The R & C Bondon Variant
It was Paul (of the Shorebase site) that first identified a version of the Safari that he described at follows:
Mk1D (Dawncraft 26)
The history of these is a little clouded. They differ in having one long cabin side window and a round port hole in the aft quarter, otherwise they appear to be Mk1 mouldings. The aft cabin on some perhaps all, was unusual, in having 2 single berths.
A Safari built by R & C Bondon displays its name where a porthole is found on Dawn‑Craft built boats.
However, it is now clear that two Safaris were built by R & C Bondon, each fitted with one long side window. These boats do not have the porthole, that Paul describes as a key feature of the Dawn‑Craft boat and they were launched in 1972, three years before Dawn‑Craft started building them.
Besides the porthole, there's another feature that distinguish the Bondon boats from those built by Dawn‑Craft. The Bondon boats have three full-height hopper-style opening panes in each window, whereas the later Dawn‑Craft boats have only two half-height vertically sliding panes. The division between the mid and aft cabins is kept the same by reducing the size of the irregularly shaped forward window. Two of the three windows open into the mid cabin, and the remaining one opens into the aft cabin.
It seems that when recorded on the Boats of the Norfolk Broads database only the long side window was considered and the two boats built at Bondon's yard were recorded as the type that Dawn‑Craft later produced in spite of their date and the other features that distinguish them.
Being launched in 1972 is significant as that is when Alec Hampton announced the Safari MkII and, it appears, lost control of the MkI mould tools. Bondon's long window versions of the Safari use those moulds and a story told on the Norfolk Broads Network makes it clear there is no way that Ray Bondon would have obtained the MkI moulds direct from Alec Hampton, which leaves us with a puzzle still to be solved.
It is not yet known if there are internal differences between the Bondon built boats and those produced by Dawn‑Craft, but it's possible that Paul's reference to some boats having two single berths in the aft cabin indicates a difference of builder rather than a change in Dawn‑Craft's boats.
The Two Examples
There were only two Safaris built by R & C Bondon. They had the registration numbers F31 and F32 and, according to Craig's database, were both named Lanson. This seems unlikely! It appears that F31 was removed from the Broads for a few years and, on her return, was re-registered with the number 112H. After passing through a number of changes the name was returned to that of Lanson and, in July 2024, was to be found at a mooring at what used to be Bondon's yard at South Walsham. F32 has also been through a number of name changes and is currently registered as Elda.
Lanson, originally registered as F31, was the first Bondon built Safari. Their boats lack the porthole that is a feature of Dawn-Craft versions that were first built three years later. They also have a different style of opening window in the mid and aft cabins.
Here can be seen the three nearly square opening panes in the long side window, with one opening into the aft cabin. You can also see the gas bottle hatch that is not of the standard MkII type, indicating it was produced from MkI mould tools.
Seen through a rain spattered window you can make out a lack of the Instrument panel recess that featured in the standard MkII boat, providing further evidence for saying this variant was produced with MkI mould tools.
On the foredeck is the circular mud weight chock. Ahead of that is a socket. Presumably, that was intended to take burgee mast shown on the Earliest Drawing of the boat and, on larger screens, reproduced in the header of all pages of this site. The feature seems to have disappeared on later boats that were fitted with the metal casting found on later Hampton Safaris.
Pictures of the internal features of the Bondon Safari would be welcome, especially if they show whether they feature twin beths or a double and how storage is arranged if it has twin berths. Please upload them to the Forum.