Cygnus Marine is now 30 years old, being established
in Falmouth in 1972 on the Tregoniggie Industrial Estate. Initially they
fitted out the Lochin 33, then known as the 'Falmouth Fast Fisherman'.
The mackerel 'klondyking' boom of the early 70's led to a rush of orders, and an early association with
Gary Mitchell a local designer, who produced the lines plans for a number of the Cygnus displacement hulls.
These included the GM26 and GM32, hundreds of which were built for the UK and abroad.
Another yard was opened in Truro, 'SteelShip', where some very high quality
steel vessels up to 120', and aluminum patrol vessel and life boats up
to 60' were produced.
The GRP yard moved to its present location at Britannia Yard, Penryn in
1975/6, having outgrown the original premises, with a number of designs
available growing in size. The new yard was a custom built GRP laminating
factory with full insulation and controlled heating. The extra space allowed
the company to develop its own in house metal fabrication, electrics and
large woodworking shop, this reduced the use of subcontractors and thus
increased quality control. The premises have been approved by all the
major classification societies for full construction of all craft.
Cygnus Marine was acquired by the Watercraf Group in 1983, and built
several of their work boat and patrol boats in addition to the work boat
and fishing vessels, for three years until unfortunately the group failed,
and Cygnus Marine went into private hands in the form of a management
buyout. The new ownership of John Peters(Technical) , Ernie Cooke(Sales)
and Andrew Clynick(Finance) continue to the present day.
The decision was made to concentrate solely on the GRP production, though
not just on the marine side, and there have been notable other successes
in various fields such as caravan walling, sewage treatment, building/fascias
etc.
Diversity was also made into the recreation market, with yachts and motor cruisers assuming an increased
significance with changes in global working practices and conservation issues reducing the requirement for
fishing related craft.
Up to the present date, Cygnus have now built over two and a half thousand
vessels, which are in service all over the world, from Greenland to Antarctica,
up the Amazon to Tahiti. They range from work boats, charter, passenger,
angling, fishing, pleasure, research, sailing and survey. Cygnus has also
built boats in Hong-Kong, Aden, Chile, India and other far-flung locations,
through either supplying moulds or expertise.
The focus has changed from heavy displacement craft to fast planing designs and the yard is presently
mainly full with Cyclone 30, Cyfish 33, Typhoon 33/42, Tornado 28, Cygnet 23 - but all the full range of
moulds are still available if required.
For instance the inshore smaller displacement hulls such as the GM19, GM21, Holton 24 and DS25 continue to be
extremely popular, with several as part completed kits for owners or other boatyards to complete.
The boat yard is our showroom, and we would encourage potential owners to make the effort to come over
and meet us face to face if at all possible, inspect our workshops and build quality and appreciate the
full range we have on offer.
all up for sale, trading is expected to cease, or transfer in Jan 2008.
Anyone interested in making sensible offers for the whole or parts of the business, please contact us as soon as possible.
370hp each, these engines whisk the 12 ton boat up to 27.5 knots with no trouble at all. Driving conventional down angle gearboxes and B.T. four bladed propellers the ride is so smooth and effortless.
moulded under survey of the SFIA and had extra laminates applied amidships in way of the flooded-hold (vivier) tank, and Seaway will complete the outfitting using an aluminium foredeck and wheelhouse.