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Hampton
Safari Boat History
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As far
as I am aware, there never was a Hampton Safari Owners Club, and
Hampton Boats has now ceased trading. I have been fortunate enough to
contact the designers and builders of the class and am most grateful for
their invaluable assistance in compiling this web page.
The history and photographs have been very generously provided by Mrs
Heather Hampton, (wife of the designer, Alec Hampton), Phillip Hampton
(their son) and Kenny Stone (their boatbuilder for many years and who
played a key part in the design and production of the Safari.) |
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In the 1960's,
Alec Hampton's boat hire business 'Hampton Boats' at Oulton Broad
consisted of a fleet of traditional mahogany cruisers like the
two shown on the right.
The upper photo is of W343 with Alec at the wheel.
The lower photo of S875 shows the development of the same type
of boat towards forward control, still traditionally made from
mahogany, but with the shortened rear cockpit and wheel steering
from the front. There was no sliding wheelhouse, but she did have
sliding sunroof.
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A 1972 extract
from Blakes boat hire catalogue showing S121.
(click the
image to see a larger version)
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S875 'Bullfrog' as she looks now (2005),
still complete and looking quite sound.
Her Sister, S121 'Bonny Ann' is in superb condition,
as seen here, also in 2005
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Alec then
designed the mark one Hampton Safari for production in fibreglass.
The length was increased from 22' 6" to 25'6" and the
beam from 8' 6" to 9' 6". A plug was made from marine
plywood, which was then used to form the female hull moulding.
The boats
were moulded firstly by Rydgeway Marine of Kessingland,
and then by Bob Smith of Lowestoft.
This photo
shows an early mark I fresh from the moulders, before the windows
were cut out and the windscreen fitted.
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The company
ran this advert in the boating press in 1981.
(click
the advert to view it full size)
Using
the same 25'6" hull, the advert shows the three superstructure
designs, the mark II, mark III and the Sedan.
The
mark III dispensed with the sliding wheelhouse roof but instead
provided a forward cockpit with front door to the saloon. This
eliminated the potential for draughts from the sliding canopy
(although many DIY owners have devised solutions with draught
excluders etc.)
The
Sedan was a return to a the more conventional rear raised wheelhouse,
but only two were ever built.
The
picture shows the three marks in a row at the boatyard pontoon
(with Mrs Hampton standing on the Sedan).
This
extract from a 1973 guide shows Safaris produced by Harvey Eastwood
of Brundall, named 'Santa Lucia' and 'Santa Barbara', together
with Hampton's own Safari listing.
The
Eastwood boats appear to have identical mouldings, differing only
in the interior layouts. One wonders if the 'BMC 1500 petrol I/B'
was a typo....
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Although a
total of 256 Hampton Safaris were produced from 1969 to 1982,
most were supplied to other hire-boat yards as bare mouldings
for their staff to complete. During the peak years, Hampton Boats
ran 14 Safari 25's in it's fleet, but this reduced to just two
in the final season of 2002. Sadly, the yard has now ceased trading,
and will surely be missed by the large regular clientele, some
of which have been regulars for nearly 30 years.
(Hamptons
themselves only built one Safari for private use, in 1971 called
'Blue Tit' for John Jarrold, who was then the Mayor of
Norwich.)
The two photos
here, from Company Christmas Cards, are from 1962 and 2000, showing
the yard at the same location, though greatly expanded.
The third
Christmas Card is of a watercolour painting of their yard commissioned
by Hampton Boats.
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A
1995 edition of the New York Times featured an article
which included a cruise around the Broads in 'Sovereign Safari',
one of Hampton Boat's Mark III Safaris.
(The cost was then quoted as
'$543 a week high season,
and $326 a week low season,
at 1.6 pounds to the dollar.')
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Hampton
Boats also distributed memorabilia for the regular clients, including
such items as the coaster, shown here. |
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In
March 2004, I was contacted by Craig Slawson, who has painstakingly
compiled and maintained lists of most Broads hire boats over the
past 30 years. He has very kindly supplied and allowed me to publish
a comprehensive list
of all of the Hampton Safari 25 boats, showing their histories.
Click on the thumbnail to view the PDF file (8 pages, 139k).
Craig has a website at
http://www.salticus.org.uk where he is setting up a sql
database of Broads Hire Boats History. |
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Once
again, I thank Mrs Hampton, her Son and Kenny Stone for the provision
of most of this material and the extensive background knowledge
that they enthusiastically gave to enable the creation of this web
page.
I'm sure it will interest current and future Hampton owners who
may wonder about the history of their boat. |
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