A  rough guide to how the companies came about..

In 1967 Mr Buxton had been looking for a boat when Mr Vic Bell showed him one in the yard of 'Bell Boats'. It had a fibreglass hull which was unusual at the time, and Mr Buxton used it extensively in the North Sea and locally and he was very impressed with it. So impressed in fact that he made a survey of fibreglass yachts available and discussed the potential with Mr Bell, they improved the design and when he eventually sold 'Moonraker' in August  1968, he had about 20 people after it!, This encouraged him to contract Mr Bell to make him 50 similar craft and these 'Moonraker 30's were sold in a short time.

An example of the Moonraker 30 from 1970

This then was the beginning, as the both realised that fibreglass craft were the future, so Mr Buxton contacted Mr Robert Tucker to help him design a new craft, the Moonraker 36. This craft had a unique hull form that reduces the slamming effect and was called the Moonraker 'Softrider' it was introduced at the 1970 Boat Show at Kew Pier in London.

A year later the company had received orders for 125 boats worth about £1.5 Million! They also had a plan to produce a Moonraker 46, expected to sell for under £18000, but were too busy building the 36's that it was never built.

The old company was in fact several...

 'Moonraker Marine' was the marketing company had introduced the 'Moonraker 36' in January 1970, the basic design was by Mr David Buxton (director) and Mr Robert Tucker a naval architect.

'Industrial Marine Plastics' was the company responsible for the production of all the fibreglass elements, such as the hull,superstructure,wash basins,fuel tanks and bulkheads, being managed by director Mr Derrick Shapland.

'Bell Buxton Boats Ltd' was the production company, managed by Director Mr Vic Bell and Director Mr David Buxton, it produced and fitted all the wooden elements, electricals and plumbing then put the superstructure on the hulls before trials.

the marketing company Managing Director was Mr John Berry, at the London Boatshow in July 1970 they managed to get 9 orders for £12000 each which was a very large amount in those days, and led to them having a full order and new orders being given about 8 months delivery time even though the craft could be made in about 4 weeks.

There was also 'Buxton Marine Services' for internal administration, 'Buxton Aviation Services' operating the company aircraft, 'Camden Personal Finance', and 'Progressive Yacht Sales' which sold secondhand craft. overall Chairman was Mr David Buxton, at the time these companies employed about 125 people.

On the 13th of July 1971, Mr Colin Chapman announced the forming of Moonraker Marine International.

He stated at a press conference that the new company had absorbed Moonraker Marine, Bell Buxton Boats Ltd, and Industrial Marine Plastics which operated separately under the old Moonraker grouping. The new company was financed personally by Colin Chapman and other local businessmen and would be managed by Mr David Lane, who had been working in a similar role for 3 years at Group Lotus of which Colin Chapman was the founder and Chairman. Group Lotus had no direct involvement.

The company would be sited on land owned by Mr Bell, but Mr Bells company 'Bell Boats Ltd' was not involved in the new company and remained independant. they wanted to locate themselves at Brundall Gardens in early 1972 between the railway station and the Yare river, but there was enormous opposition to this, both from planners and local residents.

In September 1972 the 'GT 350' was introduced costing £15000, this had twin contra-rotating 175hp Perkins engines giving 26 knots and a range of 350 Miles

A revised plan for the development at Brundall Gardens was submitted in October 1972, but was again turned down. In December 1972, an appeal was heard with respected witnesses backing the revised application.

At the same time, a new company structure was formed, JCL being the mother and marketing company, each craft being built by member companies bearing the name of the craft being built, for example.. Marauder Marine was responsible for the development and production of the Marauder,  Moonraker Marine International were responsible for the production of the Moonraker.

In September 1972, another company had joined the ranks, 'Technocraft'.

After 9 months of research and development, they were established at Hethel next to the Lotus factories in some old wartime airfield buildings and hangars. The man reponsible at the time was Mr Martin Murray, Project Manager, who described the new company as having developed a revolutionary new technique for making Fibreglass elements of any size in one piece. the process was very secret,and involved Vacuum Assisted Resin Injection, at the time this technique did not exist anywhere and was a patented design that was licenced to other companies later after it was proved in the making of the hulls, Lotus car bodies,shower cubicles, wash basins etc. for the group.

