Padstow Speedboats
Discussion
Huntsman said:
Looking good value now.Been going on the speedboats at Padstow nearly every year since I was a kid and now take my 3 children on them.
Earliest memories are of Jaws 1,2 (& 3 I think) and then a new boat came along in the early 80's called Apollo. Different layout to the others (with bench seats one behind the driver and 2 at the rear behind the mid engine) Apollo had individual seats and an isle down the middle, from memory 2 seats on one side of the isle with a single seat on the other.
Asked a driver recently what happened to Apollo and he said it still operated somewhere on the south east coast.
Earliest memories are of Jaws 1,2 (& 3 I think) and then a new boat came along in the early 80's called Apollo. Different layout to the others (with bench seats one behind the driver and 2 at the rear behind the mid engine) Apollo had individual seats and an isle down the middle, from memory 2 seats on one side of the isle with a single seat on the other.
Asked a driver recently what happened to Apollo and he said it still operated somewhere on the south east coast.
Edited by shakermikee on Thursday 24th September 14:02
Hi all, I bought Apollo 3 from Padstow in the mid 90's and ran her from Southend Pier for about 5 years. She was 30' long and was built by Chapman and Hewitt of Wadebridge in 1978. She was built from sheets of marine plywood and originally fitted with a Sabre 250 engine and Castoldi 06 jet drive. unfortunately the rot got into the plywood and she was cut up around 2001. I will post a picture of her alongside Jaws if I can. 
Just to verify....
The Padstow speedboats were all built by John England of Padstow, Cornwall
1975 John England ran a boat called 007 which was a "Looe Lady" built by Gerald Pearn of Looe.
The North coast of Cornwall faces the Atlantic ocean and is nowhere near as calm as the south coast. Passengers often came back from their trip soaking wet. All good fun but John England wanted his own design, better suited to choppy waters. He took his design to Gerald Pearn, however Gerald didn't believe the wood could be bent to the extremes of Johns plans. He offered to help and the use of his private workshop in Morval near Looe as he had large steamers used for forming the wood.
John proved to Gerald the wood would bend and "Jaws" was born. Longer, wider, fatter and faster than Geralds "Looe Ladies" - more suitable for the rougher seas of North Cornwall.
After it's launch and sea trials Jaws worked a few months in Padstow before being taken back to Looe to have a cast made to enable the production of a GRP hull.
The following year along came "Jaws 2" the first GRP hulled Padstow boat. It had a few tweeks to perfect handling and ride.
Jaws 2 is now known as Jaws
Then came Sea Fury
Cyclone (now updated and called Thunder)
Fireball XLS
So 4 GRP boats and the one wooden one
The original wooden boat is in Southend and called "Charger" the rest are still in Padstow.
Rumour has it that two other hulls were laid and the boats produced are in Ireland somewhere.
John England has now retired but still keeps his hand in as design advisor for a company owned by his Son, David who is currently designing and building a new speed boat for Padstow and due in service before 2020
- Place your order!
The Padstow speedboats were all built by John England of Padstow, Cornwall
1975 John England ran a boat called 007 which was a "Looe Lady" built by Gerald Pearn of Looe.
The North coast of Cornwall faces the Atlantic ocean and is nowhere near as calm as the south coast. Passengers often came back from their trip soaking wet. All good fun but John England wanted his own design, better suited to choppy waters. He took his design to Gerald Pearn, however Gerald didn't believe the wood could be bent to the extremes of Johns plans. He offered to help and the use of his private workshop in Morval near Looe as he had large steamers used for forming the wood.
John proved to Gerald the wood would bend and "Jaws" was born. Longer, wider, fatter and faster than Geralds "Looe Ladies" - more suitable for the rougher seas of North Cornwall.
After it's launch and sea trials Jaws worked a few months in Padstow before being taken back to Looe to have a cast made to enable the production of a GRP hull.
