Designed & Built as Madrigal by Wm.Fife & Son, Fairlie, 1938. Rebuilt as new by Fairlie Yacht Slip, 1951.
Restored by Fairlie restorations, Hamble, 1997

Principal Dimensions :
LOA : 49ft (14.94 m)  LWL : 33'3" (10.13 m)
Beam : 10'6" (3.20 m)   Draft : 7'4" (2.24 m)
Displacement : approx. 14 tons

Sail Areas :Masthead Bermudan sloop.
Mainsail : 500 sq.ft. Foretriangle : 242 sq.ft.

Madrigal was designed by William Fife Junior and his nephew, Robert Balderston Fife, in 1938. Similar to Solway Maid, she was yard number 828, which makes her the last yacht Fife designed and built. One of a series of smaller but thoroughly seaworthy fast cruisers Fife designed in the 1930's, she was built for Campbell Paterson, a Glasgow based yachtsman who had previously owned the smaller Mylne designed yacht Vanda.

The Yachting Monthly magazine described her as 'the bonniest yacht that ever came out of Fife's yard'; no mean accolade, and her performance was said to be excellent.  
Constructed at Fairlie, and launched in 1939, war intervened before much use could be made of her. By the time she was made ready for a new season in 1950, some problems had become apparent, and a Lloyd's Register survey resulted in her hull being condemned. The official reason was 'alkaline decay of the timber', particularly the stem, which the remainder of Fife's pre-war workforce regarded with some scepticism. The Yachting Monthly described the problem as 'a mysterious fungus of the planking', requiring the yacht to be burnt.

Madrigal had clearly made a good impression, because Mr Paterson asked the Fairlie Yacht Slip Company (the successors to Fife after his death in 1944), to rebuild the yacht. The first Madrigal was taken to Sandbank and dismantled. Her keel, mast, spars, sails, deck gear, interior, strap and plate floors, hanging knees and other components were rescued, and taken to Fairlie for use in the new yacht. Archie MacMillan rebuilt the yacht, on the same lines and with much the same accommodation. He remodelled the coachroof with a new raised and wider doghouse in the style of the then fashionable Laurent Giles, put in a new engine with the shaft line on the centreline, and recut the rudder profile.       

Madrigal II was relaunched in the late summer of 1951, and stayed in the ownership of Mr Paterson until around 1968. Although information is scarce, she appears to have cruised in the Clyde and West Scotland area. She obviously inspired loyal owners; she was sold only twice up until 1980, both times to Greenock based yachting families. The first were the Donalds, who registered her at Port Bannatyne, and then in the winter of 1973/4 she was sold to Donald Haley who registered her at Clynder. The Haleys eventually sold her to an American, Rogers, who sailed her over to the Caribbean. For a few seasons in the early 1980's she was chartered and day-sailed. By the mid 1980's, Madrigal II was back at Rogers' home port of Boston, and on the market. Iain MacAllister, the skipper of Solway Maid, knew of her, and put Alan Miller, a Scottish yachtsman, in contact. Miller had previously owned Navara, a pretty double ended yawl which had been Archie MacMillan's own yacht, and which was based on a Fife design. Recognising a good opportunity to buy a yacht with a first class pedigree, Miller went out to Boston with the surveyor Jim McIlraith in late 1989, and negotiated a purchase. 
 

After sailing her back home to Scotland, doing the crossing in only 21 days, she was once again cruised in her home waters. 

Still in surprisingly good order, he sold her in 1992 to a Spanish yachtsman keen to move on from modern yachts.  After a series of false starts, by the autumn of 1996 the owner had made contact with Fairlie restorations The yacht made her way south to Hamble by lorry and work on her restoration commenced soon afterwards  The restoration was to give rise to the third incarnation of Madrigal II. The coachroof height and profile were taken back to the 1938 line. The width of the coachroof and the cockpit stayed as Archie MacMillan had drawn them, but the deck was relaid as a ply / teak sandwich and some deck beam repairs. A new coachroof top with skylights and a hatch was added. The hull was locally repaired and recaulked. The engine was replaced with a new Nanni unit, along with a new fuel tank, electrical systems, and deck gear.

The interior was remodelled along the original lines; with a folding navigation table and twin pipe berths aft, a shower and head opposite the galley amidships, and the original saloon reinstated forward of this. The owner requested an en-suite double cabin right forward, where the original yacht had crew accommodation. The rig was largely original, and stayed as such. 

Relaunched in the late spring of 1997, she is now once again sailing, impressing everyone with her speed and delighting them with her elegance.

Photographer Patrick Roach Copyright © (PRPA 2002)

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