112 | MARINE Rae Line Boats Top notch customer-specific designs Hugh de Lacy Rae Line Boats is on target to complete 50 boats this year. +64 9 273 3540 | admin@auroraglass.co.nz | www.auroraglass.co.nz | 3/16 Zelanian Drive, East Tamaki, Auckland | PO Box 204055, Highbrook Auckland 2161 Proudly supplied by Aurora Composites When it needs to look good, and stay looking good, Rhys specifies Buyers have become increasingly specific about the way they want their new fibre-glass boats to look and feel, and that’s just the demand that Kaiapoi’s Rae Line Boats is geared to meet. “With what we can offer and do in both the upholstery and hull colours, we’re finding the majority of our orders are very customer-specific,” Rae Line Boats’ Rhys Williamson says. “We provide a level of class and fit and finish, particularly in the upholstery and hull colour schemes, that very few if any other New Zealand boat manufacturers can. “We have recently completed a number of boats with a metal-flake finish in Gelcoat which is a unique feature more associated with American big-name boat brands.” The North Canterbury company produces mainly bow-riders – where the bow area of the boat is uncovered – designed for general family boating and water-sports. Rae Line offers five different boat models, three bow-riders and two cabin models, with the options of stern drive power, where the engine is inside the boat, or conventional outboard motors. The Australian and New Zealand markets that the company serves are “just as strong as ever today with an amazing level of demand for boats in general, and we are certainly feeling the benefits of it,” Rhys says. The company is presently on target to complete 50 boats this year, representing a vigorous demand increase. That is, however, well down on its record output of 200 boats in 2006-2007 when they were mostly branded as Sea Ray, before switching completely to the Rae Line brand. Today all new models and designs are produced in-house by the Rae Line team, with distribution carried out by Sports Marine which has dealerships in Christchurch, Auckland and Sydney, and which was founded by Rhys’ father Ian Williamson and Rhys’ brother Scott. The Rae Line name comes from Peter Rae who had been previously building small dinghies under that brand, and kept the name on when he teamed up with Ian Williamson in 1998 to make a bigger impact in the marketplace. Ian Williamson had his own boat dealership meeting high local demand for the Sea Ray range, and the new business was able to manufacture the American models under licence. “The benefit largely came from the saving on the ocean freight portion of each boat, as well as the import duty which was quite significant back in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” Rhys Williamson says. “From there it was decided it would be well worth Rae Line making the same Sea Ray models for the Australian market, thereby making a large saving to their many dealers in Australia. “There was also the benefit of saving on the duty into Australia which has an exemption for New Zealand-made goods.” The Covid global pandemic has put both staffing and materials supply pressure on Rae Line Boats, to the degree that “we are looking to make a heavy investment in staff training to attract workers and get them up to speed as quickly as possible,” Rhys says. Your only high tech, one-stop composites shop AUCKLAND (09) 295 2200 CHRISTCHURCH (03) 348 4927 Suppliers of quality • UV-resistant gelcoats • Polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy resins • Glass, woven mat, roving and carbon fibre • Infusion resin, fabric and consumables • Putties for coving, CNC and tooling • A wide range of rollers, gloves and accessories • Colour matched gelcoats and resins • Tailor-made resins for your specific purpose • Advice and support • Technical assistance and trouble shooting
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