![]() A number were built at 23ft and 24ft, and some motor launches on the same hull. Later versions extended the cabin sides to the gunwale and had an extra plank of freeboard for sitting headroom, swapping some of the boat’s good looks for better usability. They sold by the hundred: where else could you get a beamy, commodious little cabin yacht, with a Stuart Turner engine as standard? The first boats (the Mk 1s, if you like) had an attractive, timeless appearance. They were marketed in the Army and Navy Stores chain of shops around the country. But the low price (a brochure from the late 1940s quotes £491 – about £15,000 today) put a whole generation of sailors on the waters of England’s east coast after the war and the motorboat origins meant a very usable beam. Sailing performance was as you might expect, leading most owners to later add a bowsprit for better performance. The centreboard pivot was through the keel (only 2.5in/5cm, wide) with the result that many of them have now broken their centreboards. ![]() There was little in the way of longitudinal stiffening – two bulkheads and a single beamshelf – and the ‘keel’, such as it was, had a parallel run fine yachts have boat-shaped keelsons.īallast was all internal, and the centreboard and rudder were simply cut out of sheet steel. Two of them would do nothing but cut planks from template, while another two would, for instance, do nothing but clench, so despite their lowly status, these apprentices were highly skilled in niche areas. Everything about it was simple and low-key, built to a price, side-by-side, by a team of 22 apprentices managed by two boatbuilders. This rapidly evolved into the standard 22ft (6.7m) boat, with gaff or bermudan rig. It sold immediately to a local customer, who took it apart and started building a series, to a class he named the “Chesford 16” and much to the vexation of the Dauntless Company, who responded by offering a 20ft (6m) version. After the war, the firm relocated to Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary, where it speculatively put a basic cabin over one of those hulls, and gave it a gaff rig. One of those was a broad, clinker 16ft (4.9m) ‘cutter’ – a power launch in this case. The Dauntless Boat Company of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex had previously built dinghies (for Butlins holiday camps among others), small launches and dayboats, and moved to Wales in the war to build small craft for the Admiralty. The Dauntless’ chief attraction was its price. This is surprising, because it’s thought that at least 400 of them were built between the end of the Second World War and the early 1970s. Much recorded history of the Dauntlesses has been lost in the sands of time. These are boats lightly built to a crude design, but their importance in getting British sailors afloat cheaply after the war inspires great affection in those who know them. N o one would ever claim that a Dauntless is a superlative in the history of yacht design or construction. Classics under £10,000 – the Dauntless yachts
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