Rona at anchor, seen from above. Date, location and photographer are not established in the archive record.

Yacht profile

RONA, 1895

From Victorian yacht to sail training legend.

Name: RONA
Built: 1895
Builder: Stow & Son
Current reported LOA: 23.8 m
Original name: AURA

Rona has survived more than 130 years, but not unchanged. Launched in Shoreham in 1895 as the gaff yawl Aura, she survived a devastating grounding, the Second World War, a fundamental postwar reconstruction and more than three decades training young sailors at sea.

Record

Yacht at a glance

Current name: RONASources: NHS-UK; Documented
Original name: AURASources: NHS-UK; Documented
Possible former name: ALVERSources: Shoreham; Secondary source
Builder: Stow & Son / Stow & Sons, Shoreham, EnglandSources: NHS-UK, Shoreham; Documented
Designer: H. T. StowSources: Shoreham; Secondary source
Built: 1895Sources: NHS-UK; Documented
Original reported length: approx. 21.95 m / 72 ft; Secondary source
Current reported length: 23.8 m / 78 ftSources: Berthon; Reported by specialist source
Current reported volume: 70 GT in SuperYacht Times dataSources: SYT; Conflict / unresolved
Historic register volume: 84 GT in National Historic Ships dataSources: NHS-UK; Conflict / unresolved
Current accommodation listing: 11 berths in 3 cabinsSources: Berthon; Reported by specialist source
Current rig: KetchSources: Berthon; Reported by specialist source
Original rig: Gaff-rigged yawl; Secondary source
Current location in sales material: Batam, IndonesiaSources: Berthon; Reported by specialist source

Provenance note: differing dimensions and tonnage figures may reflect rebuilds, historical measurement conventions and later reporting. They are held apart here rather than silently merged into a single set of numbers.

Provenance confidence

Documented
Reported by specialist source
Secondary source
Conflict / unresolved
Requires verification

Photographic record

Rona in her present configuration

Images of the vessel as she appears today. They record the current configuration only, and are not evidence for the extent of surviving 1895 material.

Exterior — 9 photographs

Interior — 6 photographs

Photographs supplied to the archive. Dates, locations and photographer credits are not yet established; rights confirmation is required before publication.

General arrangement

Reported deck and accommodation layout

A line drawing showing the hull profile in plan, with the accommodation arranged between the forward and aft ends: forecastle and machinery space forward, a central saloon and adjoining cabins amidships, companionway and heads to either side, and further cabins and stowage aft. The long overhangs at bow and stern are shown as unaccommodated hull volume.

Line-drawing general arrangement plan of Rona showing the accommodation layout in plan view — Reported general arrangement. Neither the draughtsman nor the date of the drawing is established.

Undated and uncredited drawing, apparently from current marketing material. It represents the present configuration only and is not evidence for the 1895 or postwar arrangements.

1895

Origins

Rona was launched as AURA by Stow & Sons at Shoreham in 1895: a gaff-rigged yawl of approximately 72 ft, with a clipper bow and a long bowsprit, in the idiom of late-Victorian yacht building on the Sussex coast.

H. T. Stow is attributed as designer in secondary historical material. That attribution should be checked against Lloyd’s Register or original yard records before it is published as documented fact.

Sources: NHS-UK, Shoreham

Secondary source

Designer attribution and original dimensions currently rest on secondary sources.

Identity

Early identity and name history

AURAFrom 1895
Original name at launch in 1895.
Sources: NHS-UK
Documented
ALVER
Appears in secondary Stow-related historical material. Position in the chronology, and whether the name applied to this hull at all, is unresolved.
Sources: Shoreham
Secondary source
RONA
Later established identity, under which the vessel is registered and known today.
Sources: NHS-UK, RSP
Documented

Methodology note: Historical Yachts does not treat repeated online claims as proof of a name change without a registry, yard, archive or contemporary documentary source.

1903

Registration and motorisation

National Historic Ships reports re-registration in Liverpool in 1903, when an engine was first fitted — an early instance of auxiliary power in a hull built as a pure sailing yacht eight years earlier.

DocumentedDocumented by National Historic Ships, pending primary-register cross-check.

Sources: NHS-UK

1937

The grounding

Specialist sales-history material reports that Rona stranded during a storm in the West Country — identified by Berthon as Exmouth — severely damaging the stem.

She was subsequently taken to Morgan Giles at Teignmouth, the yard that would remain part of her story through the following decade. The stem damage matters for provenance: it is the first documented point at which major structure forward is likely to have been renewed.

Sources: Berthon

Reported by specialist source

Exact location, date and extent of damage are specialist-source reported and worth verifying against contemporary press, lifeboat records and yard books.