During December 1972, The Marauder was announced by JCL Marine Ltd, its expected cost was £33000, it was the cumulation of 3 years design and developement, the hull was designed by recognised specialist and world famous Don Shead, and the superstructure and layout was by Colin Chapman. It was intended that it should be available in two versions, one with an aft cabin (the final design) and one with an aft cockpit (never built)

The prototype was arranged with the helm on the Port side in a reverse left/right arrangenment compared to the final craft which had the helm on the Starboard side, the overall length including pulpit was 47' 8'',  the beam 13' 8'', and the draft 3' 6''.

It was first shown at the London Boat Show at Earls Court in January 1973. The 'Marauder' was an ulra-modern design having a white superstructure with dark windows and rakish lines on a bright yellow hull, the craft immediately securing 15 orders! at a price of £34600. At the same show Moonraker secured a further 21 orders. for the £20000 craft.

The Marauder shown was in fact the wooden prototype built for JCL by Porter & Haylett at Coltishall the basic shape and appearence were present, but many details would change before the final Glass-fibre design would appear .

The method for making the glass-fibre hulls is explained on the Technocraft pages

JCL was inadvertantly involved in the January 1974 Boat Show bomb explosion that was placed on the neighbouring stand to theirs, 'James & Caddy Ltd' the stand had luckily been cleared along with the rest of the stands at Earls Court, but the Moonraker was very badly damaged in the explosion even though the hull absorbed the shock very well. Marketing Manager Mr John Berry was more concerned with the fact that the company had lost several customers who were completing contracts at the time, than the damage to the boats on the stand ( The Marauder was luckily not at the show as it was suffering from some delays making the first glass-fibre versions with the new process).

In June 1974 a very well known Moonraker left Brundall on its way to be delivered to the Sheik Hamed Bin Eissa Al-Khalifa, the Defence Minister of Bahrein. It was fitted with all the possible electronic mod cons as the Sheik was big fan of radio communications, his craft was named 'Bandar' ( an english translation of its arabic name) but was more commonly called 'Banana' by the work force involved with the company building it because of its unique bright yellow hull colour (like the Marauder).

Germany became a new important sales outlet for JCL Marine and many new craft went there, Mr John Berry went on a sales trip to Denmark, Germany & Italy in Sept 1974 and came back with twice the hoped for orders, a total of 15 Moonraker 36 'GTS 350' craft each with a value of approx £30000 !!

Next important step was the obtention of a Lloyds LRBC Certificate in 1974, the only boat builders in the world to have one at that time, this was the equivalent of the 100 A1 certificate of the QE2 and reassured customers of the quality of the design the fabrication and the materials used. and enabled improved export sales to Europe and overseas countries.

The production version  of the Marauder finally showed itself to the public at the January 1975 Earls Court Boat Show and was very impressive with its perfect hull and superstructure finish inside and out, and its much improved styling and fittings.

Another craft making its debut in 1975 was the 'Mystere' which was an Italian design by Versilcraft this prototype was again a wooden version but the production craft were built using the same techniques used for the Marauder which reduced the overall weight by several tons. it was priced at £55000. It was fitted with twin Perkins TV8 510m engines and apart from the glass-fibre construction was very similar to the Versilcraft design. The craft shown at the show was the wooden hulled prototype.

LLoyds now gave Moonraker another Certificate, the Lloyds Register of Shipping Quality Control certificate, The official ceremony was made on the 20th August 1975 as the 467th Moonraker was launched, ready to be shown at the Southampton Boat Show.

 LLoyds chairman, Mr Robert Huskisson presented the certificate to Mr Fred Bushell the Finance Director, saying "The underlying principle which Moonraker appears to have as its motto, is that quality must take precedence over everything, and certainly quality every time takes precedence over quantity",  & " I feel there is perhaps a lesson here for manufacturing industry throughout the country, and Moonraker is to be congratulated on having set this outstanding example."

The first appearance of the glassfibre production 'Mystere' was at the Southampton Boat Show in October 1975

At the January 1976 London Boat Show, the company won orders worth £750000 for 5 Marauders and 10 Mysteres alone ,Mr Roger Putnam (who by this time was the Director of Sales & Marketing having been with Lotus Cars since 1966) described it as "mind boggling", the previous show having been poor.

