Hagg 36 Flybridge Twin Screw Motor Yacht 1972 - Sold

The Hagg 36, described by motor yachting journalist Alec McMullen as “one of the most distinctive production motor cruisers ever built”, was the culmination of a lifetime spent creating beautiful, innovative and speedy things by one of the unsung forces in 20th Century aircraft and power boat design, Arthur E. Hagg. BELLE AMIE is among the last built, and believed the only flybridge example. Hagg’s semi-displacement round bilge hull forms are famed for their soft riding and seakindliness, and the Seakeeper gyroscopic stabiliser offers an even smoother ride. BELLE AMIE has had only two careful owners since 1987 and is a class act: the perfect support boat, luxury launch or family retreat and picnic boat. She is 1960s chic and today’s designs struggle even to come close.

2021
- Thorough engines service
- Incl. oil changes; new belts and impellers; intercoolers
- Engines coated in anti corroding treatment
- 2 x New custom exhaust elbows
- New exhaust lagging
- 2 x New rope cutters
- Generator service
- Batteries tested and new battery cables
- Generator PCB board replaced
- Seakeeper dealer service
- All anodes and fluids replaced and a number of sensors
- Shower box and pump replaced
- Hull topsides respray in blue Awlgrip
- Compound and wax of superstructure
- All teak varnish work varnished with Epifanes

2014-15
- Stern gear and under cockpit sole refurbishment
- Installation of Seakeeper 5 gyro stabiliser
- Repositioning of generator for Seakeeper

2007
- Refurbishment, engines replaced and documented electrical refit

1993-97
- Substantial renovation and MCA coding

- Fits perfectly centrally and forward of gen set under the cockpit sole
- Installed 2014 - less than 100 hours use
- Latest dealer service June 2021
- Mains and battery powered digital control and display monitor at helm
- Enables keeping even keel when moored and at 6 knots in a beam sea
- Even more effective at higher speeds
- Substantial fuel economy achieved in directional stability and consistency
- Minimising throttle use for wave control
- System assesses the wave pattern acting proactively not reactively
- Pictures from astern show rolling in a sea v. not rolling when stabilised

Arthur Ernest Hagg (1888-1985) may be the finest British power boat designer you've never heard of, yet the products of his bright mind in two quite distinct careers during a very long life were among the best, most innovative, and distinctively styled in their fields.

Hagg trained initially in furniture design then in 1915 joined the aircraft manufacturer Airco, from 1916 becoming a draughtsman under their chief designer: one Geoffrey de Havilland. Right place, right time, and with a war pushing development apace. When de Havilland formed the de Havilland Aircraft Company in 1920, Hagg followed and worked on the design of the legendary "DH" aircraft, including the Moth (Gipsy Moth, Tiger Moth etc) and Dragon series, eventually becoming Chief Designer.

His 1934 high speed, bright red DH.88 Comet design "Grosvenor House", triumphant in that year's England-Australia MacRobertson Air Race, brought public attention to this otherwise apparently happily unsung force in British aviation - setting a record for that route by a piston engine aircraft that has never been beaten. Perhaps of more interest to Arthur Hagg, however, was the DH.88's cold-moulded 'stressed skin' timber construction involving the use of high-grade spruce and synthetic glues.

Hi-tec composite wood construction methods would be further developed by Hagg and his colleagues in 1936 in his beautiful DH.91 Albatross trans-Atlantic mail plane/ passenger liner design with a plywood balsa sandwich monocoque fuselage – further and famously developed in the iconic Second World War DH.98 Mosquito multi-role combat plane. But it was to be the construction method rather than direct involvement in the Mosquito that would be Hagg’s legacy in the pre-war aircraft industry. He resigned from de Havilland in 1937 - "so that Captain de Havilland can have complete control", the UK press quoted.

