said after the racing: “It was a fitting climax to three years’ dedication and hard work.”

Photographs by Don MacLean, former owner of the Gareloch Zephyrus.