What kind of boat is this?

[justanothersailboat]

Saw this yesterday. Photo doesn't quite show just how much the top of the topsides curves in, which is a lot - the whole white part is pretty much a quarter circle in cross section on each side. Then there are wide side decks and a narrow, low coachroof. Definitely not your run of the mill boat shape. Unlikely to please the same people. I'm not sure what to make of it myself, though do think it attractive in a certain way.

Any idea what these are called?

 

[Boathook]

Looks a bit like a fairy alanta? Possibly cold moulded wood construction.

 

[Wansworth]

Looks very much like an enlarged Fairy Marine what’s it…….yes an Atlanta

 

[justanothersailboat]

Thank you both! It may well be a Fairey Atalanta 31 or close relative. Rare if so!

There's something a little bit "vintage powerboat" and a little bit "submarine" about it to me...

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Interesting Story
Fairey Marine Yacht Designs – Fairey Marine Atalanta Owners Association Website

 

[Wansworth]

I think my Commando class yacht designed by Angus Primrose and built by blanks boatyard followed the same technique

 

[Wansworth]

 

[Tranona]

Yes, a Fairey Atalanta with a windscreen and little doghouse added. Did some sailing on one in the early 1980s. Nice once it got going and the boards dropped but an even worse nightmare at low speeds under motor with the boards up than my Eventide. No steerage and an even more dodgy engine (Ford 100E) that only ran it felt like it not when you wanted.

 

[Wansworth]

Yes, a Fairey Atalanta with a windscreen and little doghouse added. Did some sailing on one in the early 1980s. Nice once it got going and the boards dropped but an even worse nightmare at low speeds under motor with the boards up than my Eventide. No steerage and an even more dodgy engine (Ford 100E) that only ran it felt like it not when you wanted.

Yes, a Fairey Atalanta with a windscreen and little doghouse added. Did some sailing on one in the early 1980s. Nice once it got going and the boards dropped but an even worse nightmare at low speeds under motor with the boards up than my Eventide. No steerage and an even more dodgy engine (Ford 100E) that only ran it felt like it not when you wanted.

Classic boating

 

[Tranona]

Don't think Uffa Fox would appreciate the use of the word "classic". The design of the hull was anything but "traditional" and the keel arrangement was drawn from aircraft undercarriage design. so perhaps a "classic" example of off beat over engineering. My views perhaps coloured by helping the owner rebuild the massive winding structures that dominated the cabin!

 

[Wansworth]

Don't think Uffa Fox would appreciate the use of the word "classic". The design of the hull was anything but "traditional" and the keel arrangement was drawn from aircraft undercarriage design. so perhaps a "classic" example of off beat over engineering. My views perhaps coloured by helping the owner rebuild the massive winding structures that dominated the cabin!

In regard to the engine,although take yourpointaboutthe design

 

[Lucy52]

A restored one was launched in the marina here, a couple of months ago. They were hot molded, it still had to have rot repaierd though.

 

[justanothersailboat]

I slightly wonder if that is the one l was looking at, Lucy52... Medway/Swale area... I went past it at a closer distance and it looks immaculate. In a way it looks like it came from an alternate history - the Boat Of The Future from a world that never discovered fibreglass or giant cabins.

 

[Lucy52]

It could well be, it was blue, unmistakable as the standing rigging was 7x19 secured with copper swaged ferrules.
Launched in Conyer.

 

[justanothersailboat]

This one's blue but I didn't get a good look at the standing rig! Interesting choice...

 

[Lucy52]

He did say he would have considered galvanised rigging. I tried to put him off with tales of paying it with tarred hemp, all sticky and horrid. But, I believe you can use something like waxol instead.

 

[DownWest]

Sailed one in the Med, engine was a Stuart Turner flat twin. Managed to get it running just enough to get us out of port and into the marina at the end. It had been sunk though.. Nobody told me that keels had brakes, so getting them down was 'tricky'. Interesting design.

 

[Frogmogman]

There's something a little bit "vintage powerboat" and a little bit "submarine" about it to me...

That was my thought. Reminded me of WW1 Thorneycroft CMB torpedo boat



A trawl round t’web turned up this foiling version. I had to check the date on it to be sure it wasn’t an April fool

Scoop – A89’s secret weapon for East Coast Race – Fairey Marine Atalanta Owners Association Website

 

[oldharry]

Looks more like a Fairey Titania to me. Same breed as the Atalanta with a hot moulded double diagonal hull. Light, very strong, but the very devil to repair once rot gets hold.

 

[justanothersailboat]

I see what you mean but I don't think it's a Titania as those seem to have the rounded coachroof style of the smaller Atalanta 26 and no aft-cabin coachroof windows.

Either way I'm a bit in awe of the people who restore these, and grateful that they do. I looked at doing a big restoration on a wooden hull and concluded that making a new boat from scratch might actually be easier, so I didn't do it. Renovating a basically sound fibreglass boat (which I did do) is work enough.