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This is a photo of uncle Donald Thomson rigging his Catamaran in the basin in Kirkwall Harbour.
Donald built along with Jim Taylor (also a Longhope man)!! the first two Yachting World Cats in Orkney, I think this would have been around 1961.
Donald told his family he hoped to build the fastest boat afloat and for some years they were indeed the fastest. Some of these designed boats are still on the go although around 45 years old.
Is the boat in the background Dan Kirkpatrick's "Naughty Girl" ??
Picture added on 30 May 2011 at 11:49
It is the Naughty Girl
Added by Bob Kelday on 30 May 2011
I well remember the Naughty Girl. One day in the late 50s when it was tied up alongside the Corn Slip some of us youngsters were trying to catch a conger eel which was cruising about the slip. I jumped onto the Naughty Girl to get a better fishing spot and promptly fell backwards into the Basin. Fortunately for me my father was there looking after my young brother Duncan and he managed to pull me out.
Added by David Tullock on 01 June 2011
Johnnie Groat had one at the Wyng, I thought it might have been earlier than 1961, I left Orkney in 1964, and it was a lot o' years before that... but maybe the years were slower than they are noo, a lot o folk will ken what i mean..
Added by Jimmy Hamilton on 02 June 2011
Jock Groat's catamaran was called "Vega" and she appears in regatta results in 1963.
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Added by Ann Sutherland (nee Thomson) on 06 June 2011
Kirkwall
I skippered "Spindrift" with Peter Thomson for a couple of sailing seasons in the mid-sixties after Donald stopped sailing himself, John.
During one Stromness regatta, the wind got up but the committee decided that the cats could still race. Our course took us out of Hamnavoe Bay and into a long broad reach down to the Clestrain shore in Orphir. The wind was very steady so we were "flying" a hull all the way on that broad reach. Peter was standing right out on the flying hull with just the jib sheet diagonally across his back.
I can honestly say I've never travelled so fast under sail. The boat was hammering across the waves which was scary because it made an awful noise and the vibration was also bad. Fortunately there was no swell to deal with which was why we got away with it.
When we got back to the pier at Stromness, there was a Royal Navy officer patiently waiting to speak to us. He was from the fishery cruiser "Norna", berthed at the pier for Shopping Week. He'd measured our speed across the Bay of Ireland on Norma's radar at approximately 22 knots so I would agree that Donald had indeed built the fastest sailing boat afloat at that time.