"It's the bow of an airborne lifeboat from WWII", said my friend, pointing to the elegantly curved piece of plywood in the corner of his workshop. "We tried to restore the whole thing, but it was too far gone, and that's all there is left".

The North Sea was the last, often fatal challenge for damaged aircraft returning home during WWII, and these lifeboats were dropped from the air so that aircrews could scramble aboard and sail back to England. The lifeboat was conceived by Uffa Fox, who later became famous for his successful designs for all kinds of sailing craft.

Besides being seaworthy, the airborne lifeboat had to meet four demanding crieria:

• Large enough to hold six men with supplies for several days
• Light enough to carry beneath a twin-engine aircraft
• Strong enough to parachute from 200 ft into the sea without smashing to pieces
• Simple enough to be handled by airmen who were not experienced sailors

At that time, metal was in short supply so Uffa Fox chose moulded plywood for the lifeboat, similar to the materials used to build the high-speed twin-engine Mosquito aircraft and the Horsa troop-carrying gliders. He demonstrated how this method of construction produced a craft that was light enough to carry beneath an airplane, yet strong enough to withstand dropping into the sea.

Airborne lifeboat (Photo: public domain)

After the war, as England gradually became more prosperous, the directors of the Fairey Aviation company (all keen sailors) decided it was time to expand into the leisure industry, and they invited Uffa Fox to design a family-size sailing boat.

Thus in 1957 was born the Fairey Marine Atalanta: a 26ft moulded plywood sailing boat, capable of being handled safely by inexperienced sailors in shallow waters, yet strong enough to venture out to sea, and light enough to be be towed behind a Land Rover. The Atalanta's hull was built using the same methods and equipment previously employed to construct the WWII Horsa glider fuselage.

Original advertisement for the Atalanta