The cruiser-racer Altricia made her debut at the 2016 London Boat Show this month, fresh from her full restoration by the master shipwrights of Mylor Yacht Harbour’s marine team.

Altricia emerged picture-perfect from her Mylor shed to complete sea trials where she proved herself as swift and technically brilliant under sail as she is beautiful – a full 50 years after she took her maiden voyage on the Clyde.

She is the shining apple of the eye for her distinguished seafaring owner, Peter Methven OBE, joined Mylor marine team to show her off at London’s ExCeL exhibition centre. Visitors were able to climb on board for a guided tour, as well as to enter an exclusive prize draw for the chance to win a winter’s shore-storage at Mylor Yacht Harbour.

“Altricia’s sailing trials where a real success,” said Henry Goldsmith, project manager of the marine team. “Bear in mind that none of us, Peter included, had ever sailed her before the trial and it was anyone’s guess how she’d perform. Fortunately she put our fears to rest: she pointed well, she was fast, powerful and steady. I think she wants to be sailed quite hard, heeled right over with rails in the water, and when she gets in the groove she absolutely charges.”

Altricia is a 40 foot McGruer classic yacht, built of African Mahogany in 1965 to the eight metre cruiser-racer formula. She arrived at Mylor Yacht Harbour in 2013 and in the hands of shipwrights Chris "Ollie" Oliver and Reed Downing, initially had everything below her waterline repaired. She has since undergone an intricate method of teak deck board and king plank fitting which involves no nailing or screwing, just gluing plank by plank – a process which maximises both the water-tight integrity and the smooth beauty of the deck.

“She is looking amazing and there are hardly any other yards in this country who could have laid her deck to this standard,” said Peter. “McGruer yachts were so well built and I feel proud to have been in the position to know what I wanted and to work closely with the Mylor team to bring this lovely vessel back to her former glory.”

Roger Graffy, managing director of Mylor Yacht Harbour, said: “We have the skills to match any vessel, ancient or modern, but to be entrusted with a rare classic yacht like Altricia is a real privilege. Our master craftsmen have decades of experience between them and a project like this allows us to nurture younger talent to make sure we take those brilliant classic skills into the future.”

In Altricia’s case the marine team’s skills were put to redesigning her mahogany cockpit, replacing her windows and converting her to a wheel steering system. She has had a full electrical rewire, installation of new electronics and systems, deck fittings and fairleads, rigging, hatches and winches – and a new mast and set of sails which take her back to her original rig plan.