Fairey Atalanta - my hot (moulded) fantasy

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CaptainHogwash

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Fairey Atalanta

This little beauty appears on ebay from time to time. She gets cheaper with each new listing, and is now down to only £2500.

Does anybody have a second boat they haven't told the wife about? I've always wanted one of these...
 
Lovely looking boats, there was one in Pin Mill having a major rebuild last year.

Curious that she seems to have a Fishing Vessel registration?
 
Before you splash out it might be worthwhile finding out how difficult the hull is to repair, if needed. I doubt if there are many people around nowadays who have experience of that kind of construction.
 
Go & have a good crawl around the bilges & limber holes - it will either make you lose the grip on your wallet or run a mile.

I doubt that you would need to repair the skin using hot moulding anyway. I would expect that good veneer & epoxy with staples should be adequate, but I am not a boat builder or woodworker. Replacing frames would be much the same as for any other wooden boat wouldn't it?
 
By now the Fairey Atlanta's are getting rather old, the hotmoulded hulls are generally ptretty durable but will rot with alarming rapidity once they start. Water ingress along the sheer, transom, round hatches & plywood decks. If rot gets into the hull veneers it can travel for yards. If its very cheap it is probably for a reason!
 
The hulls are easy to repair but it looks very dramatic taking off laminates to back to sound wood. Agba is readily available from Robbins timber and modern epoxies make glueing straightforward. Mine looked after me in 2005 when I got caught out twice. They do provide cheap cruising and are superb when singlehanded as everything is in reach of the cockpit. Slow by modern standards but suprisingly spacious.
 
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Does anybody have a second boat they haven't told the wife about? I've always wanted one of these...

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I love the notion of having a secret second boat, it would be a wonderfully mischevious thing to do. Might take a bit of inginuity to actually get to use it though, would probably need to be a syndicate.
 
My wife always tells people about my mistresses! One immaculate 1963 Eventide, one Morgan and one Bavaria 37 - but we share the last two!
 
I live about a mile from our local Tesco. Half way there I pass a Fairey Atalanta that is under shelter, but has not moved for a decade. She is not in brilliant condition, but is not a basket case either.

I talked to the owner about nine years ago as I was thinking about buying an Atalanta. He said he was going to restore her, but he hasn't done a thing.

I couldn't have coped with a restoration job, so I never boguht one but it would be a great shame if they rotted as they are a truly brilliant design. The owners assoc can give plenty of advice and they are not as bad to repair as you might think. You just need the time, lots of it and access to engineering if the keel mechanisms need re making.

This is what happens when you let the people who designed Fairey aircraft engineer a yacht, loads of clever ideas in them even if Uffa Fox designed it.

Tim
 
I restored one which had been badly neglected - mostly fresh water damage to decks. Took a long time ! This one looks pretty sound. The repairs are not too skilled, but are very time-consuming.
Great fun to sail - if you keep them light. Slow if overloaded with all sorts of gear.
The owners association is a great bunch of blokes - excellent value.
pm if you need advice.
Ken
 
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I live about a mile from our local Tesco. Half way there I pass a Fairey Atalanta that is under shelter, but has not moved for a decade. She is not in brilliant condition, but is not a basket case either.



That’s interesting. I don’t know if you are aware but the owners Association keep a register of boats and as you would imagine a few are missing. Is there any chance that you could PM me a rough location so that I can see if it’s one that we know about.
 
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