It took three different craft and three subsequent refits for classic boat enthusiast David Johnson to realise his dream but the end result is worth every penny
Having spent most of my childhood weekends and holidays through the 1970s on H the Thames or across the English Channel on a Birchwood GT33 fitted out by my father, I got bitten by the boating bug from a very early age. On one such holiday I vividly remember chugging along at our normal 12 knots and watching two boats reeling us in then passing us at what seemed an unbelievable speed. That was the first time I saw the beautiful Fairey Huntsman.
A spell in the Royal Navy as a marine engineer during the mid-1980s did nothing to lessen my love of boats but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that I could scrape enough money together to buy my first boat. The brief was quite simple: fast, twin diesel, shaftdrive and good seakeeping. Well, with only £17k it was a very small pond to pick from but I was very pleased to see a Fairey Huntsman 28 in Malta advertised so I booked a flight to view it. The boat had an interesting history, evidently running night-time smuggling trips to Morocco! Unfortunately, however, the price was not negotiable, which it needed to be to allow for the shipping costs back home. Not long after I saw an advert in MBY for another Huntsman in Shamrock Quay, Southampton, and having booked a viewing I found myself standing on the pontoon looking at Playtime 2. I bought the boat on sight despite the worryingly low oil pressure when I ran the engines. However, having stripped and rebuilt many engines by then, I knew the mechanical work wouldn’t be a problem. Also having done a fair bit of timber work, I was sure that with some expert guidance that wouldn’t be an issue either. So, at an agreed £16k and with a huge smile on my face, ex-Fairey Marine race boat 333 and Cowes-Torquay class winner Playtime 2 became mine.
Eighteen months later and with the engines rebuilt, a lot of repairs to the rotten timber, new electrics, a full repaint and too many hours to count, she took to the water. There followed many happy weekends around the Solent and a trip to the Channel Islands with a northerly Force 5 return crossing which, although wet and lumpy, proved what a capable boat she was.
By then I needed a bigger boat so I sold Playtime in 2003 and bought a Fairey Swordsman 33 even though she had no engines, shafts, props and several other essentials. However, six months later she was
