The Builders
The builders of these fine craft have a well trained labour force
at ultra competitive rates so the hand-crafted custom feel is
very evident, much more custom work than one see's these days
from Western sourced imported production boats. Adventure Bay
looked at many brands of boats to stock from various countries
before choosing to go to China. The same reason everybody is going
to China these days also appears in boats. The Chinese learn fast
and the Taiwanese boatyards have been moving their operations
across the straights over the past 10 years as the cost of building
and land in Taiwan has steadily been rising to western levels.
Chinese and Taiwanese boat building styles are very similar to
New Zealand custom yards. Hand finishing is excellent and the
boat is built inside the hull and bonded in place with plenty
of strength. Generous amounts of teak, leather and stainless steel
are offered at a price that will impress the most discerning buyers.
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Our experience in studying US and European production
boats showed us how the high labour costs of the west was
trying to keep up with the Eastern labour costs. Production
boats from Western countries are using assembly line techniques
that left the boat with an IKEA type kitset feel. Synthetic
wood finishes and no grain pattern matching, click into
place plastic door jams, pre-fab cabinets and bulkheads
enable the boats to be made quickly but don't give the solid
feel of the custom boat finish found at the yards we are
buying from.
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Production boats in New Zealand have a limited range of styles
due to high tooling investment so we needed to find unique production
designs not currently offered by New Zealand builders.
This is seen in the Adventure Bay ranges: Raised
Pilothouse, Picnic boat Classic,
Cruising Powercats and Matsu
Trawler ranges. Sport fisher monohulls are well covered in
New Zealand so that market is one we see no need to offer product
for. Powercats and monohulls with a cruising or character focus
is however, not well covered by the production builders as most
emphasis is on fishing and the layouts and styles reflect this.
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We chose a builder based in the stunning futuristic
trading city of Shanghai China after interviewing many.
Our criteria for builder selection was thus:
Experience, Experience, Experience.
Also, cost competitiveness, suitable range of designs for
the NZ market, flexibility to customize, integrity of the
builders and stable financial companies. Our Supplier
who meet this criteria was Activa
Marine.
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Activa Marine Ltd
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Shanghai by Night, a truly memorable place
to visit. Air New Zealand now has direct flights or take
the Thai route with a Phuket island stopover.
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The Activa yard is headed by Taiwanese Naval Architect Charles
Chang (pictured below) who builds his own designs and uses American
designers such as Howard Apollonio of Washington State and Winston
Pynn of Seaforth Marine Group Canada.
Activa Marine has a 30-year history of boatbuilding 30-65 footers
from Taiwan to America covering over 500 fibreglass Motoryachts
and now 8 years in China with dozens of boats from the new China
yard. Having many years of experience in China is vital, as the
Taiwanese staff have to have time train the Chinese and settle
the company. We have no desire to be the first boat with a new
trainee crew. Eight years is a good settling in period. Taiwan ownership
also means contracts under Taiwanese western style law have more
reliable worth than Chinese law which is still developing a consistency.
Construction is solid hand laid e-glass below waterline and
vacuum bagged foam/balsa/e-glass composite construction above
waterline. Resin Infusion is now taking over in their facility
as the preferred method of construction due to it's clean environmental
system and strict weight control.
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Activa's 8-bay factory with room for up to 70 footers each
bay. Out of frame is their 2 mouldmaking factories and canal
tank test berth.
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Charles Chang and myself,
John Winter in China
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