Ailsa Shipyard

The Ailsa Shipbuilding Company was established at Troon on the Ayrshire coast in 1885 under the patronage of the Marquess of Ailsa, and operated for the better part of a century as one of Scotland's notable smaller yards. Its output covered coasters, dredgers, tugs, paddle steamers and — in the Edwardian period — a small number of large private steam yachts.

The surviving example most familiar to the yachting market is Madiz, launched in 1902 to a design by the celebrated Glasgow naval architects G.L. Watson & Co. At 55.4 metres with a 3.99-metre draught and a riveted steel hull, she is among the oldest large yachts still in active service, and her repeated restorations have kept an authentic Clyde-built Edwardian hull afloat well past its intended life.

Ailsa's Troon yard closed to shipbuilding in the late twentieth century, but the classic yacht sector continues to treat vessels carrying its name as significant historical objects rather than simply old boats.