MBM understatement

[miket]

Loved the article about the Fairey 31 Huntsman, Sartra.
The last owner (recently sold) is a good friend of mine and we had a little smile at the comment in the article about "a little recent cosmetic treatment".
Brian was a fanatical owner and following a survey some 12 months ago, by a potential buyer, various things cropped up sufficient to put off the purchaser. Brian then proceeded to rectify all the points raised in the survey, some of which I personally would not have carried out.
The result of this "cosmetic treatment" was the loss of most of last season, some excellent examples of incompetent time management by the various craftsmen involved and a huge amount of frustration and heartache, to say nothing of money.
Brian is now the proud owner of a Sealine S34 which he is enjoying greatly. He admits it does not have the character or provenance of the Fairey but at least he gets to go boating.
Would he buy another one?
He admits to the temptation for a Swordsman (the current plastic one!) but I suspect not.

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[burgundyben]

Its not un common for a potetial buyer of a Fairey boat to be scared to death by a survey, it happened to me with the first boat I considered, but now two boats later I am much more laid back about the whole affair.

Generally they come onto the market because the owners is fed up with the up keep and as such they need a bit of effort, the top notch boats, like H31 Trident and Huntress Artemis are rarely for sale.

Its fair to say if I had a plastic boat I'd do more boating and its crossed my mind more than once, but nothing comes close. My H28 is £35k, excellent condition, twin diesel shaft drive, excellent hull, very pretty, race pedigree, what can you get for that money that matches up?

Swordsman Marine are now building a Spearfish using the Fairey mould and a big single Cat with jet drive, likely to come in at sub 100k plus vat. Which would be a better choice than a bloody Sardine! Plus there is the Webb brothers Solent Spear. So if a wood Fariey boat is too much effort there are other options.



<hr width=100% size=1>Rehab is for quitters.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Interesting posts. I've been tempted myself to buy a Fairey as a 'project'. Are they all restored now or are there still unrestored boats around? Being ignorant, what kind of refirbishment work is an unrestored boat likely to need other than the usual mechanical re-fettling and is this beyond the scope of a DIY'er?

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