Fife's fliers coming home

The Fife dynasty, from William who founded the yard on the shore at Fairlie early in the 19th century, his son and successor, William, who apprenticed to him in 1835 to successive grandsons who carried on until 1944, the dictum that if a yacht was fair she would also be fast was uppermost.

Although eventually overtaken by science in yacht design, the Fife-built yachts, of which around 80 are thought to remain worldwide, may be regarded as some of the most beautiful, functional artifacts created by man and that is no exaggeration. They were manifestly fair and they were very fast.

Now the playthings of kings, princes, potentates and mere millionaires - all of whom share a boundless enthusiasm for classic Fife yachts and the financial means to restore, maintain and race them - these great flying birds of the seas will once again compete over the same courses sailed by Lipton and the wealthy Glasgow merchant venturers, kings and Kaisers. Those readers who perhaps recall the wonderful Kelvingrove exhibition of Lipton's yachting trophies, an outrageous display of conspicuous consumption, received a hint of the kind of wealth which created the Glasgow we know and of which Clyde yachting was an adornment.

Behind this stirring event, the first-ever Fife Regatta on the Clyde, are Glasgow-based yacht artist, Alistair Houston, 32, who lives and works from a flat in Cessnock, Glasgow, and his sister, Fiona, 33, who runs a sign business in Beith in Ayrshire. When a fleet of more than a dozen Fife yachts ties up off Largs on June 20 it will be down to their dream, their vision.

Their yachting background started from an early age, the love of sail and of the Clyde, arising from a yachting father, an Ayrshire architect. Alistair Houston's own love affair with Fife yachts began in the Mediterranean when he was a 19-year-old yacht bum - self confessed - and looking for a berth on the yacht harbour in Palma.

''I was still sold on big, flashy, plastic yachts - gin palaces if you like - with lifts and discos on board. I had day work on board just such a boat and the owner asked me if I was any good at painting. As it happened I was and he asked me to paint the boat's name on the side of his Land Rover. He watched me and remarked that I was good at it. I said to him I could paint a picture of his yacht as well so he told me to get on with it.

''I did so and he bought the painting and told the guy who owned the yacht in the next berth and I began getting commissions. I was doing what I enjoyed - painting yachts and sailing in them - but they were still plastic gin palaces.''

It was then he glanced over the side one day and for the first time clapped eyes on a wooden yacht built by Fife of Fairlie. Two Americans were on deck and they began chatting. One remarked that Alistair was obviously Scottish and asked where he was from.

When he told them he was from Fairlie in Ayrshire they looked up in disbelief. The vessel which he was admiring was designed and built there. ''I admitted I had lived all my life in Fairlie but knew nothing of the story of the Fifes so they enlightened me and passed on their enthusiasm,'' he smiles.

Alistair Houston entered the slightly-unreal world of classic yacht racing, a similar mileau to those of vintage Ferraris or Bugattis or Bentleys or balloon racing from Chateau D'Oex in the Swiss Alps - worlds where the very rich rub shoulders with mechanics whose passport is knowledge or skill.

Encouraged by the Americans, he began painting the Fife yachts which were scattered around the Mediterranean and then searched out archive photographs and drawings which he would take back to Scotland. He eventually put together an exhibition, shown at Lord Glasgow's Kelburn Estate at Fairlie - a venue which was at the heart of classic yacht racing on the Clyde in its heyday. Aided by his American friends inviting fellow enthusiasts from around the world - the paintings sold out in 20 minutes. Alistair became a professional yacht artist, a career now in its seventh year.

''I am the ordinary guy from Cessnock who enjoys sailing but who rubs shoulders with Prince Albert in Monaco and all the other big hitters. We share a common interest in Fife yachts. A couple of years ago I was crewing in one of the most beautiful of the Fife yachts in a race of Monaco. We were floating around waiting for the wind, surrounded by these glorious Fife yachts, and I said why don't we bring them all back home. There's no shortage of wind on the Clyde.

''One of them asked 'why don't you do it?'. It made sense because I knew most of the owners and the guys who sailed the boats for them. They are similar in one respect, in that they recognise the timeless value of such a beautiful object. The yachts are totally impractical yet they exercise this tremendous attraction.''

Most racing of classic Fife yachts takes place in the Med, but, as he developed the plan for a Clyde Fife regatta, Alistair learned that a considerable number of Fife yachts were heading for northern France this summer to race in honour of one of their own, the French national yachting hero, Eric Tabarly, winner of the first round-the-world single hand race. From the Brittany coast to the Clyde is a short haul for these vessels, so the battle was won before it began.

Fourteen Fife yachts are expected, including Tabarly's Pen Duick - a replica built lovingly to an original set of drawings. The invitation to Tabarly's event at Benelot in Brittany indicates that ''for many this gathering will be a prelude to the regatta that Alistair Houston is organising in Scotland from June 20''.

Hopefully, Tuiga, a classic 15 metre racer with a crew of 16 - owned by Prince Albert of Monaco - will grace the Clyde. The Swedish Fife owner, Bo Erikson, by contrast will arrive in the Clyde in Magda IV courtesy of his home town, Domsio, which has agreed to sponsor him for the great occasion.

The Solway Maid, with ten guests and ten crew, will arouse much interest. Owned by English computer magnate, Tim Sandiford, she was build by the Fifes to the orders of Sir Ivan Carr of Carr's Water Biscuit fame and sailed out of Kirkcudbright.

Kelburn Castle will host a reception, an important link with the past because the ground for the original Fairlie yard was leased to William Fife by Lord Glasgow in 1790 when Fife became tired of wheelrighting.

The eminent yacht historian, Dr William Collier, who, with a partner, runs the boatyard, Fairlie Restorations, in Hamble, Hampshire, specialising in restoring Fife yachts, owns the Fife archive - 12,000 items of plans and drawings spanning the history of the Fairlie yard.

He has chronicled the growth of yachting on the Clyde, of how the from Glasgow to Ailsa Craig the mighty expanse of the Clyde Estuary was perfect, sheltered, water for yachting. It is always windy, yet if the blow is too great on one shore, a quick dash to the Argyll shore or behind an island will give reasonable conditions.

The wealthy Victorians who lined the Clyde with great mansions designed by the fashionable architects of the day made the obvious step to yachting in the latter half of the 19th century.

One such wealthy Glasgow merchant, James Smith of Jordanhill, a scientist and author, was among the first patrons of William Fife, commissioning a six-ton cutter which is the earliest documented Fife yacht. That was 50 years earlier, and it is generally accepted that Fife, the former wheelright, was a key figure in the growth of yachting and racing on the Clyde.

The beach at Fairlie, it has to be said, was unlikely ground, being one of the few corners of the Clyde where deep water does not come close in to the shore. The site of the yard where William Fife first tried his hand with small boats is now under housing although the remains of a slipway may be seen at low tide.

James Hamilton, the first commodore of the Royal Northern Yacht Club on its formation in 1824, had his 50 ton yawl, Lamlash, built by Fife in 1812 and she was the first Scottish yacht to cruise the Mediterranean.

As Alistair Houston points out: ''The Clyde was the centrepiece of the European yachting and social calendar. For a brief time part of Scotland's maritime history is coming alive and it is coming home.''