The Franton-owned Fletcher appeared at last year's SBS and went away with orders worth around £2m. However, BB understands that promised investment never appeared.

The lack of capital led to production problems which, in turn, led to the demise of that company in January this year.

Pay attention, because this is where things get confusing.

Receivers KPMG sold the Fletcher brand, design rights and remaining assets to Tony Wyer's Wolverhampton-based SBS Trailers.

And the Fletcher and Dell Quay tooling was sold to John and Betty Turner, the parents of ex-Franton CEO, Russell Turner.

SBS Mouldings Ltd, trading as Fletcher Sportsboats, showed its Fletcher 15 Arrowflash GTO and Fletcher 17 Arrowhawk GTO at Southampton. These boats were apparently produced from splash moulds taken off Fletcher hulls.

Meanwhile, down on the Try-A-Boat stand was FSB Marine with its Panther sportsboats, which have hulls moulded from the original John and Betty Turner-owned Fletcher tooling with new decks designed by Panther.

Tony Wyer was unavailable for comment as we went to press, but a statement issued at Southampton by the company said it has recruited some of the original Fletcher workforce and is about to move into a new, 55,000 sq ft factory.

Peter Johnson, sales and marketing director at FSB Marine, told BB the company was trading out of the old Fletcher Burntwood premises and had also recruited some of the original Fletcher workforce. He said they had the Panther 17 and 19 at SBS and were also planning to add further models to the range, including a 22ft "muscleboat".

A series of Panther Dories from the Dell Quay moulds will also be produced by FSB Marine.

Wyer's Southampton statement said the company would be producing the two show boats, plus the Fletcher 19 Arrowhawk Sportscruiser GTO and "two additional boats from the range".

Johnson said there is litigation between the two companies, but refused to comment further.