Kent Koi

[wickedtopspeed]

Is this now Garmin ?

[Jon Fuller]

Yes, I believe so.

[Tom Stone]

yes it is

[Delta28]

Seeing as the Gallery is a bit hard to access, does anyone have a few pictures of her in her previous life? Graham... are you out there?

[Jon Fuller]

Miss Kent Koi

Photo, Graham Stevens.

[Delta28]

Thankyou Jon...! I remember her now. Was she successful? Does anyone know the designer / builder? ...and, for that matter, engines...?

Sorry, i'm being a lazy tart, i'll go and look this up... i'm just not sure which year etc

[Delta28]

Durrrr.... jus seen the date on the photo...! Will try to find that year's C-T-C programme

[Jon Fuller]

It's a Hunton, so a Jeff Hunton design.

It ran Sabre 600's on a custom surface drive setup (based I think on Arnessons in the 'Nooxy' setup)

[hunton69]

Have a feeling there were 2 race boats built. If you go on the Hunton web site under racing heritage there is a small video of one.

[the edge]

If my memory serves me correctly I think it was raced by Chris Scragg [now races classic cars] and Glyn Evans ? in the late 80's got the t shirt somewhere ! prob won't fit now !!

[the edge]

They raced a cruiser first by the same name.

[Jon Fuller]

Glyn Evans bought into Hunton (he owned the Kent Koi Company), then spent all the family (company) silver on racing (sometimes not even in a Hunton product) then when it all fell over, he was gone.

There was a time (Jeff please correct me if I get details wrong) when that boat was going to get Gas Turbines from Kodiac marine, but it transpired that Kodiac didn't really actually have a running engine. (was it Mike Sheppard of 'Raving Mad' fame?) Anyways, all a long time ago.

Evans ran the old Ali cat 'Romans Sabre' under the name 'Marston Hotels' with the Sabres from Kent Koi in it. That was around 90/91. It was at best, an old shitter.

[wickedtopspeed]

I had a calendar with a magnificent photo of Kent Koi airbound - real inspiring shot. Don't know what made me think of it in the first place !

[FLYING FISH]

An `Old Shitter`.I`ll have you know this was one of Ernie Simms finest ,having cut his teeth on the tin boats.What he didn`t know about alloy construction you could write on an AO sheet.

Back to the original Garmin.If you remember,it managed a drop test when it was originally named Hunton Gazelle.An extract from Martin Napier`s Soton race report `Whilst craning in, two crew members who by rights should not have been on a boat suspended by a crane,moved,altering the C of G.The boat pitched and then slid out of the slings stern first,landing from a height of about 20ft on top of Jeff Hunton,who had fallen from the dock.Luckily he was not badily hurt,though suffering a broken collarbone.The boat however, suffered a smashed bow section as the stern dropped,the rising bow hit the steel spreader,leaving a sizeable hole in the port bow`.

[Ciao]

Back to the original Garmin.If you remember,it managed a drop test when it was originally named Hunton Gazelle.An extract from Martin Napier`s Soton race report `Whilst craning in, two crew members who by rights should not have been on a boat suspended by a crane,moved,altering the C of G.The boat pitched and then slid out of the slings stern first,landing from a height of about 20ft on top of Jeff Hunton,who had fallen from the dock.Luckily he was not badily hurt,though suffering a broken collarbone.The boat however, suffered a smashed bow section as the stern dropped,the rising bow hit the steel spreader,leaving a sizeable hole in the port bow`.

That made one hell of a bang! Mid season 1987? Pretty sure that same day a yacht mast fell over and hit Kin 'Ell Fire in the pits - H & S was a distant nightmare in those days.

[Jon Fuller]

What he didn`t know about alloy construction you could write on an AO sheet.

Now that's funny!

That boat's had some serious welding time on it during it's life.

Old Nail.

