Makes sense...pretty cool.

78 or 79?
 

Here’s Marshalls pics of his Starfire – some from Magnum and one just before he restored the boat. I think you’ll agree, it looks great!

From reading this thread and the fact that the hull numbers are sequential for two of the photographed boats, it probably makes more sense that my photos were taken in April ’79 and not April ’78 as I had thought. If this is the case, that means that Cigarette built (to race spec) the 39’ bubble deck, Bounty Hunter, in about 3 months, which I guess is just about feasible and poses another question in my mind. The ’79 CTC was the first time the bubble deck had been seen in the UK but we had assumed it had raced in the US before coming to the UK. The start was delayed by 24 hrs due to bad weather and to kill time we went exploring around the local yards. We found BH in a shed on the Hamble (I think) and it appeared to be being re-engined. One of the exhaust cut outs from the transom was on the floor, which I kept as a memento. I guess what may have actually have been happening was not that the engines were being re-fitted but instead, the engines were being installed for the very first time, on the basis the boat was completed in a hurry and the engines were never fitted in the US, so it could be shipped to the UK in time to compete in the CTC? I guess we will never know………………..

It does however seem fairly probable then that the photos at the beginning of the thread are as Marshall had suspected; of his Starfire!?

Starfire
 

Looks great

Bh
 

The following pictures of Bounty Hunter;

Being built at Cigarette.
Having engines installed at a yard on the Hamble ’79.
Start of the 1979 CTC.