…you better get up there, but fast...
Glastron CV-23HT Speedboat—Moonraker (1979)
James Bond is sent to the jungles of Brazil, in the hope of finding clues to Drax’s secret plan. Q has equipped 007 with the latest weaponized speedboat, a Glastron CV-23HT with high-explosive mines, a bullet-proof shield, and a rear-firing torpedo. The CV-23HT is put to the test when Jaws and his mortar-firing henchmen chase Bond in three Glastrons, only to reach the river’s version of a dead-end alleyway a waterfall. Thankfully, Bond’s boat is fitted with a built-in hang glider that unfurls from its roof, and Bond sails away, casting a rueful eye over his shoulder to see Jaws follow his boat over the falls.
Again Glaston was keen to extend their product placement relationship with the Bond franchise, providing several boats for this sequence, the highlight of which was the beautiful CV-23HT. Although the manufacturer built many of these boats, only a few were finished in the pearlescent grey-blue color that gives this boat its sophisticated charm.
This presumably added to the expense, with the boats thought to have cost $20,000 each. This presented the production with a dilemma, as Brazil’s import duties forced them to designate all the boats as expendable to avoid the duty. Therefore, it’s amazing that any survived. It’s believed a fifth boat was made in this color scheme, but not used in production. This additional boat came up for auction at Propstore in 2024.
Of the four boats provided to the production, one was totally destroyed in an attempt to perform the cumbersome wash over Iguazu Falls. Special effects ace John Richardson volunteered to perform the Bond-like stunt when 007’s unmanned Glastron caught on rocks on the edge of the falls. Harnessed to a helicopter dangling over the stricken boat, Richardson tried to free the craft so that cameras could capture it plummeting to the rocks below. The boat would not budge. Even over the roar of the falls and the helicopter, Richardson recalled, “I hear ping, ping, ping, and thought—what on earth was that?” He realized the sound was the stitching on his safety harness snapping. He let go of the Glastron. Heavy rains upstream did the job and washed the Glastron CV-23HT over the falls that night when no cameras were around to capture it. The shot of Bond’s boat going over the falls therefore never existed.
The filmmakers staged the bulk of the boat chase on the St. Lucie River near Port St. Lucie and Jupiter, Florida in late-January and early-February 1979. Some locals still recall helping to build a boat ramp for a jump, the massive explosions in the river, and the camera helicopter flying over the water for hours each day. Some still refer to one section of the river used by the filmmakers as “Moonraker Bay.”
The IFF purchased this boat on July 2nd 1996, and volunteers have refurbished the watercraft with bespoke replicas all of the gadgets the screen-used boat exhibited.
The hang glider used by Bond in his escape is also in the IFF archive – see here.
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