British Renaissance

If you mention British pleasure boat and yacht builders the trio of Sunseeker, Princess, and Fairline would come to most people's mind.  But recently two other semi-production boat builders seem to be making in-roads, and these are Cockwells and its Duchy and Hardy brands, and Dale.  Interestingly both these offer something different from what the usual British triplet brings, conservative in looks, with innovation coming more on the technical side.

Founded in 1995 Cockwells should be getting a lot of attention for both its Duchy and Hardy names.  Duchy offers an interesting line of traditional down East inspired models from six to eighteen meters, with both the larger 45 and 60 models being projects.  Of interesting note was the ten meter Duchy Sport an interesting mix of modern sport cruiser and traditional lines which debuted in 2023.  Hardy was purchased by Cockwells in 2020, and in 2023 we are seeing the fruits of this acquisition as the new ownership debuted its first 50DS model. 

Dale on the other hand has been a slow grower, founded in 1961, the company made a good step in the nineties as it started a collaboration with TT Boat Designs, the firm which designs the famous Nelson type hull as used in a lot of small and medium sized pilot and patrol boats. The fruits of this collaboration start with the Dale Classic 45 in 2004, and since then Dale has been pushing forward, and in the last years its latest down East inspired products are innovative.  Look at the recently launched Classic 35 and Classic 37 as example.   

Are these three brands made to replace the usual British trio.  Definitely not, but they do offer something very British in looks and use, which the boats from the trio today and in the recent decades do not, and most importantly are firms managed by the passionate people who founded them.