18th century yacht “Peggy”

Paint investigation and analysis was undertaken on this remarkable survivor of an 18th-century sailing yacht "Peggy".

  • Original paint on transom

    Original paint on transom

  • Evidence of historic paint scheme

    Evidence of historic paint scheme

  • Cross sectional microscope image of the paint layers

    Cross sectional microscope image of the paint layers

  • "Peggy"

“Peggy” is a clinker built sailing yacht constructed in 1789 for George Quayle of Castletown, Isle of Man, and one of only a handful of 18th-century sailing vessels still in existence. This is largely due to the fact she was left abandoned and undisturbed for more than a hundred years in a walled-up boat house.

Peggy is now in the care of the Nautical Museum at Castletown and undergoing a careful and painstaking programme of restoration, prior to her eventual redisplay. We were contracted by Manx National Heritage to investigate and analyse the historic paint layers, to define her original appearance and how this evolved during her working life.

Although repaired and repainted soon after the second world war, much of Peggy’s original paint still survives on her transom and original strake and beneath the later layers paint applied in the 1950s.

A number of key samples were removed for analysis by optical microscopy and SEM/EDX, and in conjunction with archival evidence we were able to build up a clear picture of Peggy’s paintwork.