Forums Forum History and details of Don marine

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    • #18386
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Very impressed with the build quality and performance of a recently acquired Don marine Mark 4a. The boat is now inevitably overweight but has clearly had a quiet life on fresh water and was rather rudely awakened sailing in the Tollesbury GP14 open last weekend in a steady F5/6. I would be interested to know more of the history of the builder back in the 1990s

    • #18387
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      I too would be interested in the history of the firm.   All I do know is just a couple of snippets,  picked up from (I think) Gareth Morris many years ago;   I gather that the proprietor was known as “Barry the Boat”,  and that they eventually closed down following a disastrous fire at their workshop round about year 2000,  a fire which also destroyed vintage GP14 no. 10.

      I suspect that Graham Knox will know something about their history,  and possibly also Gareth.

      I have likewise been impressed with their build quality,  and I briefly owned one of their Series 1 boats,  Strait Laced,  no. 11930.   I do know that they built in both wood and GRP.

      For what it is worth I have tracked down a facebook page celebrating them,  https://www.facebook.com/Don-Marine-105209796225888/,  but that doesn’t give us any hard information about their history.

       

      Oliver

    • #18399
      Chris
      Participant

      Give Glynn a call at SP Boats. He was there for a long time.

    • #18400
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      Thank you,  Chris.

      George,   would you like to follow this up,  and report back,  please?

      Thanks,

       

      Oliver

    • #18401
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Thank you, l will try and contact Glynn and ask about who was the inspiration behind the boat and created the design and tooling for the Mark 4a.,  the construction methods and materials would also be interesting to know about. I will post a picture of 13280 on the fb page when l have got it cleaned up as for a 25 year old it looks great.

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