Yacht Margaret is one of the oldest boats in the museum collection. It is believed to have been built in Whitehaven in around 1780 for the Curwen family, who owned and lived on Belle Isle on Windermere. 

Margaret raced against other yachts on Windermere for many years and is believed to be the oldest surviving sailing yacht in the UK.   

After a long life on Windermere, Margaret was eventually taken to Southport. George Pattinson, the founder of the Windermere Steamboat Museum, set out on a quest to locate Margaret in the 1950s and return the vessel to Windermere. He eventually found it lying upside down in a field, being used as a henhouse.  

Margaret has now been preserved and cleaned by a team of conservation volunteers. The iron and copper fastenings, all of which would have been constructed by hand, have also been conserved.