All Weather River Cruiser

At home on the Norfolk Broads

The Mk IV Boat

In 1980 a new boat, built on the Safari hull, with a completely different superstructure appeared in the Hoseasons brochure. The design was promoted as the Sedan Version of the Safari25 and was more traditional in concept, having a fixed raised wheelhouse amidships and a good sized aft cockpit that was well shrouded by extended cabin sides and roof.

The MkIV superstructure did have one feature retained from the MkIII, a large sliding sun roof to the wheelhouse, obvious from the photo that appeared in the 1990 Hoseason's brochure. However, it was not a popular design, with only three known to have been built. Two of these, M708 (Supreme Safari) and V250 (Grande Safari), joined Hampton's hire fleet.

No further examples were built and no other yards used the design. Perhaps it was the extra air draft, compared to the earlier marks, that was the issue, as the low Wroxham and Potter Heigham bridges limited its cruising range. Perhaps, given its well shrouded aft cockpit, it was a design intended to appeal to out of season anglers. Possibly, the Broads was not have been the intended market and it was hoped it would turn out to be popular elsewhere. Given that the whereabouts of some 100 boats of the 256 known to have been built are unknown it is just possible that some of them could be the Sedan version.

Apart from the changed internal layout, dictated by the new superstructure design, the MkIV was also radically different from the earlier versions mechanically. It used hydraulic drive to the propeller. However, unlike many boats built in that period, including the Safaris built by L.H. Jones at their yard on the Great Ouse, the engine was not mounted transversely. Instead the engine was mounted off-centre, but in-line, under the port locker in the cockpit.

Wild Thyme Tour

Thanks to the brokers that were twice involved in the sale of Wild Thyme we now have a good collection of photographs that show the boat that was launched as Grande Safari. Her general layout is shown below.

The Mystery Mk IV

While the addition of the two MkIV boats to Hampton's hire fleet may appear a straight forward development for the yard, it is known that a third example was built. While its Broads Authority registration number is known, M629, its name, at launch, is not. Interestingly, the registration number indicates that it was launched in 1979, the year before the first of the MkIVs appeared in the Hampton hire fleet. This date is confirmed by the CanalPlan site, which takes its data from files supplied by the Broads Authority where, by 2015, it also says the boat is:

Powered by a Single Inboard Diesel engine with a power of 50HP. Registered with the Broads Authority number M629 as a Hampton Motor Private Motor Boat.

Another historical detail is that this first example is known to have suffered a fire in 2004. Photographs appeared in the local press at the time. The main cabin was destroyed in the fire but she was then rebuilt with just the fore cabin retained. The area aft becoming a large open cockpit.

The launch date and lack of evidence for it belonging to any hire fleet opens the opportunity for a number of speculations. While Paul, of the Shorebase site claims that only one Safari, Blue Tit, a MkII boat supplied to the Mayor of Norwich, was built by Hampton's for a private client, no evidence has yet emerged of M629 ever being in a hire fleet, so it appears that either this was a second that went straight to a private buyer, or that it was not built by Hampton's

Support this second possibility comes through its window frames! Unlike the two later boats, M629 lacks the rounded corners to all windows that are a trademark of all Hampton's hire boats. The side windows also lack the framing between the pair of windows that both the examples in the hire fleet have.

It may be worth adding that Craig's Boats of the Norfolk Broads database has no record of the craft until 1990 when it was in private hands. This eleven year gap is not surprising, his own boat was based at Horning and there is some evidence that boats that only cruised the southern rivers, particularly private boats, are more likely to be missing from his records.

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