FAIREY HUNTSMAN
F
airey enthusiast and experienced sailor
Peter Morton has just completed the
transformation of an aft cabin Fairey 31
into a 31 Sport version, producing an
elegantly handsome fast weekend
cruiser for two.
Peter explains, “I was born in Jersey in the Channel
Isles and I’ve been sailing all my life, I cannot recall a
time when there wasn’t a boat around. My father was a
keen sailor and did a lot of racing when I was little. He
was a coach builder by profession and when I was
growing up he and I built every boat I ever sailed
including an Optimist and a couple of Fireballs.”
During his sailing career Peter has competed in nine
Admiral’s Cups for Great Britain and won a number of
world championships. “My interest in motor boats
came about in the late 1970s, when my father and I
bought a Fairey Huntress once owned by the Royal
Navy,” he tells us. “I was living back in Jersey at the
time and there were always around 15 Faireys moored
in the marina at St Helier.”
Living in Cowes, a few years ago Peter decided to
buy himself a motorboat for use on the Solent and
came across a Fairey Huntsman 28. Sadly, she was in apretty sorry state and Peter spent a couple of years
restoring her. “Tally Ho was an aft cabin Fairey
Huntsman 31 and I bought her because of the
condition of her Sabre engines. To give me the
opportunity to assess how the engines performed, after
having her brought down to Cowes, I took Tally Ho to
sea for a weekend’s testing. The conditions out in the
bay were quite rough, yet I fell in love with the way she
handled and performed. The 31 is nowhere near as wet
as the 28, which can be quite uncomfortable in a chop.
In the event my wife, Louise and I decided to restore
Tally Ho and sell the 28.”
From the introduction of the Fairey Huntress 23 in
1959, almost immediately its race pedigree was
assured. Fairey Marine manufactured the deep vee
hulls using a hot mould process in which layers of
glued Agba laminates were placed on a male mould
and vacuum sealed before being put in an autoclave in
which steam and added pressure ensured a rigid,
watertight structure. Sleekly styled cabins shaped
from plywood were added and, powered largely by
straight six turbocharged diesel engines, these
delightfully elegant craft could easily top 20 knots.
The larger 28ft Huntsman was launched in 1961.