History of the class
The original Bowman 26 owners association was called the Bowman Brotherhood and the association flag consisted of two bows with a single arrow through them -))-
Bowman 26 owners are welcome as members of the Hurley Owners Assoc
In the middle sixties Ian Anderson was associated with a company called Lee Wright Ltd who were building boats at Dartmouth. He designed for them a small sailing cruiser for strip planked mahogany construction called Sirius. After making three or four boats to this design the compny was taken over by the Normand Electrical Company of Clapham Common London. The MD was Jack Bowdich, a sailing enthusiast, and the new outfit was called The Normand Boatyard Dartmouth. The link here may be that Jack's boat may well have been in the yard when the Lee Wright company got into difficulties.
Ian Anderson, with the respected Hurley 22 design to his credit was asked by Normand Boatyard to re-work the Sirius design for GRP construction which he did and the first boat was given the name Bowman.
The moulding was carried out by the Monachorum Manufacturing Company run by Mike Challis who also ran the SABB UK South Agency for 30 years. He has now retired and the SABB agency has passed to Sleeman and Hawken of Teignmouth. Incidentally Mike owned his own Bowman 26 ALIZE now thought to be in the Weymouth area and was the author of seven helpfull hint sheets for SABB engines. These Sabb hint sheets are now available as pdf downloads on the new Sleeman and Hawken website.
About a dozen boats were built by the Normand Boatyard before the rights were sold to their agents Larry Baker and Alan Hallet of Emsworth Marine Sales who were operating from Emsworth Marina, then in the process of being dug out by the late Admiral Percy Gick. He just hired a mechanical digger rolled up his sleeves and taught himself how to drive it. Percy was famous for his attack on the Bismarck. He flew his Swordfish biplane launched from HMS Victorious through a hail of antiaircraft fire and hit the Bismarck amidships with the single torpedo he was armed with. He later became chairman of Emsworth Shipyard where the Bowman26 production moved to in 1969.
The total number of boats produced at Emsworth may have been less than twenty, making about thirty in all in the class. This may be due to the design of the accomodation which was very traditional. The only interior moulding on the Bowman26 is the GRP deck head lining, All the internal accomodation was constructed from teak and teak faced ply bonded to the hull. This made the Bowman 26 time consuming to build and expensive to buy but resulted in a pleasing classic looking interior. Inevitably sales slowed and production ceased in 71/72 and the moulds passed to Hurley Marine. George Hurley wanted to add a traditional long keel 26/27 footer to the Hurley boat range and the Bowman 26 moulds were the starting point. Ian Anderson was again called upon and several design changes were made. Most noticeably the forward coachroof was raised to provide standing headroom in the forecabin and the topsides raised by about 6 inches resulting an overall length of 27 feet. The effect of raising the deck is to also raise the centre of bouyancy which improves the already good stability for high heeling angles as well as making a dryer ship. The resulting new boat called the Hurley 27 benefitted from these improvements although in some eyes the extended coachroof does rather spoil the original design's attractive profile.
After the demise of Hurley marine in 1974 the moulds were purchased by an American named John Dockerell. Further modifications took place including a reduced draft and cast iron wing or boot added to the bottom of the keel. These mods were not endorsed by Ian Anderson and the resulting boat is the Dockerell 27.
.
