LOA 23ft
Beam 8’ 3”
Draft: 2’ 10”
Build No: 33 Early 1960's
Hull & Deck: Hot Moulded & Marine Plywood
Model: Ray Hunt design: ‘Huntress’
Builder: Fairey Marine, Hamble, Hants
With advent of Fairey Marine's success with dinghies, it was decided to enter the fledgling powerboat market in mid 1950's. Ray Hunts design was brought over and the Huntress was born. A lack of suitable engines held back the project, but the new Perkins six cylinder running on diesel oil along with the latest Borg Warner Velvet drive gearbox, adapted from the fork lift truck, suddenly made the planning Huntress 23ft fast launch a 'must' for the rich & famous of the day afloat.
Constructed using the unique hot moulded Fairey Hull (shell) system of laminations (veneers) using 2.5mm thick Agba (Cola Blanka, - a type of mahogany from Portuguese west Africa, with the correct low resin content for gluing & veneering). The shell had different thickness of veneers on the bottom and top sides, in the case of Naval boats this was increased to give a more robust hull.
These veneers were stapled individually to a wood block mould, as layers progressed the staples were removed and glue applied, the hull is continuous from gunwale to gunwale around the keel. A thick rubber bag was placed over the assembled shell and pushed into an autoclave (oven). Steam was applied to the sealed oven at 100 deg C, the pressure on the bag forced the veneers together giving good contact, the Bordon Chemical special glue was activated by the temperature and after only 30 minutes, the 'cured' hull was removed. The dinghies Albacore, Firefly, Falcon & Duckling required only 20 minutes being fewer lamination's.
Scantlings & Cabin
Standard Fairey Huntress for her year.