Opposite: the Campbell/Hunt Christina Thunderbolt won the first Cowes-Torquay in 1961 driven by Tommy Sopwith (of the eponymous America’s Cup family) – seen here at Whittle Marine on the Isle of Wight keeping company with a Swordsman 33 that is in for a ‘nut and bolt’ restoration. Powered by two mighty 325hp Cadillac petrol engines, Thunderbolt completed the 156nm course at a bumpy average of 24.5mph. Birth of a Huntress (above left). Classic line-up (top) – a Huntsman 31 and 28, Swordsman 33 (centre) and Huntress. Laying up a Firefly (above) and a later flush-deck version of the Fairey Atalanta centreboarder (left) – many of which have significant ocean crossings to their name
draws the appropriate planks for the first skin from the rack and staples them to the mould. The second and subsequent skins are laid in alternate directions and are glued, underside only, by being passed through the rollers of a glue-spreading machine; as the second skin is applied the staples holding the first are removed, and so on until the appropriate number of skins is built up. ‘The mould itself is mounted on a flat
metal plate carried on a trolley moving on a rail track. The plate is larger than the mould to allow the rubber bag which is lowered onto the shell “lay-up” on the mould to be clamped down round the edges to ensure a good airtight joint. A vacuum is then applied until the rubber bag is stretched skin-tight over the whole of the top surface of the shell on the mould. ‘The whole unit is then wheeled into the
autoclave where steam heat of over 100°C and additional pressure are applied. The resultant pressure on the planks ensures good contact while the shell is being cured. After at least half an hour (depending on the number of skins used for the shell) the baked shell is taken out of the oven and removed from the mould.’ However, other factors are often forgot- ten. Hot moulding required a big capital
investment for the equipment and also for the solid timber mould for each boat type produced. It was also very labour inten- sive, both in the actual laying-up and in the subsequent smoothing off and sanding of the baked hull. Additionally, the laying-up had to be completed quickly, before the glue set, or it would not cure properly in the autoclave. There is a quite unfounded legend that the wartime Mosquito
Fairey built
bombers at Hamble. They did not, but many parts for the Mosquito were indeed constructed in Hamble, at Folland’s fac- tory, just half a mile away. The wartime Fairey Firefly aircraft built
at Hamble Point – unlike the wooden Mosquito itself – had a metal semi-mono- coque structure, although Fairey certainly supplied components for other aircraft as well in various materials. Fairey Marine’s naval architect, Alan Burnard, said that the largest autoclave, just over 30ft long, which was used for the motorboats, had been installed in the mid-1950s for curing the bulbous radar radomes of the AEW3 Fairey Gannet. However, it is interesting that Fairey
were not alone in using these moulding techniques for boat production. A Canadian firm, for example, Industrial Shipping, also
adopted boat hull production instead of aircraft parts after the war, and shipped thousands of speedboat hulls to be com- pleted by various boatyards throughout north America. A fascinating footnote is that they did not fit the transoms to their boats, so the hulls could be stacked inside each other for transport. The 12ft Firefly was chosen for the
1948 Olympics, where it was of course the vehicle for the first of Paul Elvstrøm’s four Olympic gold medals. The Firefly was followed over the next
20 years by the Albacore, Duckling, Finn, 505, Flying Dutchman, Falcon, Fulmar, Jollyboat and International 14. Their hulls were renowned for their longevity, resis- tance to rot, stiffness, light weight and elegance. There was also the innovative 26ft Atalanta sailing cruiser, which though few people’s idea of pretty was an excep- tionally sturdy and seaworthy yacht capable of crossing the roughest ocean in safety… If not comfort. By 1958 Fairey claimed that it was pro-
ducing 1,000 boats a year and had become ‘the largest boatbuilder in the world, out- side America’. However, Sir Richard had died in 1956, and by government decree in 1960 Fairey Aviation, the principal com- pany of what had become the diverse Fairey Group, was merged with Westland Helicopters of Yeovil, leaving behind a series of smaller engineering companies that included Fairey Marine.
SEAHORSE 37
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