This beautiful boat was hand built as a demonstration model by renowned Scottish West Coast craftsman, Robert Armstrong. Her build featured in a Practical Boat Owner (March 2025) article by Julia Jones. She has only been lightly used by the builder, and is in showroom condition.
Design
Tystie is a replica of Druid, built at Crinan Ferry 1901. She has a traditional West Coast workboat hull with a long keel and hollow garboards. With no centreboard she has a wide clear space amidships that could even be used for camping aboard and her straight keel makes her very easy to trailer. Her rig is the typical boomless standing lugsail of Scottish west coast fishing vessels with the addition of a mizzen to make single-handing easier. She has 2 foresails, a larger one for crewed sailing and a smaller one (shown in photographs) for safe single-handing in stronger winds. She has approximately 120kg of bagged gravel ballast for stability when sailing although this is unnecessary with large crew.
Materials
Built of the finest materials. Utile, Siberian Larch and Robbins elite ply. All hardware is either hand forged galvanised or salvaged and re-galvanised iron. All hull fastenings are copper or bronze. West epoxy-glued ply planking means no leaks even after extended periods ashore. Resorcinol laminated utile frames and centreline for maximum strength. Utile rubbing strake and skids to protect the hull when beaching or coming alongside stone piers.
Use
She’s a good all-round boat, exciting enough under sail but able to be reefed down quickly for most conditions. Boomless sails can easily be de-powered even downwind, and can be lowered on any point of sail. The mizzen is primarily for balance and can keep the boat head to wind for fishing or rowing into a breeze. Tystie can be rowed, sculled or motored equally well.