1939–45

War years and Morgan Giles

She reportedly remained at Morgan Giles through the Second World War. Sales-history material claims her lead keel was concealed for the duration — a compelling anecdote of the kind that circulates widely in classic-yacht history, and one that should be independently verified before it is presented as documented fact.

Postwar references place her under Ministry of Defence control. That is not the same claim as Royal Navy ownership, and Historical Yachts does not describe it as such unless a primary source confirms it.

Requires verification

Sources: Berthon

Postwar

The defining change

After the war she was sold to Captain Linsay Smith MBE and underwent a fundamental rebuild — not a refit, but a reworking of the hull’s length, profile and rig.

Approximately 6 ft of additional length
Original clipper bow replaced by the present bow form
Rig changed toward the present ketch configuration
Returned to sailing by around 1951

Reported by specialist source

Sources: Berthon

“How much of the yacht launched in 1895 is still Rona?”

Historical Yachts treats this not as a negative but as the central provenance question of the vessel. Physical authenticity, continuity of identity, surviving original structure, design intent and later historical significance are separate measures, and a yacht can score very differently on each. Reconstruction is part of her record, not an erasure of it.

1960

Royal Navy training loan

Specialist historical material reports that she was loaned to a Royal Navy training unit in 1960 and took part in a Tall Ships Race that year.

Loan and training use is not the same as proven Royal Navy ownership. The distinction is carried through this profile deliberately.

Reported by specialist source

Sources: Berthon

1961–1993

Lord Amory and the London Sailing Project

Lord Amory acquired Rona in 1961 for the London Sailing Project. She became the project’s central sail-training vessel and served it for thirty-two years, taking young people to sea to learn seamanship, responsibility and the ordinary discipline of working a watch with others.

This is the best-documented period of her life. The organisation, now the Rona Sailing Project, maintains its own history pages and an archive recording Tall Ships participation, voyages and the project’s development. She was sold out of project service in September 1993.

Sources: RSP, RSP Archive

Documented

Confidence is higher here because the operating organisation documents its own history and retains an archive.

After 1993

Return to private ownership and restoration

After 1993 Rona returned to private ownership and underwent extensive restoration and conversion back to private-yacht use, including a major restoration programme reported through the 1990s.

Details of that programme currently derive from brokerage material rather than yard records. Individual items — bulwark and joinery work, deck work, accommodation changes — are recorded here as reported, pending invoices, survey reports or yard documentation.

Reported by specialist source

Sources: Berthon

Material history

What remains from 1895?

This is a research framework, not an answer. No percentage of original material is claimed, because no public source supports one. Each line records what is known, reported or simply not established.

Hull structure

Known altered

Reported lengthening by approximately 6 ft during the postwar reconstruction implies substantial structural intervention. Extent of surviving 1895 fabric is not established in public sources.

Sources: Berthon

Keel

Unknown from public sources

Sales-history material refers to a lead keel during the war years. Whether the present keel is that casting is not documented publicly.

Sources: Berthon

Frames

Requires survey or yard documentation

No public source establishes how many original frames remain or when renewals were carried out.

Deck beams

Reported renewed

Oak deck beam renewals reported in the 1980s. Scope and proportion not stated in public sources.

Sources: Berthon

Deck structure

Reported renewed

Teak deck work reported; doghouse replacement reported in 1989.

Sources: Berthon

Joinery

Reported renewed

Bulwark and joinery work reported in the 1990s restoration period.

Sources: Berthon

Rig

Known altered

Original gaff yawl rig changed toward the present ketch configuration during the postwar rebuild.

Sources: Berthon

Bow geometry

Known altered

The original clipper bow was replaced by the present bow form in the postwar reconstruction.

Sources: Berthon

Machinery

Known altered

An engine is reported as first fitted around the 1903 Liverpool re-registration; machinery has been replaced and rebuilt since, most recently within reported maintenance history.

Sources: NHS-UK, Berthon

Interior layout

Known altered

Sail-training service and the later conversion back to private-yacht use both imply layout change. Current listing describes 11 berths in 3 cabins.

Sources: Berthon

2017 onward

Modern refit timeline

Reported maintenance history from current or recent sales material. These are listing statements, not independently verified yard records, and the year attributed to each item may reflect the listing’s own summary rather than an invoice date.

