Blue Riband: Keeping a WA Maritime Icon on the Water

Some boats are more than just boats. They become part of Western Australia’s maritime history.

Blue Riband is one of them.

Built almost 60 years ago by the renowned Swarbrick Brothers yacht builders at 35 Carrington Street, Claremont, Blue Riband is a classic timber motor cruiser with a story deeply connected to Western Australian boating.

Today, it’s still on the water, and nearly three decades after THT first became part of her story, we’ve had the opportunity to help write the next chapter.

Built in Western Australia

Blue Riband was built during an important period in Western Australian boatbuilding history.

Swarbrick Brothers established themselves in Claremont during the 1960s and would become particularly well known for their production of fibreglass yachts and pioneering work with composite construction.

Blue Riband, however, was something different.

Built to a C. Raymond Hunt design, Blue Riband is a 36-foot timber game-fishing boat designed around Hunt’s pioneering deep-V hull concept — a hull form developed to deliver speed and capability in offshore conditions.

The construction was equally distinctive. Imported Oregon timber from the United States formed part of the structure, with plywood laid over the timber before the hull was fibreglassed — an early use of fibreglass over timber by the Swarbrick Brothers.

The result was a vessel designed with a very clear purpose: get offshore, go game fishing and get home quickly.

Built for Sir Garrick Agnew

Blue Riband was originally built for Sir Robert David Garrick Agnew, one of Western Australia’s accomplished sportsmen and businessmen.

Born in Nedlands in 1930, Agnew represented Australia in swimming at the 1948 London and 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games and won gold in the 440-yard freestyle at the 1950 British Empire Games.

After his swimming career, he became a prominent Western Australian businessman with interests spanning resources, mining and industry.

But Agnew was also an avid big-game fisherman. Blue Riband became part of that passion and went on to establish its own place in WA’s game-fishing history, remembered as the first purpose-built game-fishing boat of its kind produced in Western Australia and the boat credited with catching WA’s first marlin.

Decades later, very few vessels from this era remain — making Blue Riband an increasingly rare piece of WA maritime history.

The Original Detroit Era

Blue Riband was originally powered by twin Detroit marine engines producing approximately 220 HP each.

Between the late 1960s and 1994, the vessel went through two pairs of Detroit engines. That’s four engines across approximately 27 years.

The Detroits represented the technology of their era. They were physically larger engines, occupying considerably more space within an already tight engine room, and Blue Riband is estimated to have achieved approximately 25 knots with this configuration.

Then, in 1994, THT became part of the story.

1994: THT Repowers Blue Riband

THT supplied a pair of Iveco 8061 SRM30 marine engines for Blue Riband’s next repower.

The inline six-cylinder engines produced 300 HP at 2,700 RPM, providing a significant step forward in power and performance. With the Iveco engines installed, Blue Riband achieved approximately 26.5 knots at 2,700 RPM — impressive performance for a timber vessel of her age and design.

But perhaps the most impressive number isn’t her speed.

It’s 32 years.

Those Iveco engines remained in service aboard Blue Riband from 1994 until 2026. The previous Detroit installations had collectively gone through two pairs of engines over approximately 27 years.

One pair of Ivecos went even longer.

That longevity is particularly significant to us at THT because the engine lineage continues today. From Fiat, through Iveco Aifo and Iveco, to what is now FPT Industrial, the technology has evolved enormously — but the focus on dependable industrial and marine power has continued.

In 2026, that connection brought Blue Riband back to THT.

2026: The Next Generation

More than three decades after supplying the Iveco engines, THT was given the opportunity to repower Blue Riband again. This time, we installed their modern-day descendants:

Twin FPT NEF 400 marine engines.

The 5.9-litre inline six-cylinder engines are normally capable of producing up to 400 HP, but for Blue Riband they were derated to 330 HP at 3,000 RPM.

One of the biggest advantages was packaging. Blue Riband wasn’t designed around modern marine engines. Space in the engine room is limited, making the physical dimensions of the replacement engines an important part of the repower. The compact design of the FPT NEF engines made them an ideal fit.

More power. Modern common-rail technology. And a package compact enough to work within a classic timber vessel built almost six decades earlier.

Same Boat. Same Driveline. Very Different Result.

One of the most interesting parts of this repower is what wasn’t changed.

Blue Riband retained its existing:

• Gearboxes
• Gearbox ratios
• Shafts
• Propellers

That gave us a valuable comparison between the previous Iveco engines and the new-generation FPTs.

With the old Ivecos operating at approximately 2,400 RPM and around 90% engine load, Blue Riband cruised at approximately 24 knots.

Running the new FPT NEF engines at the same 2,400 RPM, Blue Riband again achieved approximately 24 knots.

But this time, the engines were operating at only around 50% load, while consuming approximately 27 litres per hour per engine.

That’s a significant difference.

The vessel can maintain the cruising performance its owners already know, while asking considerably less of the engines. Lower operating load at cruise potentially means less stress on the engines over their working life — an important consideration when the engines they’re replacing managed an extraordinary 32 years of service.

And when the throttles were opened?

32 Knots From a Classic Timber Boat

During sea trials, Blue Riband achieved a maximum speed of approximately:

32 knots.

From a timber game-fishing boat designed and built in the 1960s. It’s an extraordinary result and a reminder of just how capable the original C. Raymond Hunt hull design remains almost six decades later.

The hull hasn’t suddenly become modern. The engineering around it has.

Bringing the Rest of the Vessel Forward

The repower went beyond simply replacing the engines.

Blue Riband operates on a 24V electrical system, so THT converted the new engine installations from 12V to 24V, allowing the engines to integrate properly with the vessel rather than introducing an unnecessary second operating voltage.

We also replaced the vessel’s older throttle arrangement with Flexball electronic throttle controls.

The new controls communicate electronically with the FPT engines and provide modern functionality that simply wasn’t available when Blue Riband was built. That includes engine synchronisation, allowing both engines to be controlled from a single lever when required — bringing modern convenience and control into a classic vessel without changing what makes Blue Riband special.

Keeping History on the Water

Repowering a vessel like Blue Riband isn’t about turning an old boat into a new one. It’s about preserving what made the boat worth keeping in the first place.

The timber hull.
The C. Raymond Hunt design.
The Swarbrick Brothers craftsmanship.
The game-fishing history.
The stories accumulated across almost six decades on Western Australian waters.

Those things don’t need replacing. They need the right engineering behind them to keep going.

At THT, that’s one of the things we love about marine repowers. A vessel doesn’t necessarily reach the end of its life because its engines have reached the end of theirs. Sometimes, the right repower can begin another chapter.

THT first helped power Blue Riband in 1994. In 2026, we had the privilege of doing it again. And after almost 60 years, this Western Australian classic is still doing exactly what she was built to do.

Getting out on the water — only now, a little faster and more fuel efficient.

A WA classic. A new generation of power.

Powered by FPT. Repowered by THT.