This picture shows 3 of the Malahide Yachts under construction at the Southern Marine ship yard at Malahide, Ireland just North of Dublin, approximate date is the early 70's. The vessel on the left is the Ursa Major, the other 2 are unknown.

The Malahide Shipyard:
A brief history

By
Myles J.Stapleton

There had been a small boatyard in the sleepy village of Malahide, north county Dublin since the early 1900's. They repaired and wintered local yachts and fishing boats. They also built a number of very fine wooden yachts.

Sometime in the late 1950's two British businessmen contracted the yard to convert ex MOD (British Ministry of Defence) boats to private yachts.

Alfred Tyaransen and Jack Fielding, both in their 40's and living in Dublin, had been successfully trading for a number of years in British Admiralty surplus small boats and equipment.

These boats were mostly MFV's (Admiralty motor ferry Vessels) of 45'-75', built to ferry stores and personnel to warships lying off in deep waters. Similar in many respects to the MFV's (Motor Fishing Vessels) which worked the North Sea, Irish Sea and Atlantic (West) Coast at that time. They were round bilged, straight stemmed, cruiser sterned and low waisted. Construction was typically larch planking on sawn oak frames and powered by a single slow reving Gardner or Kelvin diesel giving about 8 knots.

Alf saw the potential of converting these tough workboats into robust, no frills, knockabout private yachts. Thanks to his tireless energy and extraordinary marketing talents the yard soon had a full order book.

By 1962 Alf and Jack had bought the yard and commenced a 6 year modernisation programme. The yard trebled in size by filling in the foreshore. Soon there were huge new sheds, a side slipping transporter way, two new slipways, a fitting - out dock, furniture and engineering shops, a mould loft and a bandmill to handle iroko logs 50' long and 5' in diameter.

  Myles joined the company in 1963 as their designer, straight from a drawing office apprenticeship at the Dublin Dockyard. Alf was determined (if ever a man had a dream) that the Malahide shipyard would be widely recognised as the trawler Yacht Specialists. In this he certainly succeeded. By the late 60's Malahide shipyard was the envy of every other Irish yard and was highly regarded by many long established yards in the UK and Scotland.

As demand for the Malahide conversions grew, we bought up retired or bankrupt fishing vessels from Ireland, Scotland , the UK, France and Germany, to supplement the dwindling supply of suitable ex MOD boats. However by the end of the 1960's it was very difficult to find enough fishing vessels which could be converted at a reasonable cost. The boats had to be completely gutted, engines and tanks out, hulls made goods with new decks and bulwarks prior to receiving a customised fit-out. The simple conversion of 10 years previously was gone. The boats were now fitted with elaborate deckhouses and beautifully crafted accommodation areas.

Malahide Trawler Yachts = New Construction

No	LOA	Name	who	Country
1	52'	Tysmyntoo	?	UK
2.	60'	Glimmer	Thompson	USA
3.	65'	Glimmer II	Thompson	USA
4	?	Comet	Salg	USA
5.	66'	Calipso of Malahide	?	USA
6.	66'	Lady Anne of Malahide	?	Belgium
7.	68'	Connda Vanessa	Arckens	Belgium
8.	65'	Ursa Major	Sudarsky	USA
9.	65'	Kealjib	Bishop	USA
10.	60'	Cobra II (Now Explorer)	Verbeck	Holland
11.	60'	Captain A.E. Newlove	Hull Pilots	UK
12.	65'	La Russe	?	UK
13.	65'	??	Brawn	UK
14.	60'	Alastor	??	UK
15.	60'	Jimmy	??	UK
16.	63'	??	Sluyter	Germany
17.	68'	Sary	??	Spain

The quality of workmanship and equipment levels were constantly upgraded. The cost of converting an old hull was now very close to that of building new. There was also a growing demand from the USA and Europe for all new construction. The decision was made to cease conversion work and focus entirely on building new trawler yachts.

Although we were about 50 employees, including a small but highly skilled and motivated shipwright team, we could only build 2 or 3 new hulls a year, and we had a fit-out capacity for 8 - 10 boats. So we looked to other yards who could supply us with the base hulls for completing at Malahide.

4 boats were ordered from Norway, 11 from Portugal and 2 from Ghana. The Irish Government owned fishing boat yards also provided us with hulls.

The Norwegian boats were sailed back to Malahide under their own power for fitting-out. The Portugese hulls we towed back with our own 130' steel trawler. The Ghana boats were deck cargoed. Olaf, Alfs son, was responsible for this aspect of the business, ensuring the safe collection of the hulls and delivering of the completed yachts, under their own power, to their proud owners in the Mediteranean East coast USA and the Canadian Pacific Coast.

1970 - 1975 were boom times for the yard, We were over 70 personnel including 10 Portugese shipwrights who came with their families to Dublin, to share in our success.

We exhibited at the New York and Miami boat shows. Not with a full size Malahide Trawler yacht but with 5' scale models and a full size Iroko stern and forefoot some 17ft long!!! These were great times, we appointed 2 agents, we met a lot of people who were even more passionate about trawler yachts than we were!. All the years of "burning the midnight oil" be it on the drawing board or out in the hull building shed was all worthwhile! We had cracked the US market. We were on our way to a prosperous future, doing what we loved best, building these unique Ocean going passagemakers for discerning and appreciative yachtsmen.

Then came the two European oil crises of the 1970's. Inflation took off, labour and material costs escalated, bank interest rates soared, business confidence was lost, almost overnight.

It was possible to buy a 'trawler yacht' from the Far East for approximately the same price of just the base works hull of a Malahide boat. OK so I'm not comparing eggs with eggs, but the Far East supplied what the American market wanted. Orders from the USA began to dry up. We were suddenly too expensive. The end of the Malahide trawler yacht era was in sight!!

Towards the end of the 1970's both Alf Tyaranson and Jack Fielding died suddenly within a few months of each other. Heartbroken, mentally and physically exhausted having devoted all their immense energies over some 25 years to establishing the best wooden trawler yacht builder this side of the Atlantic. The loss of these two larger than life personalities was the final blow to the yards prospects.

The yard found a new owner and continued on with a much reduced workforce. We concentrated on the repair and new building of wooden commercial fishing vessels from 55' to 80'. But the magic was gone!

By 1981 this business too was in decline. Trawlers were getting bigger, more powerful and more sophisticated and all were being built in steel.

The gates closed for the last time in 1983.

Now, 19 years on, Malahide is a wealthy bustling town with 10 times the 1960's population. The huge sheds are gone but not forgotten. The slips and fitting out docks are filled in. Where once a thriving boatyard built the finest Ocean Going Trawler Yachts, there now stands a huge apartment complex overlooking a 300 berth marina.

And that's progress…….??????

Myles Stapleton
March 2002.