Page updated: 22 October 2012
SeaHawk Logo
There used to be a question on this page "Is there is a definitive version of the logo available?" with the explanation that the emblem on the Reedcraft/Moore leaflet varied slightly from that used on the site. The latter was reproduced from a photograph of the emblem found on a set of SeaHawk sails made by Jeckells.
Now we have the earlier 1970 brochure available, we can see that Jeckells used the image from the front of the early brochure as its model for the sail emblem. However, even their sail logo is not identical to the early brochure and it has changed subtly over the years.
So the answer to the question is, no, there is no definitive logo. But there is a plan to change that and the story begins on the page about adding Boat Names and Hull Insignia.
Reedcraft
1970
It would appear that the
earliest marketing material produced to assist sales of the SeaHawk
was a collection of press cutting promoting and reporting the maiden
North Sea voyage of a SeaHawk on 9-10 March 1970. (There's only a
hint of these dates in the text and jottings on these cuttings, but
they are confirmed by the Dutch
Material.)
It seems clear that the Dutch show referred to in the cuttings was the first show after launch that John Bennett remembers has having been done single handed and in the mid or late 1960s.
It is known that this A4 sized handbill was still being issued to prospective buyers in 1973. The son of the owner of the English boat #232 recalls seeing it amonsgt his fathers papers and the scans provided to the site were sent by owners of a Dutch boat, #263.
On the larger version of the cuttings (334kb) you can see confirmation of the original £555 basic price of the boat. It can be seen in reverse as "print-through" from the original two-sided document! It is likely that the paragraph in the cuttings quoting Mr Muirhead as hoping to make and sell 500 SeaHawks in 1970 as a misprint for a more realistic 50 in the year.
The earliest known formal brochure appears, from the printer's date, as having been issued in December 1970. Received by the site in August 2011, it proved to be an intriguing document. For a start, it breaks with the earlier newspaper cuttings by spelling SeaHawk as two words. This site has always spelt SeaHawk as a single word and used the double capital as that is how it appeared on the front of the only brochures known at the time. More important though, is that the 1970 brochure demonstrates that the specification of the SeaHawk changed significantly over the first three years of its life.
Note how, in the photographs showing the cabin, these boats lack the chain locker and backrest shelves above the bunks, that was a feature of the specification of later boats. The photographs also show the older triangular keel handle and double strengthening strips under the cockpit benches, features that did not appear in later boats.
1973
The revised Reedcraft brochure is only identified here as a 1973 edition because it was sent to the site by the owner of a 1973 boat. Given that the "Ready-to-Sail Specification" shows a different weight to the earlier brochure it is likely to have been first issued at or soon after the time when it is known the concrete and scrap iron ballast changed from being exposed to being fully encased (somewhere between boat #146 and #154).
At first glance the main body of the text of the 1973 brochure seems remarkably similar to the earlier brochure. Then you notice small differences. This version adds a sentence to the "Performance" section:
We can also install a small inboard engine.
In the "Accommodation" section it adds these three items to the specification:
There are two shelves with padded backrests above each bunk
a chain locker forward
We can offer a 4 berth layout
These are all seen in the photographs in this revised brochure, along with the later alloy keel handle, but do not appear in the earlier version.
Interestingly, the "Construction" section drops the sentence:
Extra thickness is laminated into each "land" in the simulated clicker hull.
Whether the specification for this part of the hull was changed, or it was just felt to be unnecessary to say it, is not known. Photographs of early boats do not suggest a difference in construction. Mention of the colour "black" for the anodised alloy mast and boom also disappears, although an early boat with black spars still appears on the front cover.
However, as suggested earlier, most critically, it records the weight of the ballast at 370lbs rather than 300lbs. It might be thought that this is merely a misprint and that the weight of the steel centre plate has been added in, but that is hardly likely given that not only does the specification table on the back cover now claim the Ballast total is now 440lbs, when the older brochure showed 370lbs, but also the boat weight is now given as 1200lbs rather than 1100lbs.
Taken all together it can be assumed that the brochure was revised because of a range of significant changes in the specification of the standard boat over time. It also seems to suggest that we now have an answer to the earlier questions from some owners about a discrepancy of 70lb in the weight of ballast.
R Moore & Son
Other than the contact and printers details, the Moores brochure seen by the site is virtually identical to the version issued earlier by Reedcraft. It still includes the misprint in the 1970 brochure of "standard rigging" where "standing rigging" should have appeared. As before, the thumbnail images link to larger versions.
Moore's Price Lists
Moore's price lists for the SeaHawk from between 1977 and 1991, and the accompanying order forms make interesting reading for SeaHawk owners seeking to date their boat. Apart from indicating the inflation that took place in this period, they also show how the specifications changed. (Analysis of the changes appear on relevant pages. See the "Full Description" pages under The Boat on the main menu.)
Also included here is a list of Special Offers, possibly from 1980. All these documents were simple type-written affairs. (Although the double width headings on the later versions appears to indicate that Moore's office had become computerised by 1991!)
| 1977 | 1980(?) |
|---|---|
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| 1984 | |
|---|---|
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| 1986 | |
|---|---|
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| 1991 | |
|---|---|
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Each of the images above links to a page providing a commentary on the contents of each page and a larger copy of the image.
Pyefleet Boat Sales
Pyefleet Boat Sales marketed the SeaHawk between 2000 and 2001. The quarter-page display advertisement shown on the left appeared in "Buy a Boat for under £15,000" magazine in September 2000. Note that Pyefleet spells the name as two words and not one, as Reedcraft and Moore had done.
Pyefleet also produced a handbill around this time which, presumably, would have been issued to prospective customers at the various shows that they attended with the boat.
Dutch
Promotional Material
Translations of these two Dutch items, dating from the original launch of the SeaHawk, would be very welcome!
One is clearly a newspaper report of the same journey as that in the Reedcraft promotional material. The other appears to have more information about the North Sea crossing itself.
Credits
Thanks are due to the following owners for being able to supply the material presented in this section of the site:
Jake Carter:
The 1970 Reedcraft brochure
Dutch owner, Ingrid Schatz:
Photocopy of the 1973 brochure, the 1970 press cuttings paper and
other material from Holland.
Andrew Fielding:
The 1977 and 1984 price lists and the list of Special Offers
believed to date from 1980.
Janice and Ken Saunders:
The Moores brochure and 1986 price list
John Southey:
The 1991 price list.
Bruce Lunt:
The promotional material issued by Pyefleet Boat Sales.