Dowty Marine - Synopsis

The Dowty Turbojet boat hull was built by H. Attril & Sons (IoW) Ltd (under licence to Dowty, Gloucester), on the Isle of Wight in the 1950’s to 1960’s and was a revelation.

The man who started it all was Sir William Hamilton in New Zealand.

It was also a reasonably expensive boat at £789, which makes it at todays value worth £22888.09.

The boat hull and mould designer for the UK was Fred Cooper, the well known racing boat designer, who was also involved in some of Campbell’s K4 and other designs, but the jet was by Hamilton in New Zealand.

The Dowty company in the UK commenced manufacture along with Buehle in Canada and Hamilton of course in New Zealand.

More on the Dowty Turbocraft and other old speedboats can be found using the following website link: oldspeedboats.co.uk

 

A 14’ 9” Dowty Turbocraft powered by a Ford Zephyr 2500 cc straight 6 cylinder engine being demonstrated on the River Thames in London, circa 1958.
Photo of Dowty Marine Turbocraft
Turbocraft Demonstration
Original photo in the Dowty archive at the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub
Dowty Turbocraft jet speedboat at an Exhibition
Original photo in the Dowty archive at the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

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