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Fairey Marine
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Fairey Marine
Fairey Marine Ltd, latterly known as FBM Marine, was a boat building company based on the River Hamble, Southampton, England. The company was created in the late 1940s by Sir Charles Richard Fairey and Fairey Aviation's managing director, Mr. Chichester-Smith. Both were avid sailing enthusiasts along with Chichester-Smith's good friend and former Olympic yachtsman, Charles Currey.
Fairey was also a keen J-class yacht enthusiast. Fairey came to own Shamrock V built in 1930 for Sir Thomas Lipton's fifth and last America's Cup challenge. Designed by Charles Nicholson, she was the first British yacht to be built to the new J Class rule and is the only remaining J built in wood. Sir T.O.M. Sopwith had considerable knowledge of yacht racing and purchased Shamrock V in 1932 to gain experience in J Class racing. He challenged in 1933 and using his experience from Shamrock V went on to build "Endeavour". Shamrock V was then sold to Sir Richard Fairey. In the pre war years, Fairey had commissioned yacht designer Charles Nicholson to build him a 12 Metre class racing yacht. To support this endeavour Sir Richard utilised the designers and engineers at the Fairey Aviation company's design office to undertake research, design and development work. Hydrodynamic research was augmented by construction of the world's first experimental low speed wind tunnel for racing yacht design at the Hayes factory. Although the primary use of the wind tunnel was for sails research, Fairey engineers also developed a method of experiment for measuring the component known as skin friction in naval architecture which was used in both the hull and sails research work. The resulting craft was known as Flica, in this craft Fairey won 35 flags in 39 races in 1932 and in the following year 49 flags in 55 races.
As the war drew to a close Fairey and Chichester-Smith both decided that they should produce sailing dinghies utilising techniques that had been employed in the construction of aircraft. Charles Currey was recruited to help run the company when he came out of the Royal Navy. The world air speed record holder Peter Twiss joined Fairey Marine Ltd from Fairey Aviation in 1960 and was responsible for development and sales of day-cruisers. In 1969, commanding the Huntsman 707 Fordsport, he took part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race, and included among his crew members, Rally champion Roger Clark. Boats were primarily designed by Alan Burnard.
In the early years, thousands of dinghies were produced by Fairey Marine including the Firefly, Albacore, Falcon (dinghy), Swordfish (dinghy), Jollyboat, Flying Fifteen, 505 and International 14's along with the much smaller Dinky and Duckling. Later on in the 1950s they produced the larger sailing cruisers, the Atalanta (named after Sir Richard's wife), Titania, Fulmar and the 27-foot (8.2 m) Fisherman motor sailer (based on the Fairey Lifeboat hull) along with the 15' Cinderella (outboard runabout)/ Carefree (inboard runabout), and the 16'6" Faun (outboard powered family cruiser).
In the 1960s Fairey designed and built a range of wooden-hulled speedboats and motor launches designed by Alan Burnand.
These became well known in boating circles for their speed, stability and good rough-water handling. Craft were sold to both wealthy and famous individuals, including Deborah Kerr, Prince Albert of Belgium and Billy Butlin. The craft also starred in the James Bond film From Russia with Love. Sean Connery as James Bond can be seen driving a white Fairey Huntress and the being chased by a Fairey Huntsman 28s and Fairey Huntress.
Types such as the Dagger and Spearfish were used as police launches and as pinnaces by the Royal Navy. In the early 1970s Fairey switched to glass reinforced plastic hulls of the same design. The range was expanded to include cabin cruiser types (such as the Swordfish) which could still put in an impressive turn of speed and won several cruiser-class long distances races, such as the London-Monte Carlo race.
Fairey also manufactured 2 × 53-foot motor cruisers in the early 70s which were named the Amira. Designed by Alan Burnard, they were designed with cold moulded ply construction hull and ply superstructure. The Fairey Amira was designed to take two engines with up to 1000 bhp each, one of the boats was fitted with 2 Isotta Fraschini 700 hp v8 engines with ZF vee drive gearboxes and the other was fitted with 2 MTU 8v331 tc80 engines each developing 800 hp with ZF vee drive gearboxes. The design speed for this boat was up to 40 knots; the boat was offered with a wide range of engines including gas turbines. Only one of the pair still remains, this is hull No1 "Fataam", her home port is Puerto Duquesa in southern Spain.
