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Author Topic: Huntsman Build  (Read 12100 times)

OMK

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #25 on: July 31, 2007, 03:50:32 am »

Someone asked who the original designer was,

Yeah, that was me. And I owe you a beer. You obviously know your way the Hunt/Fairey scene. (How did you get to KNOW all that stuff anyhow?). Heap thanks for the fascinating snippet. Though, I shan't pester you into looking thru the proverbial haystack, but if you ever find your long and complicated article again, I for one would love a looky-see.
Thing is though, I guess I didn't make it very clear. When I asked who designed that baby I wasn't thinking of the full-size job -- I wanted to know who designed the model version.
Boy, do I feel a berk now that I know the answer.
The man is a genius.

The Huntsman, and all it's variations, truly is a cracker. Right up there alongside Seaqueen.
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kayem

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #26 on: August 01, 2007, 07:03:36 pm »

The Fairey Boat Company story is a long and honourable one but I only know about from the venerable Precedent kits.
If you could dig up that post about the various Faiery boats, that would be great.



I’m rather regretting making the offer that Martin picked up, a brief history of Fairey fast cruisers. I found an old file on the Fairey family of fast cruisers alright, but it was a 4000 word magazine article that I wrote almost 20 years ago for a full-size boat magazine (in MS DOS on a floppy no less), and what you’re getting here is a very brief summary.

As I said, the original 23’ Huntress was developed by Richard Fairey from an innovative design by famed US designer Ray Hunt. In the late 50s, most fast boats of this type had a deadrise or vee angle of about 15° amidships, reducing to 5° or so at the transom, but Hunt’s designs for Bertram Boats had an angle of about 20° that was constant for most of the length. This meant that the whole bottom remained immersed as speeds rose, which reduced slamming and made for a more comfortable ride. Fairey appreciated all this, and with Hunt’s blessing, incorporated the feature into his Huntress, little knowing then what the future would hold.  The Huntress was a great success and about 240 were built, the majority 23’ like the Bond boat in the film, though there were also 25, 26 & 27 foot versions. Another factor in the boat’s success was the hull construction, they were hot moulded from multiple laminations of Agba veneer, a wood similar to mahogany. The pre-cut lengths were glued and stapled over a male mould, enclosed in a vacuum bag, and then wheeled into a steam heated autoclave which baked the whole thing, to result in a hull that was stronger and much lighter than anything that could be achieved with fibreglass in those days. This was of course the main reason the the boat’s great success, light weight and a strong hull that could be driven hard through choppy seas. To build on their success, a few years later, Fairey decided to make something larger with wider appeal, and this is where long time Fairey Chief Designer Alan Burnard appears, he scaled up the Huntress design in every direction to come up with his classic Huntsman 28, which had twin engines whereas most Huntresses only had one. Having rather bluff bows, the Huntsman 28 was a little wet and uncomfortable in heavy seas, so Alan Burnard designed the Huntsman 31’ which as well as being longer had a more rakish bow profile with rather more flared sides at the sharp end, and I think this was launched around 1968. There were two basic versions, one with a large open cockpit, and the majority with a smaller cockpit and an aft cabin. The design was enlarged again to produce the 33’ Swordsman and later a small number of Super Swordsmen, which were 38’ and 42’ long, and again there were open cockpit and aft cabin versions. All the boats up to this point had been hot moulded in Agba veneer, but although producing excellent results, this was a costly process, and Fairey wanted to move into GRP. They did this with the Spearfish and its military version the Spear, and the original mould for these was made over a standard Huntsman 31 wood hull. The Spearfish seems to be missing from my Fairey brochure collection, but I think all of them were built with open cockpits, and wanting something similar with an aft cabin, they used a modified version of the same fibreglass hull for the Fantôme, which also had a moulded deck and cabin, though from a distance it looked very similar to the all-wood Huntsman 31’. Although some were better proportioned than others, all these boats were very attractive, and their performance set new standards. I also found one or two old pricelists, and a boat similar to 007’s had a list price of just under £4000 in 1961, a Huntsman 28 with twin diesels would have cost about £6000 in the same year, ten years later a standard Huntsman 31 was about £12000. I usually get paid for commissions like this, so cheque’s in the post is it Martin?

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"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book; inside of a dog, it's very dark" Groucho Marx

supersonic

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2007, 10:53:26 pm »

Hi PMK,
Have a look Google images under Fairey hunysman , All you need to know on there, and pics of the original wood hull builds
Dave
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slewis

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #28 on: August 01, 2007, 10:57:56 pm »

Kayem  what a CRACKING post !  Very very interesting and informative . Unfortunately I cannot get Martins wallet open from here but instead you will have to accept MY thanks for posting that .

Shane (Very impressed)
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Powered Boat Mouldings

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #29 on: December 17, 2007, 07:56:23 pm »

Hi All
       I can supply a grp hull and plans for the 28ft Huntsman @ 42" long.

Regards Rob.

djrobbo

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Re: Huntsman Build
« Reply #30 on: December 17, 2007, 10:39:21 pm »

Hi guys.....at our club ( watt tyler , basildon ) there is a power boat museum , and within said museum is a fairy huntress , supposedly the one from the james bond film . complete with oil drums

    regards.....bob.
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