In 1966 a new holiday hire cruiser was launched. Surrounded by traditional wooden craft emerged Frank Wilds "Caribbean" class of cruiser. Over the next few years smaller and larger versions were launched to match demand. |
Frank Wilds’ “Caribbean” was launched in 1966. Different in design to anything on hire at the time, and standing out in the hire brochures like a sore thumb! |
“Wild Fantasy”, one of the original fleet built by Wilds |
“Gay Crusader”, built for Wilds at Lowestoft returns to the original base at Woods Dyke |
The fleet originally consisted of traditional, wooden motor cruisers, some of which the company built themselves at Horning. |
The fleet tied up at home in Horning. Ship-shape and Bristol fashion ready to go out on hire |
A German Ambassador enjoys the forward well design. 1970s |
An early, possibly the first ever Caribbean arrives and is launched at Horning, under Franks close supervision.. |
With demand increasing, and Horning struggling to be able to match demand a factory at Beccles Road, Loddon was acquired to build the Wilds' craft under the name of Caribbean Cruisers. Such was the demand that a production line was set up and even the window frames were produced in-house! |
A Caribbean built for Blue Line of France |
Of course not everyone was to keen on such a radical, new design. There were many benefits to this new luxury cruiser - generous cabin space with high levels of comfort including modern free standing household type furniture, continuous headroom and floor level, straight sides and late tapering bow design making fitout and comfort incredible. As a disadvantage the handling was not as responsive or pleasureable as more traditional designs, and high cross winds could also make steering fun! This new design was not what many considered to be a boat! These trait's were to earn the design nicknames such as floating caravans, prefabs, bathtubs etc by those less keen on this remarkable new design of boat! The fleet also pioneered warm air central heating - a system that is now considered to be the best form of heating, but was a new luxury back in the '60s. |
Frank Wilds retired in 1978. |
Frank Wilds with his legendary “Caribbean” style cruiser |
Horning base, September 1975 |
August 2005 |
Welcome to the F.B.Wilds website! |
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A site dedicated to the Caribbean design cruiser, and sister classes launched by Frank Wilds in 1966 |
Frank Wilds had a vision of a low maintenance, single level motor cruiser with modern day comforts, ideal for holidays and designed with families and all age groups in mind. |
In 1973 out of Franks’ refusal to sell the mould tools for them to make their own from scratch a company called Bounty Boats launched their own similar design, with all key factors copied from the Caribbean. With the benefit of seven years since Caribbean’s launch this saw a few improved features and a slightly more modern style. This “Buccaneer 37” (often known as Bounty 37) went on to succeed and outsell the Caribbean. Bounty did sell the mould to any fleets wanting them, and this contributed to their success, especially in hirefleets. Bounty became the most successful in their market at that time with a wide range of different designs as well as their highly popular Buccaneer range .... all on a design stemmed from F B Wilds. |
After four seasons absence a strong hire presence had returned, and so the history and character of this site lives on in different hands as do most of the boats |