Research

We were looking at the old Yachting Monthly's trying to find out if Robinetta originally had tan or white sails. I assumed she had originally had white, as she was designed as a cruising yacht, but no, there in the November 1937 issue is a clear picture of her with dark No 1 Jib, furled staysail and mainsail. The article was Rayner's repost to Maurice Griffiths gybe "it remains to be seen how she will sail". Rayner is clearly chuffed to bits with her.

Also in the same article is a name I didn't think we had documented. When Rayner and his wife left her in the Clyde in June 1937 she was used as the honeymoon boat of two of Rayner's sailing companions on his previous boat Pearl. The name was Lieutenant (E) J. S. Carlisle, RN and Rayner quotes him as getting 7.01 knots out of her. We know from Rayner's other description of the summer that his new wife was "the lady who's name she bears"! So the crew were J S Carlisle and Robinetta Carlisle. Some googling came up with a decent amount of information about John Scott Carlisle. A search of ancestry.co,uk found one marriage record for someone called Robinetta marrying someone called Carlisle in 1937 and it was in Devonshire. Now Carlisle was stationed at HMS Drake in Devonport in February 1937 so I think we have a match. Its great to know that Robinetta is named after Robinetta F Cooper, even though we still don't know anything more about her.