FAIREY SPEARFISH

BUILT: 1972 PRICE: £68,500

Fairey always comes to mind when discussing vintage powerboats. The big news with the Spearfish though, is that rather than the usual high-maintenance wooden construction, these were built out of that new-fangled GRP! A development of the famed

Fairey Huntsman, the mould was actually taken off an adapted wooden Huntsman hull. It’s a touch shorter at 30ft and a little lower, but taps directly into that boat’s race-proven deep-vee DNA. This particular boat was hull number 17.

INTERIOR The boat was developed very much as a ‘sporty dayboat or weekender’, so cabin accommodation is secondary. There are two berths and a removable table forward with the heads to port opposite a basic galley to starboard (a foot pump operated the fresh water system on the original boats).

EXTERIOR The Spearfish is a beautifully proportioned boat and wears its classic heritage with pride. Decks are wide and flat and taper aft to wrap around the cockpit. The engine box protrudes through the cockpit sole, with the helm and double navigator seats in front of it and bench seats facing inwards behind it.

PERFORMANCE The £9,950 that these boats cost new included a pair of 145hp Perkins or 150hp Ford diesel engines spinning straight-shaft drives. Twin 175hp Ford engines were a £300 upgrade! This particular boat was re-engined

Length: 30ft 0in (9.1m) Beam: 9ft 6in (2.9m) Draught: 3ft 0in (0.9m) Displacement: 4.3 tonnes Fuel capacity: 454 litres Engines: Twin Mermaid Majestic 210hp diesel in the early Nineties with a pair of Mermaid Majestic ‘Dover’ block 210bhp reconditioned diesel engines for a top speed of 30 knots and a mid-20-knot cruise.

SEAKEEPING Designed, like all Faireys, by the legendary Alan Bunard, the Spearfish was developed using experience gathered from earlier boats, including regular sorties in the Cowes Torquay and Round Britain races of the time. Most notably, the bluff bows of early Huntsmen threw up a fair amount of spray in rough conditions, which is why this boat has a dramatically flared and raked bow (as did later Huntsmen).

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A large engine box separates the forward helm area from the aft cockpit seating Accommodation is limited but includes a vee-berth dinette, galley and heads

Unusual split-level deck has the seating area, dinette and galley on three different levels The aft cabin has sliding doors out to a small cockpit area that feels like a private terrace