She was built on the island of Bute as a gentlemen’s yacht, but over a century later is now helping revive the fortunes of a boatyard on Wearside in the north east of England.

The 50ft Señora was seen as a classic wooden motor yacht, in larch and oak. Leather upholstery, mahogany furniture and brass fittings providing a touch of luxury below decks. She was described as the E-Type Jaguar of her day, but she almost ended up as firewood.

That was a low point in her long story. It began at the Archibald Malcolm boatyard at Port Bannatyne on Bute, where she was built along lines laid down by famous yacht designer Alfred Mylne. Finished in 1908 her first owner was Scottish businessman Gavin Rankin who had made a fortune out of the metal pipe business, and wanted her to cruise the West Highlands and Islands.

After four years she was sold for the first of many times. Requisitioned for war service in 1916. After the war she was sold again and in 1920 she was bought by Lord Inchcape, chairman and managing director of the P&O and British India Steam Navigation Companies who would take the great and the good of government and industry cruising on the Thames.

She was again requisitioned for war work in the Second World War, and was one of the flotilla of small boats to help in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

One of her subsequent owners was a car dealer/motor racer John Young who entertained world champion Graham Hill on board the Señora, amongst others.

But her fortunes were to decline and in March last year it was reported the Señora was “A Lady in Distress, in danger of being cut up for firewood!”

The boatyard where she was stored at in Newhaven on England’s south coast, could no longer afford to keep her.

But £10,000 was raised by the Señora Trust set up by concerned enthusiasts not only to save her, but to give her a new role in the 21st century

Their vision is that the Senora’s restoration will provide a platform for the return of shipbuilding apprenticeships to Sunderland, which was once one of the biggest shipbuilding towns in the world.

Last month she arrived on Wearside for transformation into “The People’s Yacht”. The work will be carried out by 18 young apprentices, as part of their supervised training for NVQ diplomas in Marine Engineering..

They will be assisted by welders and former shipyard workers in the area, as well as their instructors. The work will be done at the Pallion shipyard, with a target completion in time for the 2018 Tall Ships Race in Sunderland. It will be the first time in 30 years that apprentices have been taken on at the yard.

The trust is now seeking to raise a further £50,000 to fund the work and turn the Señora into a sail training vessel. Crucially four training dinghies will also be built by the apprentices. They will travel with Señora, making her “a floating sailing school”.

Kim Simpson of the Señora Trust said the vessel was the flagship of a project of significance to the north east and Sunderland. It was about training and getting jobs for the apprentices, but once restored, Señora, would become “the people’s yacht”, he said.

The vessel will be berthed on The Wear, where the ship will be charted commercially as a sail training vessel. Profit from this will then provide free sail training to community groups and charities.

Simpson hopes the combination of both dinghy and yacht sailing will be a draw.

“You learn how to sail by using dinghies so the combination of dinghy and yacht sailing, we hope, will be quite attractive and unique,” he said.

Perhaps one day she will make it back to the Kyles of Bute.