Hire Yards Of Yesteryear

[ExSurveyor]

Welcome   to the forum SamuelJ. Great memories to have. 

[Lulu]

Warm welcome to the forum Samuel. 
 

this boat? http://www.broads.org.uk/wiki2018/index.php?title=Boat_Details&BoatId=20188

[kpnut]

What a lovely story. Welcome. 

[CambridgeCabby]

Warm welcome from Katie and I

[Gracie]

A warm welcome aboard from me too 

Grace x

[AllanD]

In 70's as a family we hired from Beaver Fleet are St Olaves. 

[ExSurveyor]

Welcome   to the forum AllanD. 

[Spray]

Welcome to the forum. It looks like you hired that boat from Knights Creek in Oulton Broad.

A friend of mine used to have a  holiday caravan at Knights Creek in the early 1970's----Long gone now but happy memories !

[ianhark]

Hi I'm looking at buying a faircraft classic 27, from what I can find out she's an ex hire boat called contender? There's an identical boat called silver arrow by silverline. I'm trying to find any info on the boat so I can try and make her as original as possible. Hope.someone can help thanks Ian.

[Wussername]

5 hours ago, ianhark said:

Hi I'm looking at buying a faircraft classic 27, from what I can find out she's an ex hire boat called contender? There's an identical boat called silver arrow by silverline. I'm trying to find any info on the boat so I can try and make her as original as possible. Hope.someone can help thanks Ian.

Hi. You are in the right place. Grey cells will be working.  You must be patient. Some of us including myself can and are often challanged.

[dom]

8 hours ago, ianhark said:

Hi I'm looking at buying a faircraft classic 27, from what I can find out she's an ex hire boat called contender? There's an identical boat called silver arrow by silverline. I'm trying to find any info on the boat so I can try and make her as original as possible. Hope.someone can help thanks Ian.

Can't tell you much, other than the fact the Classic 27 hull was originally an offshore powerboat design, hence the hard chines and multiple spray rails. One equipped with a large jet drive used to operate as a trip boat out of Littlehampton Harbour named, unsurprisingly, Miss Littlehampton.

I used to have the 1/12th scale prototype mould which was given to prospective buyers of the hull moulding, but sadly didn't keep hold of it (Summercraft bought 3 of the hulls and used them to build their original Gala Girls).

I've never seen a centre cockpit model up close in the flesh. A lot were forward control, and quite a few Broads yards had them at one time. The later aft cockpit Silverline models (which were produced until fairly recently) I absolutely love. With a decent amount of power, they make a great handling boat and perfect for the Broads.

In terms of making it original, I suspect every one built probably differed slightly. I doubt there was much documentation to start with, so you may struggle to find anything now. It might be worth speaking to Silverline if you've not already done so, as they kept producing the aft cockpit well into the 2000s, so there may be a slim chance they have older build info.