The Show also saw the introduction of the 'Mamba' a 37' 2+ berth cruiser at a price of £40000,  and the 'Mistral' a development of the Mystere designed with the american market in mind, it had an extra cabin where the engines used to be, these having been moved under the cockpit floor like the Marauder and run through 'Vee' gearboxes to save space. The craft was further improved with extensive sound and vibration insulation , the engines were now the same as the Marauder, Twin Ford Sabres producing 210 HP each, giving a greater top speed of 27 knots and more economical due to the weight reduction made using the fibreglass hulls and weight saving bulkhead constructions. £100000

May 1977 saw the residents of Brundall complaining once again as JCL sought to build a wet shed at Brundall Gardens yacht station, to cover the yachts during final checks prior to their delivery, and for after-sales servicing. The vote by the planning commitee was finally cast in favour of JCL.

In June 1978 5000 top businesses were invited to a private boat show held a St Katherines Dock in next to the Tower of London were they would get to see 3 craft in detail before heading for Brundall, the craft were the Mystere, the Mirage, and the Mamba.

In late September 1978 after the Southampton Boat Show, the company announced that it had won more than £1 million orders, and that it was going to increase its workforce by 20, in fact the orders came from a company in Germany set up to deal with the European market, named "Interplan Yachting"

They further announced they had received anorder for 12 Mistral craft (the american market version of the Mirage), This deal was to be made with Chris-Craft in the U.S.A., but ultimately failed.

the final announcement was that a close relative of King Hussein of Jordan, Prince Abdullah Masaood of Abu Dhabi, had ordered an adapted version of the Mirage for his personal use, and the Prince was to act as an agent for JCL in the United Arab Emirates to generate further sales in the region.

A picture of this craft is shown below.. with a view of the unusual sterndrive engines which replaced the normal engine & propellor shaft arrangement.

In March 1979, the company showed a revised layout for the Mamba at the Dusseldorf show, the "Mamba +2" had an additional 2 berth cabin at the expense of the removal of the 'Breakfast Bar'. .

In April 1979 the range of JCL craft (except for the Marauder) were shown at a boat show in the local seaside town of Great Yarmouth. the idea being that instead of static displays, the craft ould be taken out with propective buyers to give them a better idea of the capabilities of the craft, many potential overseas buyers were invited. It was at this time that the decision was made to have the hulls and superstructures made solely at Hethel, while the fitting out of the craft was to take place in Brundall. This wasa big change as up to this time, the Moonraker was the the only craft produced at the Brundall site, and now the hulls were to be produce by the Hethel site, all the orther JCL craft would now be fitted out at Brundall rather than at Hethel. this made sense as the Brundall site had direct access to the River Yare, enabling craft to be launched and tested without the difficult and time wasting need to trnasport the finished yachts by road from Hethel to Brundall to be launched, now only the empty hulles/superstructures would make the journey. Of course the day a Mirage hull fell off the trailer in Norwich while being transported, proving that accidents could happen, could have been a lot worse had the lorry been transporting a completed craft!

In July 1979, there was a publicity stunt organised by the firm during Postal Strikes that meant post to the continent was being badly delayed, JCL announced that they would be taking the Lotus Cars & JCL Marine mail to Holland themselves! in fact they didn't actually go that far, instead just getting out of site of the port and then returning.

Around this time JCL worked on a prototype based on the Mamba hull called the 'Streaker' this craft was never put into full production, but  a finished one did get given away in a 'Martini' competition as top prize.

In February 1980 the range of JCL craft ( the Marauder present this time) were again shown at a boat show in the local seaside town of Great Yarmouth. This was organised by Gordon Read International, the owner of which was acting as a consultant to JCL Marine, this was a very convenient place as it was at the mouth of the River Yare, on which the craft were launched and also were they were tested on Breydon Water.

In April 1980 the company announced the design off a new craft, the 65ft Mangusta, this was to be a very superior craft and more of a luxurious port craft than a sports cruiser as were the rest of the current range. The Mangusta never got off the drawing boards.

On Friday 31st October 1980 at 14:30h, Liquidators told the employees that the Board had decided to go into liquidation as a deperately hoped for £1.5 Million order from a HongKong company, 'Inchcape' had not materialised., the appointed liquidators 'Kidsons estimating the loss at +/- £830,000.