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.
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.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
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...
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 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 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...