Robson Design had huge success in their early years with their championship winning offshore race boats. It is from this very niche market that Robson Design has evolved. Today they are one of New Zealand’s leading designers, offering an extremely diverse design portfolio that encompass boats from 2.4m through to 28m plus. Barry Thompson called into the Robson Design studio based in the Cashmere Hills of Christchurch to find out more about the company and principal designer Scott Robson.
RACING HERITAGE
For Scott Robson, it all started in 1978 when he was approached by a South Island marathon racer who asked him to design a 5.5m single outboard tunnel hull. Named Times Up, it went on to win its first race in C class at Nelson. This was followed soon after by Hitachi, his first twin-rigged tunnel, for the March Bros and then the successful C Class boat, Miss Exide, for.
Jim Dunlop.
In 1981 Scott designed the successful single rig Cold Gold and the twin rig, Versatile Garages, which became Mystic Miss. These boats proved to be winners, and people around the racing scene started to appreciate this talented young designer.
While success on the New Zealand racing circuit had its rewards and status for the Robson Design name, it was in 1984, with the launching of Sunday News, that was the turning point. Built for Norm Chadwick by Scott (and crewed by the author), Sunday News was a dominant force in the North and South Island B class championships.
The Kiwi designed and built cat successfully challenged the might of the internationally recognised Cougars and did it regularly. Long-time racer Phillip Mills was impressed enough to get Scott to design and build him a radically different cat with central inline seating. Built  light with a composite of marine ply, foam, alloy laminated with epoxy it also had very advanced aeronautics with a wider tunnel and an emphasis on a low drag coefficient. Supercat, powered by a pair of Mercury Mod VPs, was the quickest boat on the circuit, with a top speed of around 106 mph. Unheard of back then. Supercat was later converted to twin cockpits and raced by Peter Boylan as Humminbird/Boat City.
At the start of the 1985 season, Sunday News was involved in a crash at Lake Taupo, which injured the driver, Norm and resulted in severe hull damage to the boat’s starboard side. Norm never raced again, and the boat was sold to an ex-circuit racer, Glen Urquhart (Miss Coventry), who had Scott rebuild in time for the 1986 North Island season.
Three main protagonists for the 1986 NI Offshore championship were Paul Stevenson’s Stevensons Express, Ted Taiatini’s NZ Privateer and Graeme Horne’s EIT Mover, all triple outboard Robson designs. Sunday News competed in the very competitive 3D Class, where competition was extremely strong.
From the ‘get go’, Sunday News, under its new owner, in his rookie season, proved the boat to beat by taking out race one at Tauranga not only in the class but also outright. Sunday News went on to win both the 1986 3D class and overall championships.
But more fame was to come, with Sunday News taking out the World Class 3D championship at Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK. Sunday News dominated against a field of 26 boats with two wins and a third place. Such was the impact of Sunday News on the world racing stage that it was rumoured that one of the teams went down under cover of darkness and measured every inch of the boat and then went back to the UK and built a clone. It proved to be highly competitive the following season in the UK.
From 1987 through 1998, Robson Design kept producing highly competitive cats for clients in Australia and New Zealand. Amongst them Kyro, Watts & Hughes , Lowes Ego, Team Australia, ETA Ripples and the Stealth 605 and 805. The only departure from the catamaran was in 1993 with the design and launching of the 10m diesel-powered monohull, Line 7/RFD.
Over the years, Robson boats have notched up an impressive list of wins, including the UIM Class 3D World championship, an Australian UIM Class 2 Championship, eight NZ Offshore Championships, numerous NZ UIM Class 3 D & E championships, plus NZ Boat Marathon Commission championships and the iconic Sydney to Newcastle race.
RECREATIONAL SUCCESS
Having had success in racing their tunnel hull, Hitachi and winning the 1981 Sth Island championship, when the March Bros, Sam and Buzz decided they needed a new pleasure boat, then who better than the guy that had designed their race boat? In 1982 they commissioned Scott to design and build a 7.0m asymmetrical tunnel hull. It was constructed from GRP and was a cuddy cabin style, powered by a pair of 200hp Mercs. And now, the recreational side of Robson Design was born.
Things started to get serious when in 1985, he was approached by an Auckland businessman to design the Kona Cat. One of the few trailerable powercats on the market. The Kona cat measured 5.2m and was powered by a pair of mid-range outboards. It was somewhat unique and ahead of its time, with an asymmetrical hull with a semi symmetrical bow. While they were a great boat, they never really took off and although around 25 were built, Kiwis were not ready it seemed for a trailerable powercat.
In 1988 Robson got their first big break into the New Zealand trailer boat market when they were asked to design a new range of monohulls for Bonito Boats. This included the Bonito 522 and 622 in various models and were a huge success and some of those designs are still around today, marketed under the Smuggler brand.
 In 1990 Robson was asked to design a 28ft high performance powercat for Marten Marine. This lead into company owner, Steve Marten having Robson design a 44ft powercat the Robson 404 XRS. This boat was world leading in its technology with a multi stepped asymmetrical hulls with semi symmetrical bows, epoxy foam core Kevlar construction and unique styling and layout.
