THE UNMUTUAL PRISONER VEHICLE GUIDE

DOWTY JET DRIVE

Vehicle/Series Info: Rick Davy & Paul Bradshaw. Photo (c) Brian of http://www.dowtyjetboat.co.uk/ with thanks to Ian Bruce.

IN THE PRISONER: Number Six attempts to escape from The Village in the Episode "Free For All" by comandeering a speedboat.

IN REALITY: It is a Dowty Jet Drive Speedboat, which was owned and driven by local man Brian Axworthy, who doubled for Patrick McGoohan during some of the escape sequence.

Unmutual Website reader Paul Bradshaw writes: "My late Father owned a UK built Dowty when I was age 12 (1971). I now know his was an example of the Model TC146B, with the Ford Zephyr Mk2, 6 cylinder 90 hp lump. It was a great hulking thing out of the water, but there again they were built as sea boats. Dad used to take his to a lake in Farnham, in North Yorkshire, and also a local lake, Treeton Dyke, nr Sheffield. Sorry I can’t provide proof in the way of pictures, etc, but I still remember working on the engine & jet unit with him at Thomas W. Wards in Sheffield, where Dad was a Site Service Engineer. We tested the rebuilt unit with an industrial fire hose attached to the water inlet under the hull so we could run the motor, as the engine cooling shared its supply with the jet unit. It was quite something to watch the blast from the jet nozzle after the ‘gate’ was lifted, & the engine speed increased.

I also had my first (& last!) attempt to ski with the Dowty, using an oar lashed across the middle of the boat, overhanging the r/h side. My Father later sold the boat to someone on the East coast of Yorkshire/Lincolnshire, but I have no idea exactly where this was. The last I heard (circa: ‘74/’75) it had been smashed onto rocks somewhere during a bad storm while moored".

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