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Two Cinderellas. Left: Glass Slipper and Altair on the right.
The Carefree was the first design that Alan Burnard drew up when joining Fairey Marine in 1957.
The hull plug was already under construction and the original design was probably by Mauri Vidler, one of the boat builders at Fairey. It would appear that lines were taken from the plug to produce the drawings.
The original plan was to use an inboard engine coupled to a drive leg similar to the sail-drives of today. (See photo below.)
The leg was designed and built by Fairey in Hayes, Middlesex and fifty sets of casting were purchased. However, The drive leg was not a success as the torque steer meant the boat was unmanageable. The drive leg components were scrapped and
Alan redesigned the drive-line by turning the engine around 180 degrees and using a vee-drive gearbox. This put the engine right at the stern and kept the twin cockpit arrangement. The drawings show a number of engine options with single and twin Ford 105E motors along with a single 204E option. Apart from the prototype Carefree, it is not known if any other inboard versions were built.
The design was later modified by Alan to utilize an outboard motor of up to 50 HP. This boat was termed the Cinderella and was a very successful product for Fairey Marine. We believe that only about 12 per year were made either Factory complete or in kit form from 1957 through to the mid sixties. It is not certain how many remain and we have no knowledge of any Carefree variants, just a handful of Cinderellas.
The one inboard boat known - Southern Belle - originally a factory completed boat has subsequently been modified to have the engine driving the shaft directly at a steep angle in a similar arrangement to the Albatross and Deltas, it doesn't have the aft cockpit.
The Cinderella is a good sea boat even though it is only 15 foot long. It is light and very quick with a 40 or 50HP motor and is very nimble even with four adults on board.
Vital Statistics:
LOA: 14' 11" (4.54m)
Beam: 5' 6" (1.67m)
Weight: 440lb (203 kg)
Motor options: 18-50HP 2 or 4 stroke outboard.
Electronic copies of the Carefree and Cinderella brochures may be found at the bottom of this page. The club also holds digitized versions of the General Arrangement drawings of both the Carefree and Cinderella.
Sadly we have yet to find one of the Fairey Drive Legs or drawings of same. As it was a Fairey Aviation designed unit, maybe some information hides in the Aviation archives somewhere.
* - Correct hull No. unknown.
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