Was it a tiff? [Not with de Havilland, we later learned from a wonderful 1985 appreciation by Kevin Desmond, but "due to a policy and personality clash with company chairman Alan Butler"]. Or was it Hagg's passion for the sea and sailing taking over as he approached 50? He'd become the owner of a rather old sailing yacht in 1931, the sixty-year-old Payne of Southampton cutter MERMAID, quickly replaced in 1933 by the W.S. Parker of Oulton Broad-designed 40ft motorsailer MERMAID II. One thing is for sure: by 1937, backed by property developer with a penchant for '30s art deco, Charles H. Kearley, Hagg was in control of his own boatyard, Walton Yacht and Launch Works at Shepperton on the Thames, designing and building - as one might imagine, not using traditional wood boatbuilding methods - innovative and strikingly styled river cruisers, and seagoing motor yachts with a reputation for excellent seakeeping - and winners in the offshore "races" then popular, including London to Cowes.

The outbreak of the Second World War put an end to Hagg’s Walton project, at least in the designing of pleasure boats. The yard was of course kept busy building for the war effort, in particular fast launches and air sea rescue boats, but these builds were mostly designed by others to standard War Office specifications.

Alfred Hagg’s brilliant mind was best employed elsewhere, and in 1943 he joined aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd as Technical Director and Director of Design, initially at Cobham, Surrey, and from 1944 at Christchurch, which was then in Hampshire. Having been brought up in Bournemouth, this must have been like a homecoming. Hagg’s most prominent project with Airspeed was the beautiful Ambassador airliner, a development of his pre-war de Havilland Albatross. He retired from Airspeed in 1949.

To Alfred Hagg, 'retirement' meant an opportunity to once again concentrate on yacht design. Increasingly through the 1950s and 60s his unique take on the stylish, smooth riding, semi-displacement, round-bilge, seagoing motor yacht found favour; keeping Dorset and Hampshire boatbuilders busy into the 1970s on designs from 28 ft to 63 ft. One noteworthy design was the 41 ft twin screw launch TREVEGA, designed in partnership with Charles A. and Peter Nicholson, and built in 1962 at Camper & Nicholsons’ Northam, Southampton yard. Hagg's hull design was so successful that it was chosen in 1964 as the basis for the Royal Yacht BRITANNIA’s Royal Barge, now on display alongside the mother ship at Leith, Edinburgh.

From 1957 Hagg built a particularly strong relationship with the Culpan family’s Dorset Yacht Company of Hamworthy, Poole, who built his popular 40 ft cruiser/ racer SPIRIT OF ESTACY, and from 1962 at least 35 examples of the Hagg 36 in various configurations, initially in plywood, and from 1964 in fibreglass.

Arthur Hagg died at Bournemouth in 1985 aged 97. Fittingly his name carries on to be wondered about in the fine motor yacht BELLE AMIE.

©2022 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- GRP Construction
- Finished in French navy blue Awlgrip
- Gold cove line and white boot top
- Fully integrated anode system from shafts, rudders and aft hull
- Anti corrosion system applied to props and rudders

From aft
- Stainless steel pushpit rail at each quarter aft
- 2 x Panama style fairleads
- 4 x sets of stainless steel mooring bollards
- Varnished teak bright work throughout
- Lazarette hatch in cockpit
- Open cockpit with high comings leading forward to loggia and saloon
- Raw teak cockpit sole and decks
- Lockers each side of open cockpit
- Varnished teak engine housing each side
- Glazed bulkhead with doorway into main deck saloon and helm position

Stainless steel ladder to fly bridge
- Full height framework around fly bridge to meet MCA standard
- Foldable radar arch enables vessel’s passage under bridges etc
- Full helm position with instruments

Forward
- Glazed opening windows on each side of the coach roof
- Stainless steel handrails and glazed Perspex forehatch coach roof
- Deck prisms each side
- Custom stainless steel pulpit with integrated fender storage
- 'Quick' electric windlass with full dual station remote control
- Dual station chain counter
- 20 kg Bruce anchor with 40 m 8 mm chain
- 10 kg Kedge anchor with 20 m chain and 40 m warp

Covers, Canvas and Cushions
- All canvas navy blue covers
- Canvas full height bimini over aft deck with full enclosure windows
- Alternative tonneau cockpit cover
- Canvas window coverings
- Ample cushions

