Introducing the Hampton Safari

As described on the Home page, this section of the site, provide a brief history of the development of the "Safari25" with further pages where reproductions of some of the early blueprint drawings can be found and copies of two of the sales brochures produced by Hampton Boats Ltd. The remaining pages describe the main variants of the design.

Also available to download is a "History of Hampton Boats Ltd", created by Paul of the Shorebase site, the original Safari historian.

Hampton Boats Logo The Development of the Safari25

The Hampton Safari was a development of earlier boats in Hampton's hire fleet but was its first to be built in GRP. During its production life three versions of the boat were built. The MkII is, in essence, just a development of the MkI, with the MkIII a variation of the MkII. In contrast, it could be argued that the MkIV is an entirely different boat, its only common element with the others being the hull.
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Profile and Plan Technical Drawings

Currently the site can provide two of the three known technical drawings acquired by Paul (of the Shorebase site). The versions available here have been cleaned of the discolouration found on those available on the Shorebase site and retraced to provide much cleaner and easier to read versions that, hopefully, reflect the originals as closely as possible.
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Hampton Brochures Brochures

Hampton Boats are known to have produced two sales brochures shortly after the release of the MkII model and these were available on the Shorebase site. Some work has been done to improve the reproduction of the original scans and on this site they have been bundled into single PDF files to ensure the documents are always complete. Read more...

Mark 1-2 Profile Marks I and II

The original design, first drafted in 1968, became the the Mk1 and was developed over the next three years with various minor improvements. Some of these were suggested by buyers of the mouldings, who then fitted out the boats as they wanted. By 1972 the various revisions were incorporated into a standardised package that became the MkII. Read more...

Mark 3 Profile Mark III

The MkIII first appeared in 1976 and was a clear development of the MkII. There were two significant differences in this version. One was the loss of the sliding wheelhouse over the saloon. This was replaced with a fixed head with sliding sunroof. The other was a forward well, that replaced the large foredeck, accessed through a door from the saloon. Read more...

Mark 4 Profile Mark IV

The MkIV arrived in 1980. Its only similarity the previous versions was the use of the same hull. This design, sold as the "Sedan Version", had an aft cockpit and fixed raised central wheelhouse. It also featured an off-set engine, mounted in the port cockpit locker with hydraulic drive. Read more...