Fairmile Marine

Fairmile Marine was a British boat building company founded in 1939 by the car manufacturer Noel Macklin.

Macklin used the garage at his home at Cobham Fairmile in Surrey for manufacturing assembly which is why the boats he designed came to be called Fairmiles.

As a former Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve officer, he was inspired to turn his talents and his technical staff to producing boats after reading an article by Vice-Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne.

After his first designs were accepted and ordered by the Admiralty, Macklin found he had insufficient capital. To solve the problem the Fairmile company became an agency of the Admiralty with Usborne as one of the directors. As a result, the company carried out business without turning a profit, the staff being in effect part of the civil service.

Many Fairmile Bs were built in Commonwealth countries: 80 in Canada, 12 in New Zealand, and six in South Africa.