Fleming Yachts management team buys Corvette Marine

Fleming Yachts management team buys Corvette Marine

Duncan Cowie and Adi Shard, two top 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 boat yard in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  Tung Hwa is the builder of the highly respected 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.

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 U.K. 

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,” comments Duncan Cowie, who as a Brit is very familiar with the Corvette brand.

Cowie points out that the Corvette features twin diesel engines for safety and redundancy as does the Fleming, and it utilizes a semi-displacement hull that runs efficiently at 7-knots and yet is able to reach speeds in excess of 25-knots.

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 utilizes 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 in the U.K. from September 11th through the 20th.  The all-new Corvette 340 built at Tung Hwa will make its debut later this year.

For detailed information about each model please visit www.corvettemarine.com or speak with Duncan Cowie from Fleming Yachts on the Marina at the 2009 Sydney Boat Show.