Extreme 915 Walk Around
Writing my latest contribution to Pacific Powerboat Magazine, a boat test on the release of the Extreme 915 Walk Around, my mind sub-consciously wandered back to my time in Australia – and whether or not any powerboat manufacturer there had mastered the art of producing the quintessential offshore trailerboat – quite like Extreme Boats had!
Way back in 1997, my family and I made the conscious decision to begin the next adventure in our lives, by relocating to Australia. On arrival in the land of sunshine and everything that bites and kills, I also made the decision to ‘hang up my pen’ and try another vocation in life.
Needless to say the theory failed miserably, for as soon as the local magazines realised I had moved to Oz, the enquiry began; “Can you come do some articles for us?” was a common theme.
It was only once I had been in Australia for a few months, that I realised it was not so much an accolade for me, as more an indictment on the quality of writers in ‘most’ of the Aussie magazines. The lack of knowledge was abhorrent, and they spent more time rubbishing the opposition, than getting on with the immediate job at hand, of working with the industry.
Working alongside the Australian industry, as I was trained in New Zealand to do so, I (free-lance) wrote for a number of the more ‘reputable’ magazines. But there was still an absolute plethora of other titles around at that time, sadly the majority of which are not produced today. I wonder why?
The more I got into the writing side, the more of the Australian marine industry I saw. In the retail sector, there were what I would call the ‘professional’ dealers. For the rest of that sector however, there was daylight; they were what I could only describe as ‘cottage industry’. Where I lived on the Gold Coast for instance, Brisbane Road once boasted 18 retail marine dealerships in one form or another. Before I left Australia – none, zilch!
Australian ‘big-boat’ brokers by and large, were a different breed again. Ranging from the dubious to the thoroughly professional ilk of the likes of Riviera, Maritimo, Clipper, Leigh-Smiths, Sylvania, Short and Multihull Solutions, seemingly they operated on another spectrum, outside of the typical Australian Marine Industry bubble.
Which leaves us with the actual boat manufacturers. With reference to Cruisers, there really was only Riviera, Steber and Maritimo ‘making waves’ and producing boats in any real volume. The rest again, were at the cottage-industry level, as regards numbers. Again, read between the lines.
The same can be said of the trailerboat side of the equation. In glass boats, you had the likes of Haines Signature, Whittley, Cruise Craft, and Haines Hunter. I wish I could say otherwise, but the rest (only-just) make up the numbers, and might as well have stayed at home such was their impact on the GDP
Aluminium boats; the numbers there were from a New Zealand perspective, mind-numbing. In their hey-day Quintrex were producing around 17,000 boats per annum, the next best being Ally Craft on 3500. The rest, those that hadn’t been ‘gobbled up’ by the (Telwater) Quintrex/Stacer juggernaut, again may as well have stayed at home. On the plate boat side, whilst Australia was deluged by plate boat designs by the hundreds, take out the likes of Quintrex, Stacer, Yellow Fin, TABS and Allison, and the rest don’t even remotely strain the power companies.
New Zealand is a country of 4.9-million people – Australia a country of 25-milion. One would think therefore, the Australian Marine Industry would have the edge. But to those who have any doubts as to the professionalism and comparison between the two industries, I say, think again. In my humble opinion, New Zealand well and truly punches above its weight, and in most areas in fact leads the world. The Extreme 915 was a classic example of – why!
