Name Sgur Urain

SGUR URAIN (originally launched as BRANDANE, Official Number: 123536) is a 42-foot Edwardian gentleman's motor yacht of significant historical note. Built in August 1907 by James Adam & Sons at Cove Yard, Gourock, the vessel represents a pioneering phase in early British motorisation on the Clyde. Rather than utilising the standard steam or domestic paraffin plants common to the era, she was custom-built as an auxiliary motor lugger fitted with an imported American 3-cylinder petrol engine from the Fay & Bowen Engine Co. of New York. 

The vessel was designed by her first owner, Cecil L'Estrange Ewen, a noted British antiquarian, author, and historical scholar. As the sister craft from Ewen’s 1907 experimental fleet (FAY, AUK, and HETTY) have all been broken up, SGUR URAIN is the sole surviving physical and visual record of his naval architecture. 

The vessel possesses an unbroken 119-year provenance linking her to prominent Scottish estates. Her launch name, BRANDANE, is the historic demonym honouring a native of the Isle of Bute; by 1910, the vessel was officially registered to the Marquess of Bute at Mountstuart. In 1911, she was re-registered at Greenock upon her acquisition by Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) John MacRae-Gilstrap of the Ballimore Estate, Otter Ferry, Loch Fyne. 

Renamed SGUR URAIN after the Kintail mountain peak and the clan's ancient slogan, she served as the private MacRae-Gilstrap family launch for fifty years, passing consecutively to Mrs Isabella MacRae-Gilstrap in 1937, and Captain Duncan MacRae until 1961. This exceptional heritage is physically verified by her original brass builder's plaque, which remains fully intact on board, alongside a small metal family crest displaying the motto "Fortitudine" salvaged from her interior for safekeeping. 

The vessel relocated to the River Thames circa 1970 under the ownership of T.C. Jones, where she was modernised for river use with a British Perkins 4.108 diesel engine. Prior to this, her original Fay & Bowen unit had been replaced by a classic petrol-paraffin motor; upon its removal, this historic engine was donated to the Motorboat Museum for preservation. 

Crucially, the vessel's internal timber frame retains its authentic legislative markings, with her unique Official Number and her historical Thames Tonnage carved deeply into her internal structure. She later underwent a major restoration by Dennett Boat Builders in the 1980s. 

In 2026, she was moved to Bray Marina for stabilisation, ahead of a planned road transit to Tom Jones Boatyard in Windsor, where traditional shipwrights Colin and Stephen Messer (Classic Restoration Services) are due to carry out a full structural carvel-plank and steam-bent oak rib reconstruction. Her original hull lines, superstructure, and her historic name carved into her timber stern transom remain entirely intact, making her an irreplaceable asset to British maritime conservation.