Corvette Marine leaves Britain for Taiwan
Duncan Cowie and Adi Shard, two managers of Fleming Yachts, have purchased the tooling and intellectual property of Corvette Marine, the British builder of the popular Corvette 320 family cruiser.
Production of a new, improved Corvette 320 and an all-new Corvette 340 is now underway at the Tung Hwa boatyard in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Tung Hwa is the builder of the Fleming 55, 65 and 75 Motor Yachts.
The two previous owners and managers of Corvette, Steve Robson and Rod Nixon, have relocated to Kaohsiung to oversee the construction and design of the new product line, enabling Cowie and Shard to continue their focus on the Fleming line.
According to the new owners, the 32-foot Corvette was first introduced in 1974 and over the years benefited from a series of upgrades and improvements as it established itself as one of the more popular cruising boats of its type in the UK. Its twin-engine, semi-displacement hull follows the same fundamental design philosophy as the Fleming product line.
“The more we looked at the Corvette, the more we saw similarities between Fleming’s approach to cruising and Corvette’s, but obviously on a smaller scale,” said Cowie.
The new Corvette, said Cowie, features twin diesel engines for safety and redundancy as does the Fleming, and utilises a semi-displacement hull that runs efficiently at 7kts yet is able to reach speeds in excess of 25kts.
Both the 320 and new 340 feature two separate staterooms each with their own head separated by a main saloon and galley. The 340’s raised aft deck utilises the vessel’s full beam, greatly increasing the size of the master stateroom.
A British-built Corvette 320 will be on display at the 2009 Southampton Boat Show, UK, from September 11 to 20, while the all-new Corvette 340 built at Tung Hwa will make its debut later this year.
The Australian dealer for Corvette Marine is Paulsen Trading, phone 1414 233 030 or email: ekpaulsen@bigpond.com
For further information, visit www.corvettemarine.com