As sponsor of the 75th Edinburgh Cup Gala Dinner and donor of the new Britannia Trophy, Bob chats to us ahead of the prestigious Edinburgh Cup in Cowes.
Why and when was the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust was formed?
Our charity was formed in April 1998 to purchase the former Royal Yacht from the Ministry of Defence, convert it for public viewing and maintain it as a heritage museum www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk
You have played a pivotal role in the project since day one. Tell us what attracted you to become involved, your role with the trust and what keeps you engaged still?
I was asked to set-up the charity when BRITANNIA arrived in Edinburgh on 5th May 1998, and it was too good an opportunity to turn down.
As Chief Executive my role is to ensure that Britannia is properly maintained and displayed to the public as befits our charity’s objectives and without the need for any subsidies or grants, successfully raising all the required funds through visitor admissions, profits from our giftshop, tearoom, evening events, and our 23-bedroom 5 AA Star luxury static floating hotel FINGAL www.fingal.co.uk
My motivation comes from ‘captaining’ a winning team that delivers outstanding customer experiences, with BRITANNIA currently TripAdvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction, as well as being WHICH magazine’s readers Best UK Attraction 2021-2023. For interest, this year BRITANNIA will have circa 350,000 visitors, a full recovery back to 2019s levels. FINGAL is also Pride of Britain’s Hotel of the Year 2023.
As well as the Royal Yacht Britannia, the Trust also owns several other royal vessels including Bluebottle, the Dragon presented by the Island Sailing Club to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on the occasion of their marriage in 1947. Tell us more about the other vessels the Trust owns.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip owned three sailing yachts all of which we have in our care; BLUEBOTTLE, the Flying Fifteen dingy COWESLIP designed and built by the legendary Uffa Fox and also presented to their Majesties as a wedding present, and the 63ft ocean racing yacht BLOODHOUND (built by Camper Nicholsons in 1936) which They owned in the 1960s and we purchased from a private owner in 2010. Pre-covid, BLOODHOUND undertook skippered day sailing charters out of Oban each summer crewed mainly be ex-BRITANNIA sailors.
How did the project to restore Bluebottle come about and was the Duke of Edinburgh involved in any way?
In 2014, I was in Falmouth, on behalf of our Trust, to purchase the former Northern Lighthouse Board ship MV FINGAL which had been moored and fully maintained on the River Fal since it was acquired in 2000 by Mark Bamford of the JCB family. I then went into the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) expecting to view BLUEBOTTLE which they had in their care, only to be told that it was in an extremely poor state of repair and no longer on public display. We then made repeated offers to take BLUEBOTTLE into our care and have her fully restored, but it was not until 2017 that NMMC agreed to our request and contacted the Duke of Edinburgh’s office to formalise the transfer which took place in the summer of 2018. Not only did the Duke of Edinburgh kindly give us permission to restore BLUEBOTTLE but He also gave us permission to race His beloved yacht for the first time in 60 years! Throughout the restoration project that David Heritage Racing Yachts undertook on our behalf, we kept The Duke fully updated with reports and photographs. Sadly, by the time the restoration was completed The Duke’s health was such that He was unable to see the fully restored BLUEBOTTLE.
Since her restoration in 2021 Bluebottle has been racing very successfully on the International Dragon circuit. Sadly, the Duke of Edinburgh died before being able to see that success, but what do you think he would have thought of his 76-year-old Dragon claiming the Turkish Dragon National Championship and Bronze Medal at the Dragon World Championship in 2023?
I would like to think that The Duke would have been delighted and somewhat flabbergasted that BLUEBOTTLE could compete so incredibly successfully on the world stage racing against all these modern GRP yachts thanks to David Heritage’s incredible restoration, and Graham Baileys’ outstanding helmsmanship.
Today the overall result for the Edinburgh Cup is calculated with an allowance for a race discard, however, originally the scores from all races counted towards the overall result. This year the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust is presenting a brand-new trophy which will be awarded to the boat with the best result without a discard. Tell us a little about the new trophy and why you presented it.
The new Britannia Trophy is a maquette of a Royal Yachtsman’s statue that we had commissioned in 2011 in memory of all who served aboard BRITANNIA. As someone relatively new to sailing, I was fascinated by the discard or no-discard rules, and the deep-rooted late-night debates about which was the truer test of the best performing skipper and boat.
The Trust is also very generously sponsoring the 75th Edinburgh Cup and UK Grand Prix Gala Dinner and Prizegiving. What attracted the Trust to sponsor this element of the regatta and what can guests expect on the night?
The Dragon ‘family’ have made us extremely welcome since our Trust took possession of BLUEBOTTLE and with it being the 75th Anniversary of the Edinburgh Cup we were keen to repay some of the kindness and generosity that we have received, whilst at the same time promoting our Trust’s work to a high-profile audience at the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Your working life is obviously very much focused on boats, but are you a sailor yourself? Tell us a little about your own background.
Rather ironically, and rather sadly, I am not a sailor despite my Oban background and studying Navigation at school (and apologies to Captain MacLeod who was a brilliant teacher). Prior to this, I worked for Scottish Enterprise, which is a government funded economic development agency, initially in urban regeneration and latterly heading up their Edinburgh & Lothians tourism team.
We know that you have an unusual connection with past Edinburgh Cup winner and 75th Edinburgh Cup Race Officer Rob Brown. Tell us more…
When I first met Rob on a pontoon at the Royal Forth Yacht Club in 2021, his introductory words were ‘Pleased to meet you and I think I removed your wisdom teeth a number of years ago’, and thankfully he had been my dentist and not a rugby opponent!
Will you be in Cowes for the 75th Edinburgh Cup? If so, what are you looking forward to about the regatta?
Yes, I will be coming down to Cowes for the final days of the Edinburgh Cup and am looking forward to hearing all about the days’ racing and how well BLUEBOTTLE performed against such a strong international fleet of Dragons, as well as making some new acquaintances in the clubhouse. I am also looking forward to the Prizegiving Dinner and seeing what surprises Gavia has lined up for us!