Meander sailing under her distinctive tan gaff-ketch rig
Built by hand · travelled by sea · preserved in evidence

MEANDER

Three decades, thousands of sea miles and one remarkable hand-built yacht — from North Devon to the Atlantic, Bahamas, Scotland, Faroes, Liverpool and Aberystwyth.

Built 1990–92Atlantic voyager37 ft gaff ketchLiving archive
Begin the storyExplore photographs
A wandering home

Built for “Me and Her”

Robert G. “Bob” Grimson designed and built Meander in North Devon as home, studio and ocean cruiser for himself and Jean. Launched at Watermouth Harbour in 1992, she would cross the Atlantic, cruise the Bahamas, return east with Chris Phillips and later voyage to the Faroes.

A handmade yacht whose story survives through first-hand accounts, photographs, logs and the memories of those who knew her.
Definitive chronology

Meander through time

Select an event to reveal more.

Designed, built and launched

Ilfracombe and Watermouth, North Devon.

Bob built a ferro-cement hull around a galvanised steel armature and fitted Meander for two-person life aboard.

First-hand account

Atlantic crossing

The Grimson ocean years begin.

Bob's biography records cruising from Venezuela to Nova Scotia, with the Bahamas a recurring home ground.

Strongly supported

Nearly 50,000 miles

Bob publishes “Bob the Builder”.

The Classic Boat article documents the build, interior, rig development and a decade of experience.

First-hand account

Chris Phillips crosses east

A new custodian and a return Atlantic passage.

The passage earned the RNSA Tim Sex Trophy; exact endpoints remain under research.

Route details unresolved

Major Scottish refit

Coachroof reconstruction, repaint and Beta engine.

Meander returned to Loch Creran on 4 May 2015 after eighteen months ashore.

First-hand account

Voyage to the Faroes

Western Scotland → Faroes → Hebrides.

Dated logs support a detailed route through Stornoway, Suðuroy, Sandur, Miðvágur and Tórshavn.

Strongly supported

Liverpool chapter

Peter and Maureen Hennessey.

Chris records the 16 July 2019 handover; a 2021 Conwy result independently identifies Peter at the helm.

Confirmed

Aberystwyth

Meander enters her present Welsh chapter.

The exact Liverpool-to-Aberystwyth transfer is one of the archive's key open questions.

Unresolved
Voyage explorer

A life mapped in passages

Full voyage archive →
Then & now

A working yacht across decades

The surviving photographs reveal change as clearly as continuity. Later Phillips-era images are labelled as such rather than presented as Bob's original layout.

Meander under sail
Then: Meander's evolved tan gaff-ketch sail plan, developed after launch.
Meander freshly repainted during refit
Renewed: hull and superstructure during the 2013–15 Phillips refit.
Open Then & Now galleryTour the boat
People & papers

Two custodians, one evolving yacht

Primary sources

Bob Grimson

Designer, builder, marine artist and first owner. Explore the original liveaboard concept, rig evolution, Jean, the Atlantic years and the archived 2003 article.

Bob Grimson archive →
Original documents

Chris Phillips

Explore a decade of passage-making, Scottish cruising, refit photography and surviving SERCHTHRIFT articles arranged chronologically.

Chris Phillips archive →
Open research

Help complete Meander's story

Do you have a 1992 launch photograph, the endpoints of the 2009 Atlantic passage, a Peter Bunting connection, or evidence of the Liverpool-to-Aberystwyth handover?

See the missing pieces