Previous names include ‘Albyn’, ‘Galashiel’, ‘Gialesa’, ‘Ella Sweyn’ and ‘Glorinda’.
She was launched as ‘Albyn’ in 1934 towards the end of the Golden Age of classic yachts. Originally fitted with an eight litre Gleniffer paraffin engine.
She was built for the Glasgow tobacco magnate Robert French, a leading yachtsman of his day. The Lloyds register of 1936 shows him not only as a member of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club but also as Commodore of both the Royal Cruising Club and the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club of Cowes. He raced her successfully both on the Clyde and at Cowes and she was on the Solent when war broke out in 1939, sailing for Dunkirk for the evacuation in 1940.
In 1947 she was purchased by the wife of the Italian Publisher Sr Feltrinelli and renamed GIALESE – her own name while retaining Southampton as her Port of Registry, although she was sailed to the Mediterranean and Porto Santo Stefano became her home port in Italy.
The Feltrinelli family kept her until the death of Sra Feltrinelli in 1983 and she was subsequently put up for sale at Sotheby’s in London.
An industrialist with interests in a well known Italian shipyard purchased her and the yacht underwent a major refit over some eighteen months. She was launched again in the summer of 1986, perfectly restored to her original condition, and renamed ‘Galashiel’ in honour of the Scottish region of her building in 1934, with Montrose as her Port of Registry.
At the Classic Yacht rally Imperia (Italy) in 1987, Galashiel received the award for the best interpreter of tradition thanks to her largely original interior and deck details.
In the summer of 1993 Erling Storm from Norway bought her and sailed here to Oslo. At the Risör Wooden Boat festival on the 7th of August that same year, Arja Sayjonmaa gave her the new name ‘Eileen II’. Now as a charter yacht she is checked annually and certified for (up to 30 passengers) by the Norwegian Maritime Directorate.
2018 – For Sale.
