« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2011, 09:01:33 PM »
I am confused. The boat in the pic is not a 'Cat'. Shorts were principally an aircraft company, dad was with them for a project for a while - not greatly impressed other than by the Short brother with extra brain power. They become part of Haarland and Wolfe at some point after the war, I think that would be where the boat building comes in. Bristol were involved as well if I recall correctly. This all tracks the thread on Frisky where Vickers Armstrong considered a contract to construct those cars. All these firms were attempting to claim contract engineering to keep their trained workers busy and on hand for the next high margin order/project to come in, often defence related. Trojan bought the Heinkel production line for much the same reason. History shows in most cases the efforts were doomed to fail and many of the companies disappeared or were rolled up into conglomerates.
However it would be interesting to know if there is some link with the 'Cat'. Did it share a common concessionary backer for instance. Interesting Nobels float long enough to be rescued. Puts them on a par with the VW Beetle. German design you see.
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