Hunt 18

Hunt 18 Spitfire off North Wales. Photo the late Tony Hamilton-Hunt

The Fairey Hunt 18 was a new design from the drawing board of Ray Hunt which first saw the light of day in 1965.

A high performance 18ft cabin day boat with twin berths. Powered by an Inboard/Outboard Volvo-Penta engine sterndrive combination of approximately 110HP giving a speed of around 25 knots.

The Hunt 18's hull form was intended from the outset for the short tidal waters of the U.S. East coast and was thus very suitable for the Solent. The enclosed cabin made her practical for North European Waters.

You can see Peter Twiss in a Hunt 18 rescuing a crew at 0:43 in this Pathé news-reel of the Swanage Christchurch race of 1966.

Vital Statistics:

LOA: 18' 5" (5.63m)

LWL: 15'6" (4.72m)

Beam: 7' 5" (2.26m)

Draught: 2' 2" (0.66)

Weight (nett): 2,200lb (1,000kg)

Sept 2012 Update: a set of hull tooling has been purchased and good progress has been made on a new Hunt 18 in Portsmouth. Looks good with the modern deck styling.

More details here.

As you can see the table below is somewhat incomplete. Hulls 1 to 7 we have original owners and engine numbers for. Hulls 8 and 9 were completed by a subcontractor and we have limited information. Hulls 10, 11 and 12 were probably sold on and completed elsewhere.

We now have some boats with no hull numbers and hulls with no names. It would be great to stick names to numbers where possible.

All information gratefully received....