[cfun]

If you remember,it managed a drop test`Whilst craning in, two crew members who by rights should not have been on a boat suspended by a crane,moved,altering the C of G.The boat pitched and then slid out of the slings stern first,landing from a height of about 20ft on top of Jeff Hunton,who had fallen from the dock.Luckily he was not badily hurt,though suffering a broken collarbone.The boat however, suffered a smashed bow section as the stern dropped,the rising bow hit the steel spreader,leaving a sizeable hole in the port bow`.

Yes I recall that rather nasty incident think I mentioned that before on boatmad

was that one of the races they allowed the boats to run around the harbour and down past the ferry docks causing the ferry boats to cross the course and I believe ultimately the accident involving Unipart and HFS some years later

you could walk down from where the boats were craned in along the road and down to the docks to watch the boats race down Southampton water right in front of you very spectacular, bet you would never get that to happen again

going back to Kent Koi to me it always seemed they never quite got the best performance out of the set up as every race I watched and there were numerous they trailed D2S with similar diesel power, I think somebody said they did in the end late 70's mph and kent Koi feature on that Global Powerboat series tape often mentioned on here think they trailed the 28' Phantom with 3 Merc efi of Miles Jennings until he dived under the dash to check his tackle :hugegrin: and then they overtake him for I think second place

[Tom Stone]

Back to the original Garmin.If you remember,it managed a drop test when it was originally named Hunton Gazelle.An extract from Martin Napier`s Soton race report `Whilst craning in, two crew members who by rights should not have been on a boat suspended by a crane,moved,altering the C of G.The boat pitched and then slid out of the slings stern first,landing from a height of about 20ft on top of Jeff Hunton,who had fallen from the dock.Luckily he was not badily hurt,though suffering a broken collarbone.The boat however, suffered a smashed bow section as the stern dropped,the rising bow hit the steel spreader,leaving a sizeable hole in the port bow`.

Jeff called that boat FQ1, it was a write off so the garmin boat, FQ2 was built. funny jeff always said the crane driver was a prat.

the same hull is used on the 37xrs which i think saw 60 ish knots with twin volvo 370s

[Jon Fuller]

Surface drives & a straight non stepped bottom aint a great combination.

Or would require a great deal of setting up prop wise to the best from it.

[Mike Lloyd]

Yes I recall that rather nasty incident think I mentioned that before on boatmad

was that one of the races they allowed the boats to run around the harbour and down past the ferry docks causing the ferry boats to cross the course and I believe ultimately the accident involving Unipart and HFS some years later

you could walk down from where the boats were craned in along the road and down to the docks to watch the boats race down Southampton water right in front of you very spectacular, bet you would never get that to happen again

going back to Kent Koi to me it always seemed they never quite got the best performance out of the set up as every race I watched and there were numerous they trailed D2S with similar diesel power, I think somebody said they did in the end late 70's mph and kent Koi feature on that Global Powerboat series tape often mentioned on here think they trailed the 28' Phantom with 3 Merc efi of Miles Jennings until he dived under the dash to check his tackle :hugegrin: and then they overtake him for I think second place

Interesting accident, I saw it happen standing on Flippin Eck in the Wet Pits and strangely was only talking to Jeff's Navigator Paul Rutherford about it three weeks ago in a local pub - as you do. Paul was actually in the cockpit of the boat when it slipped out of the straps and deciding he was in the best place stayed there until the boat surfaced! Jeff was the unfortunate one being on the back and he dived off as the boat came out but the rear of the boat caught him underwater and broke his collar bone. He was lucky not to have been speared by the drives.

With regard to the above post, I was with the Southampton Harbour Master yesterday and we were only talking about those days and how the fleet used to Muster off the Mouth of the Itchen and hurtle down Southampton Water flat out. The interesting point used to be seeing the armada of yachts coming out of the Hamble with you approaching at 70-mph plus the thoughts travelling through everyone’s mind was, how the hell would we make it through but everyone did with the Yachties shaking their fists in rage. Amazing days on reflection. I was told in no uncertain terms that it would never happen again either, pity. Whoever said progress was a wonderful thing?

