Bruce Campbell: Albatross Fairey, Christina & More
Charles Lawrence

Ninety pages of well researched information about one of the key figures behind the Fairey motorboats.  Charles Lawrence has produced a book which, as always, grips the reader as Bruce Campbell works his way from being a test pilot in WW2 to Albatross Marine, Fairey Marine and onto the Christinas in their various forms before covering off various later designs. The book also includes the various spinoff and contemporary designs and closes with a summary of the various Christina variants built and their racing successes, plus reprints of three articles by Bruce published in The Yachtsman magazine.  We start to get a clear idea of the real Bruce Campbell who has always been portrayed as peripheral to the early days of Fairey Marine, but without him, the British Motorboat industry would have been much the poorer.  Charles’ extensive research, the time and information given by the Campbell family members (and others), and the contemporary documents all come together with the photographs and drawings to produce an excellent history of a major influencer in the design and development of Fairey and other British motorboats.

– Scott Pett

ISBN 978-1-8382646-3-5  210×210  90pp  £15.00

HURRY WEST : COWES-TORQUAY RACE 1961  The first Daily Express International Offshore Powerboat Race.  With a foreword by Tommy Sopwith

Discovery of an unpublished typescript by Peter Twiss about the first Cowes-Torquay race in 1961 prompted Charles Lawrence to find out more, and he has just published a full account of the race.  This explains the significance of the race where there were only nine finishers from the 27 boats that started, and four of these had deep-V hulls designed by Ray Hunt and another by Sonny Levi. The winner was Thunderbolt, a Bruce Campbell Christina driven by Tommy Sopwith, followed by Jim Wynne in Yo-Yo, a Bertram 25. Charles Currey’s Fairey Diesel Huntsman was third, although the Billy Butlin Huntsman 8 driven by Peter Twiss was holed and beached.  The book reproduces the official documents and background to the race, with details of the key people and participating boats, with new colour drawings of 29 of them.

ISBN 978-0-9927773-4-0  Softback, 120 pages, 210x210mm, £20.00