Green Marine in Lymington, New Forest, United Kingdom | Marine Services

Welcome to Green Marine, Lymington, United Kingdom. Green Marine was founded in 1982 by Bill Green and Ian King. Green was born in San Francisco and spent his early years racing and repairing boats on the West Coast before working for designer Dick Carter. This led to a move to Jeremy Rogers’ yard in the UK to help build what was to become one of the most famous IOR boats of all, the Petersen designed 1974 One Ton Cup winner Gumboots. Winning in a highly competitive fleet of 34 Gumboots was the first plastic boat to carry off the One Ton Cup and has since been acknowledged as an important landmark in what was to become a rapid development in yacht design and construction. After this success Bill Green stayed on at the Rogers’ yard for eight years. It was here that he met Ian King and their partnership was formed to build the Hugh Welbourne designed two tonner Panda which was launched in the spring of 1983.
The booming ‘80s saw many new businesses in yachting along with some of the most competitive racing Europe has ever seen. At the time the International Offshore Rule (IOR) was the only game in town for big boat racing and everybody wanted a part of it. Building two or three boats per season Green Marine soon gained a reputation for high-quality race boats. Boats like Panda, Chia-Chia, Jennie M, Brava and Blizzard were familiar sights during a decade of racing that did much to carve out new standards in sailing performance and crew professionalism – all came from the original Green Marine yard in Lymington. That period also witnessed a fundamental change in the way boats were designed and constructed and Green Marine was at the leading edge.
'The Eighties were very exciting times for builders and designers in the racing scene as this was when boats really started to be engineered' said Bill Green, in an interview with Yachting World. 'Instead of eyeballing dimensions based on what we thought was about right, numbers and technology were starting to alter both the shapes and the way we were building them.'
As the fervour and excitement drew in talent and competition determined to make a name and living from the new age of professional yacht racing, so Green Marine won a very different type of contract which was to help shape the company’s future. We were asked to look at an ambitious design for a military landing craft capable of 40 knots that had to be a good sea boat and carry 12 soldiers. With the help of composite materials suppliers and engineering consultants SP Systems, Green Marine took on the work. The boat was a huge success with her owners and proved important in SP Systems sales pitch to the RNLI for a new generation of lifeboats. Lured by the prospect of lighter, faster boats the RNLI were also impressed by Green Marine’s practical experience with modern sandwich construction for race boats. They awarded us a contract and in 1988 our first Fast Carriage Boat (FCB) was launched. That marked the start of a production run of 26 more boats in just 4 years.
Again Green Marine were quick to show that they could capitalise on this change of pace and apply the technology of the day. The first example was the 54 footer Dump Truck in 1991 and then the 50-footer Eagle, both from the Dubois design office. Both yachts were at the sharp end of their game.