The following year along came "Jaws 2" the first GRP hulled Padstow boat. It had a few tweeks to perfect handling and ride.
Jaws 2 is now known as Jaws
Then came Sea Fury
Cyclone (now updated and called Thunder)
Fireball XLS
So 4 GRP boats and the one wooden one
The original wooden boat is in Southend and called "Charger" the rest are still in Padstow.
Rumour has it that two other hulls were laid and the boats produced are in Ireland somewhere.
John England has now retired but still keeps his hand in as design advisor for a company owned by his Son, David who is currently designing and building a new speed boat for Padstow and due in service before 2020
- Place your order!
There is another Looe Lady. But she is a bit further North than you guys so you probably won't have heard of her!
This is Britannia. She operates off the west coast of Scotland in a small town called Largs and is hoping to be out this summer if not then the next.
Find us on Facebook Largs Boat Hire.
Myself and my Dad were pleased to see that there are others like her still out on the water.
AprilB said:
There is another Looe Lady. But she is a bit further North than you guys so you probably won't have heard of her!
This is Britannia. She operates off the west coast of Scotland in a small town called Largs and is hoping to be out this summer if not then the next.
Find us on Facebook Largs Boat Hire.
Myself and my Dad were pleased to see that there are others like her still out on the water.
It sure is.
Our russian hydrofoil, the Barracuda also offer trips around Largs bay. She has just had a respray so she is blood orange this summer. I've added a short video link a customer has made for us.
https://youtu.be/tQTzT9-q7mI
Our russian hydrofoil, the Barracuda also offer trips around Largs bay. She has just had a respray so she is blood orange this summer. I've added a short video link a customer has made for us.
https://youtu.be/tQTzT9-q7mI
forgot to add the other link too!
https://youtu.be/N-kTh8DmfZM
and another picture of the Brit since you cant see her all that well in the first.
https://youtu.be/N-kTh8DmfZM
and another picture of the Brit since you cant see her all that well in the first.
I just came on this thread as I remember the Jaws boats in Padstow in the 1970s (we have never been back to Cornwall post 1980 because of the weather - it always rained and my parents gave up and we caravanned to Spain instead).
I used to go catching crabs on the harbour wall and it was always a big thing when Jaws came back with it's load of passengers and it would do the boat equivalent of a handbrake turn not far from the harbour wall and give the passengers (and us landlubbers a thrill).
I used to go catching crabs on the harbour wall and it was always a big thing when Jaws came back with it's load of passengers and it would do the boat equivalent of a handbrake turn not far from the harbour wall and give the passengers (and us landlubbers a thrill).
Huntsman said:
This boat lying derelict on the shore just west of Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, been meaning to get to take pics since this thread was started, had to orchestrate a family day out to get there!
Ford straight six, appears to be cold moulded timber skinned in GRP.
Looks like the area is being cleared, so I guess may not be around for much longer.
is there any update on this ....... curious as to whether its still about?Ford straight six, appears to be cold moulded timber skinned in GRP.
Looks like the area is being cleared, so I guess may not be around for much longer.
DoubleSix said:
Dunno about you lot but it always struck me as a bit odd that punters on these boats aren’t required to wear life jackets. Have seen incredibly young passengers (2 year olds) on them and it looked like an accident waiting to happen... they aren’t slow.
That was my first thought when watching the video of the hydrofoil.DoubleSix said:
Dunno about you lot but it always struck me as a bit odd that punters on these boats aren’t required to wear life jackets. Have seen incredibly young passengers (2 year olds) on them and it looked like an accident waiting to happen... they aren’t slow.
To be honest back in those days health & safety was not an issue & I doubt that anyone even gave it a thought.I know that one of the highlights on my holidays in Cornwall when I was a lad, always stayed in Trevone, was a weekly trip down the river getting soaked in the back of one of John England’s amazing boats.
Happy carefree days. And I don’t think that they ever had an accident or even lost anyone overboard.
I just wish I could find my dads cine films taken from the boat.
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