Today, Swordsman Marine builds motorboats based on Fairey designs. These include 30-foot (9.1 m) speedboats based on the Spearfish, using the same hull with a modified cabin and modern engine and controls, and larger cabin cruisers based on a modified version of the Dagger design. Fairey Marine absorbed the East Cowes firm of Groves and Gutteridge Ltd., established since 1899. One of the main products of the company has been lifeboats for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
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Fairey Marine
Fairey Marine Ltd, latterly known as FBM Marine, was a boat building company based on the River Hamble, Southampton, England. The company was created in the late 1940s by Sir Charles Richard Fairey and Fairey Aviation's managing director, Mr. Chichester-Smith. Both were avid sailing enthusiasts along with Chichester-Smith's good friend and former Olympic yachtsman, Charles Currey.
Fairey was also a keen J-class yacht enthusiast. Fairey came to own Shamrock V built in 1930 for Sir Thomas Lipton's fifth and last America's Cup challenge. Designed by Charles Nicholson, she was the first British yacht to be built to the new J Class rule and is the only remaining J built in wood. Sir T.O.M. Sopwith had considerable knowledge of yacht racing and purchased Shamrock V in 1932 to gain experience in J Class racing. He challenged in 1933 and using his experience from Shamrock V went on to build "Endeavour". Shamrock V was then sold to Sir Richard Fairey. In the pre war years, Fairey had commissioned yacht designer Charles Nicholson to build him a 12 Metre class racing yacht. To support this endeavour Sir Richard utilised the designers and engineers at the Fairey Aviation company's design office to undertake research, design and development work. Hydrodynamic research was augmented by construction of the world's first experimental low speed wind tunnel for racing yacht design at the Hayes factory. Although the primary use of the wind tunnel was for sails research, Fairey engineers also developed a method of experiment for measuring the component known as skin friction in naval architecture which was used in both the hull and sails research work. The resulting craft was known as Flica, in this craft Fairey won 35 flags in 39 races in 1932 and in the following year 49 flags in 55 races.
As the war drew to a close Fairey and Chichester-Smith both decided that they should produce sailing dinghies utilising techniques that had been employed in the construction of aircraft. Charles Currey was recruited to help run the company when he came out of the Royal Navy. The world air speed record holder Peter Twiss joined Fairey Marine Ltd from Fairey Aviation in 1960 and was responsible for development and sales of day-cruisers. In 1969, commanding the Huntsman 707 Fordsport, he took part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race, and included among his crew members, Rally champion Roger Clark. Boats were primarily designed by Alan Burnard.
In the early years, thousands of dinghies were produced by Fairey Marine including the Firefly, Albacore, Falcon (dinghy), Swordfish (dinghy), Jollyboat, Flying Fifteen, 505 and International 14's along with the much smaller Dinky and Duckling. Later on in the 1950s they produced the larger sailing cruisers, the Atalanta (named after Sir Richard's wife), Titania, Fulmar and the 27-foot (8.2 m) Fisherman motor sailer (based on the Fairey Lifeboat hull) along with the 15' Cinderella (outboard runabout)/ Carefree (inboard runabout), and the 16'6" Faun (outboard powered family cruiser).
In the 1960s Fairey designed and built a range of wooden-hulled speedboats and motor launches designed by Alan Burnand.
These became well known in boating circles for their speed, stability and good rough-water handling. Craft were sold to both wealthy and famous individuals, including Deborah Kerr, Prince Albert of Belgium and Billy Butlin. The craft also starred in the James Bond film From Russia with Love. Sean Connery as James Bond can be seen driving a white Fairey Huntress and the being chased by a Fairey Huntsman 28s and Fairey Huntress.
Types such as the Dagger and Spearfish were used as police launches and as pinnaces by the Royal Navy. In the early 1970s Fairey switched to glass reinforced plastic hulls of the same design. The range was expanded to include cabin cruiser types (such as the Swordfish) which could still put in an impressive turn of speed and won several cruiser-class long distances races, such as the London-Monte Carlo race.
Fairey also manufactured 2 × 53-foot motor cruisers in the early 70s which were named the Amira. Designed by Alan Burnard, they were designed with cold moulded ply construction hull and ply superstructure. The Fairey Amira was designed to take two engines with up to 1000 bhp each, one of the boats was fitted with 2 Isotta Fraschini 700 hp v8 engines with ZF vee drive gearboxes and the other was fitted with 2 MTU 8v331 tc80 engines each developing 800 hp with ZF vee drive gearboxes. The design speed for this boat was up to 40 knots; the boat was offered with a wide range of engines including gas turbines. Only one of the pair still remains, this is hull No1 "Fataam", her home port is Puerto Duquesa in southern Spain.
Today, Swordsman Marine builds motorboats based on Fairey designs. These include 30-foot (9.1 m) speedboats based on the Spearfish, using the same hull with a modified cabin and modern engine and controls, and larger cabin cruisers based on a modified version of the Dagger design. Fairey Marine absorbed the East Cowes firm of Groves and Gutteridge Ltd., established since 1899. One of the main products of the company has been lifeboats for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.