From aft

Loggia
- Cushions over 2 x engine boxes

Saloon
- Seating to starboard over substantial locker
- Offset to stbd table; lowers to form a double berth
- Full size chart drawer under saloon seating
- Helm station to port with seating
- Steps down to forward accommodation

Galley to port
- Spinflo 4 burner gas hob, full height oven and grill
- Full size fridge
- Twin sink with hot and cold water and Perspex cover
- Brushed stainless steel splash back to worktop
- Guzzini Melamine crockery and glasses for 10 people

Head compartment to stbd
- Electric sea toilet with holding tank
- Wash basin hot and cold water
- Power shower

Forward Cabin
- Royal blue Alcantara upholstery throughout
- Working upholstery set in two tone grey washable fabric
- Bulkhead lights
- Dimmer controlled lighting throughout cabins
- Storage lockers
- CD stereo
- LCD TV

MECHANICAL
- 2 x Perkins Sabre 6 cyl 225 hp turbo diesel engines (2007)
- 2 x ZF Hurth ZF63A gear boxes
- 2 x Bronze P-brackets
- 2 x 45 mm Temet Stainless Steel propeller shafts
- 2 x Bronze 4-bladed propellers
- 2 x Bronze rudders
- 2 x Rope cutters (2021)
- Vetus fly-by-wire dual twin engine controls
- Vetus engine exhaust alarm on both engines
- Lombardini 4000 4.8 kW generator (2018)

HYDRAULIC
- Steering rams

ELECTRICAL
- Engine room 2 x fans air control system and Dorade air isolation safety system
- 6 hp Side power bowthruster – dual station controls
- 4 x 12 V Engine start batteries
- 2 x 12 V House batteries
- Battery and voltage control system
- Charge / power selector – alternator / generator / shore power
- 2 x 90 A Alternators
- 240 V Shore power; Wylex RCBO mains breaker
- Separate Wylex RCBO main s breaker for generator line
- Blue sea systems 12 V, 240 V and battery switchgear throughout
- Mains selector panel for shore, on board and Seakeeper supply

TANKAGE
- 2 x Stainless cross-linked diesel tanks under saloon settees; total 800 L
- 2 x Racor fuel/ water separators
- 2 x Screw-on secondary fuel filters at engines
- 2 x Redundant in-hull GRP tanks
- But pipework still there so reinstatement for greater range is possible
- Fuel manifold feeds and fuel isolator valves on feed and return
- Cross over facility
- 2 x Plastic fresh water tanks total 200 L
- GRP black water holding tank 30 L
- Hot water from engine calorifier or 240 V immersion heater
- Gas system with vented gas locker on flybridge (requires service)

OTHER
- Diesel heater – blown air system

- Plastimo Steering compass
- Raymarine ST60 Tridata
- Raymarine C120 plotter and 2 kW radome
- Garmin GPS Map 78C / plotter / sonar on fly bridge
- Icom M601 DSC / VHF dual station
- Marine sport line remote spotlight - long and short ranges on radar arch
- Clarion CD stereo, speakers in saloon, cockpit and fly bridge

- 10 x Waveline Lifejackets
- 10 x Person Ocean Safety life raft (due service)
- Danbuoy
- Sealed grab bag type First Aid kit
- Additional grab bags
- Echomax EM 230 radar reflector
- Horn
- Rudder stock tops have provision for emergency tiller
- Emergency floor level lighting
- Pilot mini gas alarm system (due service)
- Automatic engine room fire extinguisher system (2021)
- Six point bilge pump system
- Automatic submersible main bilge pumps
- Manual engine room and drive shaft compartment pumps
- Manual cockpit pump
- Main deck scuppers
- MCA flare pack
- 2 x horseshoe lifebuoys with drogues
- Throw line
- Thermal protective aids
- Anti-syphon trap for generator cooling
- Can be commercially coded for 10

- DH.88 Grosvenor House: Woldere/ Wiki Commons