On the 12th of July 1971, Colin Chapman bought "Moonraker Marine" from owners Bell Buxton Boat builders, he formed "Moonraker Marine International" then redesigned the existing wooden yacht, making it much more attractive, cheaper to produce, with amodern styling, and it was a best seller!
Colin Chapman wanted to radically improve marine production methods that he felt were outdated, and introduced a revolutionary technique producing one-piece vacuum-injection-moulded GRP hulls for the Marauder 46. The Vacuum-Assisted-Resin-Injection (VARI) moulded hulls were developed by 'Technocraft', another member of the Lotus/JCL group, in the same ex-war aircraft hangar where the Marauder was developed on the edge of Hethel airfield, next to the Lotus Cars factory in Potash Lane, Hethel in Norfolk (UK).
The method was eventually used for the production of the Lotus cars and was a patented technique with patents held in many countries around the world.