[the edge]

The [if I remember correctly] 1989 Southampton race was the one where John Yeomans Cougar Unipart hit H F S and had the side ripped out of it got some good photos of it and a 2 ltr cat Valentine ? sunk as well great view of the race from Dockhead.

[Ciao]

Valentine was an old Cougar Cat driven by Steve Dyas. (ex The Specialist)

It didn't sink - the engine proved too much for an ageing transom -

We saw the motor let go!

Lots of excitement at the time - pleased to see my navigator that day steered Mr Bandit round the CPC course and straight into a boozer the other weekend.

[Bus Pass]

Bit of Hunton racing history.
The boat Gazelle, was a 39 foot Hunton cruiser hull with a flat deck. Two Sabre Marathons and Arnesons. Won the British International Trophy in 1988 for the British Class I or II boat scoring the most points in the three International races held in UK. Sadly the accident damaged it beyond repair. What happened was, the boat was launched in slings with the slings lashed back to cleats. The launch was fine the boat was floating, the slings slack and while we were untieing the the slings, the crane driver decided/was instructed by persons unknown, to recover the boat. The first we knew we were suddenly plucked up with the slings in the wrong place! Almost got away with it, but when the boat was almost over the railing, all the shouting as to what the f**** was going on caused the Crane driver to stop. We swung around and quickly went out the slings backwards, hitting the crane boom in the process.
The Kent Koi boat was being built to replace it, using the Thoroughbred Hull and was "bought" 80% complete by Glyn Evans. (He had won the Cruiser Championship in 1989 in a 35 Hunton, also called Kent Koi.) The drives were ultimately to be Keikhaefer, (later branded as Mercruiser MkVI) but the boat was initially rigged with outrigger rudder and trimable Arnesons. Evans actually for cost reasons or whatever never fitted the trim bits and ran it as fixed drives. Never fulfilled its potential, but did win the 1990 Guernsey Gold Cup, with Chris Scagg driving.
Stuart Raven along with Alan Goodwin ran a Thoroughbred, Atlas, in 1990 and won the Cruiser Championship.
As Evans never actually paid any more than the deposit, the boat came back to us. It did have the Mk VIs fitted and was to be powered with Codag Gas turbines, Mike Sheppard was involved and would have driven, but Codag never made them work and the boat sat outside the factory till bought buy Iain May and became Garmin.
Chris Scragg and Evans bought the old Roman Sabre, fitted Marathons and Arnesons, ran it as Marstons Hotel, but without the wing the boat didn't work.
Garmin is back with us again, all the Marine diesel, EPS "rigging" has been stripped out and it is being rigged properly with 575 Chiefs and Mk V drives to campaign nex season.

[blind dog]

the one called gazelle is sat on a farm in the new forest as a bare boat looking very sad

[Jon Fuller]

Jeff, where does Ab-Fab fit in to all of this?


Bit of Hunton racing history.
The boat Gazelle, was a 39 foot Hunton cruiser hull with a flat deck. Two Sabre Marathons and Arnesons. Won the British International Trophy in 1988 for the British Class I or II boat scoring the most points in the three International races held in UK. Sadly the accident damaged it beyond repair. What happened was, the boat was launched in slings with the slings lashed back to cleats. The launch was fine the boat was floating, the slings slack and while we were untieing the the slings, the crane driver decided/was instructed by persons unknown, to recover the boat. The first we knew we were suddenly plucked up with the slings in the wrong place! Almost got away with it, but when the boat was almost over the railing, all the shouting as to what the f**** was going on caused the Crane driver to stop. We swung around and quickly went out the slings backwards, hitting the crane boom in the process.
The Kent Koi boat was being built to replace it, using the Thoroughbred Hull and was "bought" 80% complete by Glyn Evans. (He had won the Cruiser Championship in 1989 in a 35 Hunton, also called Kent Koi.) The drives were ultimately to be Keikhaefer, (later branded as Mercruiser MkVI) but the boat was initially rigged with outrigger rudder and trimable Arnesons. Evans actually for cost reasons or whatever never fitted the trim bits and ran it as fixed drives. Never fulfilled its potential, but did win the 1990 Guernsey Gold Cup, with Chris Scagg driving.
Stuart Raven along with Alan Goodwin ran a Thoroughbred, Atlas, in 1990 and won the Cruiser Championship.
As Evans never actually paid any more than the deposit, the boat came back to us. It did have the Mk VIs fitted and was to be powered with Codag Gas turbines, Mike Sheppard was involved and would have driven, but Codag never made them work and the boat sat outside the factory till bought buy Iain May and became Garmin.
Chris Scragg and Evans bought the old Roman Sabre, fitted Marathons and Arnesons, ran it as Marstons Hotel, but without the wing the boat didn't work.
Garmin is back with us again, all the Marine diesel, EPS "rigging" has been stripped out and it is being rigged properly with 575 Chiefs and Mk V drives to campaign nex season.

