In this Post: American Lady, the Stroma Yole that Clydeside boat builder Peter Matheson has been working on since early 2024, is almost ready to face the world. See pic below and on the website. What’s next for Matheson? At 78 isn’t it time to retire? Also an update on the republished book Joyful Pilgrimage and the future of the curragh, plus a mention of Di Beach’s story of defying her parent’s wishes and following her man to Uganda at 18, building a boat by the beach in Lamu, Kenya, and sailing it back to the UK, eventually.
Peter Matheson’s latest build, the Stroma Yole American Lady, inspired by The Aegre, is just about complete. Well, as far as she can be within the limits of his Clydeside boatshed. She’s looking pretty sharp with her glistening paintwork, but she’ll have to come out for the mast and rigging to be set up. Meanwhile winter in Glasgow is settling in. A polythene cover over a simple frame outside the boatshed will be her temporary home.
American Lady‘s topsides don’t have the flush whaleback deck of The Aegre, and she sports an engine midship, but her hull construction and lines are all Aegre, though in the way of a Stroma Yole designed for the Pentland Firth, she’s a little more portly than the lean young Aegre of 1966. More pics.
Sailing writer and photographer Nic Compton has written a piece about the building of American Lady, this will appear in a coming issue of Wooden Boat magazine.
American Lady is now for sale. More on that in the next Post. Who will be the lucky owner, and what’s next for Matheson?
Matheson isn’t quite the man to put his feet up and binge watch episodes of True Detective. Not does the American Lady at home want him under her feet.
So what sort of man is Matheson? For a glimpse watch this short video his assistant Murray Morrant made about him recently.
There is, he tells me, one more boat he wants to build. A detailed replica of one of the most famous Stroma Yoles of them all, Hope, built in 1890.
Hamish Mowatt in Orkney, is the owner of Hope today. His father, Willie, bought her in 1952. As a first step to building a replica, Matheson’s assistant, Murray Morrant, was dispatched to visit Hamish and Hope in Orkney. To take her measurements, her intimate details. Sabrina, Murray’s girlfriend, went along too, maybe she didn’t want him to become too attached. Together with Hamish, they examined and photographed her from every angle. Measured her, made ply formers for different stations. There were no details left un-recorded.
Future Posts will have more of the original Hope‘s story, and the building of her replica today.
Curragh cruising? Joyful Pilgrimage – In the wake of St Columba: In The Aegre book I mention my Uncle Jack’s re-enactment of the 563 AD curragh cruise made by St Columba and his 12 followers from Northern Ireland to Iona on the west coast of Scotland. I republished the 1964 book in October 2025. See my last Post. You can find out more about it in the below:
- The Herald (Glasgow) ran a story about it by Sandra Dick on 19 October.
- Yachting Monthly – December 2025 issue – mentioned in Christmas Books by Julia Jones.
- Classic Boat – Jan/Feb 2026 issue, Tom Cunliffe writes about it and his experience with curraghs.
- Dinghy Cruising Journal – forthcoming edition – a review by Matthew Sullivan
According to Jonathan Barry, son of the author, the curragh is currently in storage in Derry awaiting the 2027 completion of the new Derry North Atlantic Maritime Museum. Museum CEO, Margaret Edwards, says the curragh is to be displayed in the Entrance Hall. Their Conservator has recently examined it and reported it to be in good shape with only a few small repairs required – not bad after 62 years. It’s regarded as a wonderful example of a Donegal curragh, as used by St Columba.
The proceeds from the sale of the book will be shared between the new museum and the Iona Abbey.
The Ocean Voyager and Me by Di Beach is my latest inclusion in the Aegre website section, ‘Lesser known inspiring reads’.
If you enjoyed The Voyage of The Aegre, I think you’ll like Di Beach’s story.
The two stories have an underlying similarity, but the telling of them is oh, so different. Fundamentally because each is told from the perspective of the other sailing partner. So, if you want an inkling of how Julie might have told The Aegre story, this is it.
For more see my notes on The Ocean Voyager and Me by Di Beach
