The Hurley story


HURLEY 18 Price from £1,100


HURLEY 20 Price from £1,500


The Hurley 20, a roomy 6.1m (20ft) family cruiser with a performance to interest the ex-dinghy sailors


Hurley 20 A replacement for the Felicity, the Hurley 20 was designed in 1967 by Ian Anderson. He was asked to produce a roomy 6.1m (20ft) family cruiser with a performance to interest the ex-dinghy sailor. Keeping costs down to make the boat affordable was important, but without sacrifi cing strength or safety.


The round-bilge design was based on the


Some 300 Hurley 18s were built Hurley 18


The Hurley 18 was designed at about the same time as the 22 and shared a common design style. Key to the design was the requirement for offshore performance and the characteristics of larger deep- keeled yachts, with a good ballast/weight ratio but on a smaller scale. She is a stiff and comfortable sea boat making the most of the limited internal space. Commentators noted the Hurley 18’s ‘sweet’ hull and overall lines, which were given priority in the design over accommodation. One also commented that in small cruiser racing most of the Hurley boats seemed to be able to ‘wipe the eye’ of most of their rivals in size. The 18 was referred to as a ‘right-looking boat which employs her 50 per cent ballast ratio where it matters and which, for her size, is powerful’.


The Hurley 18 won a place in the top 10


at the Weymouth One-of-a-Kind Rally in 1966. Some 300 Hurley 18s were built until the line was discontinued in 1972.


Hurley goes international By 1966 the company had a truly international reach. In that year, Hurley


Margret Hurley attended many ’60s boat shows


exhibited at shows in London, New York, Hamburg, Malmö, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Milan, Genoa, Berlin, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. George was supported in this by his elder daughter Margret, who was still in her teens, starting even before her O-levels. Margret and George would go to shows in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia, sometimes towing a Silhouette or other model behind their family car, and Margret would play a full part in setting up the stand, greeting enquirers, answering technical questions and handling sales. This included a boat show in Barcelona where her O-level Spanish came in most handy!


She quickly established a reputation for no-nonsense professionalism – no mean achievement in the male-dominated marine industry of the 1960s. Margret managed the 1965 show in Copenhagen on her own for two weeks, for example, achieving sales of 20 boats.


The early London Boat Shows were held at Olympia and, to keep costs down, the family would travel up together and live in a caravan which they had towed and parked nearby.


Practical Boat Owner 539 September 2011 • www.pbo.co.uk


Felicity, and both bilge and fi n keel versions were offered. Like the other members of the Hurley line, the H20 is a good sailing boat above all, with a proper seagoing, sailing hull form. It followed the design philosophy of the 22, putting a good hull shape and seaworthiness above interior comforts. Given its smaller size, the compromise makes itself felt more clearly than in the 22. One reviewer called the 20 ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, after sailing her in a Force 8 and noting how she took the waves while maintaining perfect helm balance. These are typical of the reasons why the Hurley 20 remains popular to this day. Some 435 H20s were produced.


Hurley 27


The Hurley 27 was designed in 1971 by Ian Anderson to provide a larger boat in the Hurley line. She was based on the Bowman 26, a boat which Anderson had designed for the


HURLEY 27 Price from £5,000


The Hurley 27 from 1971, based on the Bowman 26 35


Hurley New_fjp.indd 35


3/8/11 12:45:21


David Harding


David Harding


David Harding


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