2017Reported acquisition by current or recent owner; maintenance programme resumed.Sources: Berthon
2018Mast work reported.Sources: Berthon
2019Hydraulics work and AIS / navigation electronics reported.Sources: Berthon
2020Generator rebuild and hot-water system reported.Sources: Berthon
2021Tender and electric toilets reported.Sources: Berthon
2022Pump replacements and head / shower work reported.Sources: Berthon
2023Exterior paint reported.Sources: Berthon

Unresolved

Conflicts in the public record

Conflicting statements in public sources
Field	Reading A	Reading B	Note
Length	approx. 21.95 m (historic)	23.8 m (current)	Consistent with reported postwar lengthening, but also with differing measurement conventions.Sources: NHS-UK, Berthon
Volume	84 GT (historic register reference)	70 GT (current market database)	Tonnage rules have changed repeatedly; the two figures are not directly comparable without their measurement basis.Sources: NHS-UK, SYT
Accommodation	“11 guests”	“11 berths in 3 cabins”	Not necessarily equivalent. Berth count and guest capacity are different claims.Sources: Berthon, SYT
Former name ALVER	Appears in secondary source	Absent from primary registers consulted to date	Not yet primary-verified; retained in the record as an open question.Sources: Shoreham
Royal Navy ownership	Commonly implied in some listings	MoD involvement and later loan to a Royal Navy training unit	Available evidence better supports the second reading. Ownership is not established.Sources: Berthon
Current asking price	Differing figures across databases	Differing currencies and dates	May reflect stale listings or currency conversion rather than a price change.Sources: Berthon, SYT

Historical Yachts preserves source conflicts until they can be resolved. A cleaner story is not more valuable than an accurate one.

Chronology

Timeline

1895Launched as AURA by Stow & Sons, Shoreham.Sources: NHS-UKDocumented
1903Re-registration in Liverpool reported, when an engine was first fitted.Sources: NHS-UKDocumented
1937Grounding in a West Country storm; taken to Morgan Giles, Teignmouth.Sources: BerthonReported by specialist source
1939–45War years reportedly spent at Morgan Giles; later references place her under Ministry of Defence control.Sources: BerthonRequires verification
PostwarSold to Captain Linsay Smith MBE; fundamental reconstruction.Sources: BerthonReported by specialist source
c. 1951Returned to sailing after the major rebuild.Sources: BerthonReported by specialist source
1960Loaned to a Royal Navy training unit; Tall Ships Race participation reported.Sources: BerthonReported by specialist source
1961Acquired by Lord Amory for the London Sailing Project.Sources: RSPDocumented
1961–1993Sail-training service; 32 years with the project.Sources: RSP, RSP ArchiveDocumented
1993Sold out of project service in September.Sources: RSPDocumented
1990sReturn to private ownership and extensive restoration / conversion.Sources: BerthonReported by specialist source
2017Reported acquisition by current or recent owner.Secondary source
2020sContinuing reported maintenance; offered for sale at the time of source review.Sources: Berthon, SYTReported by specialist source

Current status

Where is Rona today?

At the time of the current source review, brokerage material places Rona in Batam, Indonesia, and offered for sale.

No asking price is recorded here as a fixed fact. Published figures differ across databases and may reflect stale listings or currency conversion; any price cited in future should carry the source observed and the date of observation. Market listings become out of date quickly and are not a statement about the vessel’s history.

Public sources observed: 30 August 2026.

Reported by specialist sourceSources: Berthon, SYT

Significance

Why Rona matters

Victorian survival

A hull launched in 1895 that is still sailing is rare in itself, and rarer still with a traceable line of yards, owners and registrations behind it.

Reconstruction as history

The postwar rebuild changed her length, bow and rig. That is part of her identity rather than simply a loss of originality, and it is recorded as such.

Documented social history

Thirty-two years of sail training gave her a social record that most private yachts never acquire, held in an archive rather than in anecdote.

References

Source register

Registry / heritage registerNHS-UK · Primary
National Historic Ships UK — RONA register entryhttps://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/735/rona
Institutional project historyRSP · Primary
Rona Sailing Project — historyhttps://www.ronasailingproject.org.uk/pages/history
ArchiveRSP Archive · Primary
Rona Sailing Project archivehttps://rsparchive.org.uk/
Specialist brokerage historyBerthon · Secondary
Berthon International — RONA sales history / listinghttps://www.berthoninternational.com/yacht-sales-brokerage/yachts-for-sale/78-custom-stow-sons-classic-ketch-rona/Sales material. Historical statements here are treated as reported until verified against yard, registry or archive records.
Secondary local maritime historyShoreham · Secondary
Shoreham by Sea — Stow & Suter Yachtshttps://shorehambysea.com/stow-suter-yachts/
Market databaseSYT · Market
SuperYacht Times — RONA profilehttps://www.superyachttimes.com/yachts/rona/overview

Primary-source follow-up required

Lloyd’s Register entries for 1895 onward
Original registration and re-registration records
Morgan Giles yard records, Teignmouth
Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy records
Yard invoices for the postwar reconstruction
Restoration documentation from the 1990s onward

Research status

Preliminary public-source provenance review

This profile is a working historical record, not a completed provenance certification. Primary registers, yard archives and restoration records may materially refine the chronology.

Public-source review date: 30 August 2026. This is the date the public record was reviewed, not the date of a vessel survey.

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