Fairey Marine Ltd was created in the late 1940's by the love of yachting of Sir Richard Fairey and Fairey Aviation's Managing Director, Mr. Chichester-Smith. Both were avid sailing enthusiasts along with Chichester-Smith's good friend and former Olympic yachtsman, Charles Currey. Sir Richard and Mr. Chichester-Smith both decided that they should produce sailing dinghies and so recruited Charles Currey to help run the company when he came out of the Navy.

Many people are not aware that during the 1930's Sir Richard Fairey did in fact own the fabulous 'J' Class yacht 'SHAMROCK V'. He, along with Sir T.O.M. Sopwith spent much time modifying her both above and below the waterline to improve her speed. 'SHAMROCK V' was the first of the 'J' Class yachts and the only one never to fall into total disrepair.

In the resulting years, many thousands of now famous dinghies were produced by Fairey Marine including the Firefly, Albacore, Falcon, Swordfish, Jollyboat, Flying Fifteen, 505 and International 14's along with the much smaller Dinky and Duckling. Later on in the 1950's they produced the larger sailing cruisers, the Atalanta (named after Sir Richard's wife), Titania, Fulmar and the 27' Fisherman motor sailer (based on the Fairey Lifeboat hull) along with the 15 Cinderella (outboard runabout) and the 16'6" Faun (outboard powered family cruiser).

The year 2000 saw the start of the project to build Fairey Marine boats again. Using the Fairey Dagger hull and a superstructure re-designed by Alan Burnard, Swordsman Marine showed the first Swordsman 37 at the Southampton Boat Show later that year. By the time she appeared at the London Boat Show in January 2001, she had been launched, filmed and boat tested by Motor Boats Monthly magazine. The fibreglass hulled Dagger was originally a military boat and was also used by customs and police. The military specification of the hull (designed to be either 37 or 40 foot) has been maintained, giving an enormously strong boat.