Camarc man believes in being there
20.05.12
He explained, “In the early days of the 1980s I kept a bit of the budget aside for visits, to get an idea of how the boat was going to be used, and what the local building capability was.”
Relationships are important with yards as well as customers and he prefers to run projects almost as a joint ventures rather than simple commercial tenders. He said, “This business is about the ‘long haul’, it can take three to five years for a project to come off.”
The earliest significant design, he says, was a 12m pilot boat for Dundee in 1989. “It was innovative. It had a foam fender system, our double chine hull, and it was one of the first of its kind. The twist to the tale is that ‘Ladybird’, now a very old lady, is in semi-retirement near me in Campbeltown in Argyll.”
However, the big commercial break came in 1993 with a project for the Dutch pilots. ‘Voyager’ was an 18m aluminium boat. “Our double chine hulls come without that ‘hump’ of resistance that you can find at around 14 to 16 knots so it’s good for waterjets, although this was unusual propulsion at the time.” A resiliently mounted, vibration reducing wheelhouse, and honeycomb panelling superstructure added to the innovation.
Source: Maritime Journal
