Pipinghot
Newbie
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2022
- Messages
- 3
- Vessel Name
- Northern Diver
- Vessel Make
- Fairway Ghillie
Hello to all aboard, I have joined the forum to see if there is anybody out there with information on a boat my brother and I have bought.
The boat was built by Fairway Fabrications in Sheffield England for David Tye of Oban Divers and after Dave's accident was sold on to David Lever on Skye who used the Diver for clam diving. Around 2000 the boat was leaking badly and was lifted onto the hard beside the owners house where it sat for over 20 years. Interestingly enough the boat was used in the film adaptation of Alasdair MacLeans novel 'When eight bells toll' and the boat can be seen from 42 mins in with Anthony Hopkins swimming below avoiding the baddies and not having a good day. The boat is made of Aluminium and despite being over 50 years old (built 1969) is in good condition and has only localised corrosion issues where pennies and bits of copper wire offcuts ended up in the bilges.
There was a remarkably similar boat built in a garage in Oban Scotland possibly in the 90's which has many similarities though the hulls are not the same.
Boat has a Fairway Ghillie badge on one side and had a sister ship possibly called the Kestrel which was slightly longer and was seen around the west coast in the 1980s (?)
The boat was built by Fairway Fabrications in Sheffield England for David Tye of Oban Divers and after Dave's accident was sold on to David Lever on Skye who used the Diver for clam diving. Around 2000 the boat was leaking badly and was lifted onto the hard beside the owners house where it sat for over 20 years. Interestingly enough the boat was used in the film adaptation of Alasdair MacLeans novel 'When eight bells toll' and the boat can be seen from 42 mins in with Anthony Hopkins swimming below avoiding the baddies and not having a good day. The boat is made of Aluminium and despite being over 50 years old (built 1969) is in good condition and has only localised corrosion issues where pennies and bits of copper wire offcuts ended up in the bilges.
There was a remarkably similar boat built in a garage in Oban Scotland possibly in the 90's which has many similarities though the hulls are not the same.
Boat has a Fairway Ghillie badge on one side and had a sister ship possibly called the Kestrel which was slightly longer and was seen around the west coast in the 1980s (?)
