Spear and Spearfish

S30 Miss Daisy - off Dartmouth. Photo S. Pett

For several years Fairey Marine had been under pressure to build a boat in GRP. Eventually approval was given and Alan Burnard was given the task of producing drawings for a hull only in GRP, along with a deck and cabin top in wood. To save the cost of making a wooden plug, Faireys decided to use the hull of a Huntsman 31. This hull was well proven in its performance, sea keeping qualities and appearance.

The contract to produce the first hull went to Tylers of Tonbridge. The first Spearfish was exhibited at the 1969 London Boat Show. Very soon approval was given for the factory to produce all the moulds in GRP at Hamble.

Vital Statistics:

LOA: 30' 0" (9.1m)

LWL:

Beam: 9' 6" (2.89m)

Draught: 2' 9" (0.84m)

Displacement: 4.5 tons (4575kg)

Many Spears went overseas as Commercial vessels to be used as patrol craft, although many of them have returned to the fold and been converted to Spearfish, usually with the removal of the wheelhouse.

80 Mark 1 Spear and Spearfish were built. The Mark 2 version was produced in three batches: Hull nos 200-211; 300-320 and 402-435. <query 400 and 401>. Production started at FM in Hamble, but many were built at Heston in the West Midlands before production returned to Hamble Point.

An unique variant is "Touch and Go", built by club member Derek Wood. She is a stretched Spearfish with custom deck moulding resembling the H31, but with goal-post masts similar to those on the Fantome - this became known as the Spearfish 2000.

Later versions of the Spearfish were produced by various companies and the tooling formed the basis for the Swordsman 30 built by Swordsman Marine. Just seven boats were built, each with a single engine coupled to a Hamilton 274 water jet. Motors varied between Cummins; Iveco and Yanmar. Various power ratings were used between about 375 and 425HP. By moving the motor back, room was made for a snug extra berth under the forward end of the cockpit.

Spear and Spearfish

Swordsman 30

* - Wooden-top Boats.

! - Spear

% - MOD boats. Info from TH-H Fairey.doc source unknown