The first big commission was for Mares Yachts, who had heard about the Robson 404 XRS And had travelled to Auckland to do a test ride This saw four models produced in Auckland, Brazil and the USA. From the Auckland factory Mares build 8 boats, from the Mares 38 through to the Mares 90. A further 25 plus were built between the Brazilian and Florida factories. By the early 90s, Robson Design had a reasonably full order book with well-known builders such as Export Yachts, Vaudrey & Miller, Marten Marine, Phil Bish and Franklin Yachts building custom designs.
With his toe into the trailer boat market other New Zealand companies approached Robson for new models, such as Aqualite, Extreme, Barchetta, Smartwave, Altech, Ramco, Kwikkraft and Pinnacle. As well as being the named designer Robson has also been the ‘ghost’ designer for other alloy brands in the country. In 2014 they designed their first trailer boat for an overseas client, the Moda range of trailerable powercats and mono hulls and in recent years, have specialised in cut files for the alloy boat market.Â
On top of this, Robson Design received commissions from overseas manufacturers in Australia, USA, Brasil, Canada and China.
RECREATIONAL SUCCESS
Having had success in racing their tunnel hull, Hitachi and winning the 1981 Sth Island championship, when the March Bros, Sam and Buzz decided they needed a new pleasure boat, then who better than the guy that had designed their race boat? In 1982 they commissioned Scott to design and build a 7.0m asymmetrical tunnel hull. It was constructed from GRP and was a cuddy cabin style, powered by a pair of 200hp Mercs. And now, the recreational side of Robson Design was born.
Things started to get serious when in 1985, he was approached by an Auckland businessman to design the Kona Cat. One of the few trailerable powercats on the market. The Kona cat measured 5.2m and was powered by a pair of mid-range outboards. It was somewhat unique and ahead of its time, with an asymmetrical hull with a semi symmetrical bow. While they were a great boat, they never really took off and although around 25 were built, Kiwis were not ready it seemed for a trailerable powercat.
In 1988 Robson got their first big break into the New Zealand trailer boat market when they were asked to design a new range of monohulls for Bonito Boats. This included the Bonito 522 and 622 in various models and were a huge success and some of those designs are still around today, marketed under the Smuggler brand.
 In 1990 Robson was asked to design a 28ft high performance powercat for Marten Marine. This lead into company owner, Steve Marten having Robson design a 44ft powercat the Robson 404 XRS. This boat was world leading in its technology with a multi stepped asymmetrical hulls with semi symmetrical bows, epoxy foam core Kevlar construction and unique styling and layout.
The first big commission was for Mares Yachts, who had heard about the Robson 404 XRS And had travelled to Auckland to do a test ride This saw four models produced in Auckland, Brazil and the USA. From the Auckland factory Mares build 8 boats, from the Mares 38 through to the Mares 90. A further 25 plus were built between the Brazilian and Florida factories. By the early 90s, Robson Design had a reasonably full order book with well-known builders such as Export Yachts, Vaudrey & Miller, Marten Marine, Phil Bish and Franklin Yachts building custom designs.
With his toe into the trailer boat market other New Zealand companies approached Robson for new models, such as Aqualite, Extreme, Barchetta, Smartwave, Altech, Ramco, Kwikkraft and Pinnacle. As well as being the named designer Robson has also been the ‘ghost’ designer for other alloy brands in the country. In 2014 they designed their first trailer boat for an overseas client, the Moda range of trailerable powercats and mono hulls and in recent years, have specialised in cut files for the alloy boat market.Â
On top of this, Robson Design
received commissions from overseas manufacturers in Australia, USA, Brasil, Canada and China.
PLENTY ON THE GO
Robson Design is currently completing design works on over 10 designs. These include the Tokelau power cat, a 13.5m composite power cat the RSV400 powered by twin Mercury 600s, a 16m Sportfishing alloy cat with quadruple Merc 600s in Australia , a 14m ICON Sportfishing alloy Powercat, and an Encore 48 centre cab catamaran to begin construction in Louisiana.
“The American high-performance boat market is a significant part of our future. We have already established a foothold through companies such as Encore Boat Works, and it will only get bigger.
“We have had over a dozen commissions for high-performance catamarans in the past two years for the Florida market. However, Australia is also important to us with a constant demand for our designs. Right now, some 9m and 10m power cats are being built, and we are working with a client on a custom 16m sport fisher, says Scott.
Working drawings have been completed for a 70ft monohull which will be released later this year. Being built in aluminium in a yard in Hong Kong, the power will be a pair of Volvo Penta IPS1350. Other interesting overseas projects include a 22m Expedition catamaran to be built in Kiribati, a range of alloy production trailer boats manufactured in China, and another range of super high quality 8m-10m alloy boats for an Australian client.
Scott sums up the future of Robson Design as doing precisely what they are doing now but striving to do it better. He is confident of being busy for a long time yet.
Being as diverse as they are and not being ‘pigeonholed’ into one style or size range has been a winning combination for Robson Design and has allowed them to survive through the hard times and benefit when the market has been strong.
