Marauder on the bay

[davidh]

Just for the record, the Mayfly, Seafly and Seafire are not really a trio - there is no relationship between the Mayfly and the other 2 boats. The Mayfly, designed by J.kelly, has an interesting background - it actually dates back to the early days of the Merlin Rockets.

Although S.J. Herbert, who designed the Seafly/Seafire died many a year past, his family still retain an interest in the boat. Some of the later hulls were grp (mainly with wooden decks) but they had a neat crew deck arrangement - very similar to the Hornets of the day. Although very flat in the aft sections (and therefore 'sticky' in light airs) the boat carries sail area well and has a good sized spinnaker. I'm pretty sure that the boat wasn't intended for trapezing, will need to check on that, but at a PY of 98 (in old money) the Seafire would be an attractive alternative to the Pegasus.

D

[Rupert]

Are you sure that there is no background connection? The high bow chine, the winged insignia, plus other "look alike" features would suggest to me that there is something going on there - even if it is that he was a fan of the Mayfly, or asked to design the boat by a fan.

[Hotspur]

The Seafly Memories website describes the Mayfly as 'the forerunner of the Seafly'

http://seaflymemories.org.uk/mayfly.php

According to that website, there's some debate over who designed the Seafly - it suggests early sources attribute it to Kelley and describe the boat as a scaled up Mayfly, slightly later sources credit Herbert, who was apparently involved from early on.

http://seaflymemories.org.uk/images/sfkelley02_lg.jpg