Fairey Marine Ltd - Sailing Craft

Sailing Craft

Fairey Marine's first volume production boat was the Firefly, a 12 ft sailing dinghy which continues to be a popular racing dinghy today. In 1946 Uffa Fox was asked by Chichester-Smith, together with Stewart Morris, to design a one-design twelve foot dinghy. Uffa Fox dusted off his pre war Sea Swallow design renaming it Firefly in order to name it after Fairey aircraft. Another dinghy, the 15 ft Albacore, was also built by other manufacturers and raced at many sailing clubs in the UK and other countries. The Firefly was one of the first production dinghies ever built in large numbers, the initial cost of a boat was £65. The first four were bought by Sir Geoffrey Loules, commodore of Itchenor Sailing Club, which he named Fe, Fi, Fo and Fum. The boat was also considered to be sufficiently competitive enough to be selected for the single handed class in the 1948 Olympics, although it was replaced in 1952 by the Finn. Early boats were built from laminates of birch ply, left over from the stocks used to build Horsa gliders. The mast, built by Reynolds, was aluminium alloy with the top section made from spruce. A number of modifications have been made to the class over the years including construction in GRP from 1968, and the introduction of a one piece rotating mast by Proctors in 1970. Despite the introduction of plastics to replace ply moulded boats, it is a testament to their build quality that there are still many wooden boats racing regularly.

Production Sailing Dinghies

• Firefly,
• Swordfish,
• Albacore,
• Falcon,
• 505,
• Jollyboat,
• Flying Dutchman,
• International Finn,
• International 14- Mk1 to Mk5 Designed by Uffa Fox,
• Gannet,
• Dinky / 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' Fisherman motor sailer (based on the Fairey Lifeboat hull) along with the 15 Cinderella (outboard runabout) and the 16'6" Faun (outboard powered family cruiser).

Between 1956 and 1968 Fairey Marine produced some 291 Atalanta class sailing yachts, designed by Uffa Fox: The Atalanta was conceived in 1955 by Alan Vines, a senior executive at Fairey, with the expertise of Uffa Fox who was their Design Consultant. It was envisaged as a trailable shallow draft performance cruiser with the sea keeping capabilities and safety of a fin keel yacht. Over the succeeding decades the distinctive centre cockpit design with its rolled decks and generous accommodation has more than fulfilled expectations, offering a respectable turn of speed in light airs while her retractable cast iron keels give outstanding heavy weather performance in a seaway. Robust enough to carry its full sail in winds up to force five, the Atalanta retains many of the handling characteristics of a classic dinghy.

Fairey Marine went on to produce three variants of the Atalanta, another 26 ft (8.1m) hull with a slightly shorter cockpit and more headroom called the Titania (named after another Fairey flying boat), a larger version the Atalanta 31 (9.45m) and the Fulmar a 20 ft(6.1m) version with a single lifting keel. Small Dinghies were built using similar techniques as tenders for the larger boats.

Production Yachts

• Atalanta 26
• Atalanta 31
• Titania (also 26 ft but with greater cabin headroom)
• Fulmar

Also produced using the same technique of hot-moulded veneers were the Dinky and Duckling dinghies, mainly used as tenders although the Duckling was also sold as a sailing dinghy, also the Pixie a two-part symmetrical dinghy/canoe.

It is mentioned in the Fairey Review that between 1946 and 1963 the Hamble factory produced over 11,000 boats.