[ashley nihell]

was that not barry cass based on the iow,not sure if that was a hunton..still it didnt get to far if my memory is correct wasnt it to heavy on fuel to get on the plane,didnt a cetain mss lumley break the champers at its launch ?????

[Jon Fuller]

was that not barry cass based on the iow,not sure if that was a hunton..still it didnt get to far if my memory is correct wasnt it to heavy on fuel to get on the plane,didnt a cetain mss lumley break the champers at its launch ?????

Yes, Barry's boat it was. and it was a Hunton. Originally fitted with a pair of Rover 3.5 V8's on Volvo drives. Later fitted with a single 425 mercruiser on I think a TRS.

I was more asking about it's history before 'Ab-Fab'. I think Barry constructed a one-off deck for the boat, so presume Jeff sold it to him as a bare hull of some sort.

[Bus Pass]

Barry Cass bought a bare 35 cruiser hull we had in stock in a special colour, from a cancelled order. He fitted a ply deck and I think Rover? engines. Barely 200 hp each I think. He was struggling to get out of the 40 knots range.
Did get on TV, Alright on The Night, when Joanna Lumley fell over launching it when the Champagne wouldn't break and told me he raised thousands in royalties from the clip for his favorite charity.
Might be on You Tube will try and find it

[Jon Fuller]

Barely 200 hp each I think. He was struggling to get out of the 40 knots range.

Those 3.5's are more like 150hp.

Ab Fab ran about 35mph.

I remember when I first saw it in Cowes. It floated with the chines at the transom above the waterline!

[cfun]

always thought the Atlas boat was a stunning looker

the 80's in class 2 were exciting times particularly as I was looking forward to the showdown between the 3 38'-'40 Diesel Sabre 600hp engined boats ie ... D2S the Cougar and of course the Hunton however I can't seem to recall at any one point all 3 racing against each other, how about anyone else

[Ben]

I don't think all three ever competed against each other as D2S (as 'Diesel Dancer') last raced in 89 at the Atlantic City World Championships and the Class II Kent Koi I believe first raced in 90.

[Mike Lloyd]

the one called gazelle is sat on a farm in the new forest as a bare boat looking very sad

Please PM me soonest or phone me on 07860 285438 as we have a problem about your tow across Lyme Bay!!
ML.
.

[Tom Stone]

the one called gazelle is sat on a farm in the new forest as a bare boat looking very sad

any chance of some more detail on this? the boat pictured above with gazelle on the side is fq 1, the boat dropped and scrapped after the previously mentioned incident

[blind dog]

the hunton called gazelle thats sat in a farm is owned by extreme marine in southampton nothing to do with td and the same man has got red rum the 34ft tiger shark both need total refurbs but maybe cheap.the other one the old j and b/ad fab boat is at universal having a slow renovation

[FLYING FISH]

Just a small comment re Red Rum.In actual fact it`s a Danamos built boat when Dick Durlacher was running the build yard.Is in the same stable as Fordspeed Too/RHS (East Kent Marine build),all 34ft Shead boats,and you can throw in Hot Omlette as well,the only Avenger built 34ft.All from T2/Hot Bovril ,Souter built, wood hull,which was used as the plug,so another 1969 design.

[Jon Fuller]

the other one the old j and b/ad fab boat is at universal having a slow renovation

'Spirit of J&B' is not 'Ab Fab'.

'Spirit of J&B' became the Maystar 32 sport cruiser (working plug) can't recal the designer from memory, but will at some point. 'Ab Fab' was a 35' Hunton, that is the one at Universal.

J&B originally ran triple Yams, then Joe Donohoo re rigged it in about 1990 with triple 2.4 EFI's. It was dog slow.

[Johnny Rocket]

can't recal the designer from memory, but will at some point. Colin Sylvester?

[Marinautic]

I think Maystar was a Martin Levi boat.

[FLYING FISH]

Dog slow indeed.Beken came to Shead for his opinion before he bought it and was told to forget it, as it was a load of rubbish.But what would he know!!!!
It was designed I think for patrol boat use.Anway it`s recorded as MIP build and designed by Alan Burnard.

[Jon Fuller]

designed by Alan Burnard.

Of Fairy fame?

[FLYING FISH]

Fairy indeed.Mr.Twiss would shudder if he heard that, as he climbed out of his Fairey Delta having broken the World Speed Record.Yes Alan Burnard is the man that modified the original Ray Hunt Fairey boats.

[Jon Fuller]

A Freudian slip Graham. :)

[olli]

Dog slow indeed.Beken came to Shead for his opinion before he bought it and was told to forget it, as it was a load of rubbish.But what would he know!!!!
It was designed I think for patrol boat use.Anway it`s recorded as MIP build and designed by Alan Burnard.

Remembered this article in MBY 8/'97:

…The Maywatch story starts in 1988, when she was originally commissioned as a fast offshore, surface drive, anti-smuggling patrol boat for a Middle Eastern state. She was designed by Alan Burnard. The sale, however, fell through and only the bare hull was built.
Then, in 1989 - in circumstances that would, six years later, repeat themselves almost exactly - the hull was spotted abandoned, by Ken Beken who was on the lookout for an offshore racing boat.
He bought the hull and, together with Barry Cass, set about building a craft that could take on top-class opposition in rough water and heavy weather.
"We wanted a strong deck and superstructure that would reflect the great strength of the hull," explains Beken. "So, first of all we put in 4in x 2in deck beams and a very heavy deck made of composite wood and fibreglass, which was then sheathed."
They put three 225hp outboards on the transom, won sponsorship from distillers Justerini & Brooks, called her J&B Rare and took her off on the Class II circuit.
"She needed some lift to really get going. The bigger the sea the better she performed," says Beken. "She was excellent - she could do 60 knots in anything, and kissed every wave. We were once airborne for three seconds," he adds, with same nostalgia.
They ran J&B Rare for three seasons, from 1989 to 1991, taking part in more than 20 races, and finishing seventh in the world Class II championship in 1990.
"For those three years, conditions were generally calm, which worked against us. Often, we took second or third place in competitions, but we never won. We would have run much better with inboard diesels, because the outboards didn't cape very well with the demands. We went through eleven outboards in that period."
The boat was retired and lay forgotten until spring 1995 when the hull was re-discovered - this time in a field near the Hamble, by John May. Again, it was just the bare hull that remained -all the woodwork had been ripped out.
"We have no idea who took the wood," says Beken, "but they certainly had a good fire that winter."
The hull was moved to the River Yar Boat Yard. May knew he wanted to create a high-performance sportscruiser and gathered a team to bring the idea to life. The group was made up of David Lemonius Coxswain of the Yarmouth lifeboat and owner of Yarmouth Marine Service, who would construct the new boat on the hull, and Roger Allen and Mike Kitcher of Buzzard Marine, also at River Yar Boat Yard, who would be responsible for overseeing the design and engineering….