It's all Australian Industry this week - Australian MarineBusinessWorld.com newsletter
by Peter Rendle 4 Feb 2021 14:00 PST

MY True Blue © Salty Dingo
We start with news from two of our biggest boat yards. The latest European shipyard to set up an Australian based sales office, Cantiere delle Marche (CdM), has entered a strategic partnership with the southern hemisphere's most comprehensive and awarded marine facility, Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard (GCCM), for preferred service and repair of all vessels sold in Australia.
Cantiere delle Marche, which hails from Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic Coast and leads the world in True Explorer Superyachts from 30 to 47 metres in length. With a surge in Aussie interest prompting the Australian base set-up and partnership, CdM marks the third international shipbuilder to choose GCCM as its preferred Australian shipyard.
Not far away the boating supplies company, Marine Trade Supplies at The Boat Works, north of the Gold Coast, offers a huge range of boat maintenance products and accessories in a purpose-built superstore located in the hub of the Marine Precinct. Now the company has announced the launch of the newly formed Marine and Protective Coatings Division.
Headed up by one of the most experienced coatings advisors with a NACE 2 Coating Inspector Certification in SE QLD. John Lance, managing director of Marine Trade Supplies, comments; "We are very proud to bring into the team Kasey McAllan. Kasey has over 15 years' experience specializing in the marine coatings business. Kasey has worked as a sales rep for the world's best brands in marine paints and has specified paint systems for everything from superyachts to commercial vessels, bridges and pylons and everything in between. His talents are I believe unrivalled and his skill set and professionalism bring our offering to another level."
Meanwhile a couple of iconic Australian manufacturers are in the news. GME, Australia's only manufacturer of UHF CB radios and an industry leader in communication technology for more than 60 years, is proud to introduce the all new Australian-made 5 Watt UHF CB handheld radio, the TX6600S. The TX6600S underwent all stages of its development including its design, engineering, and manufacturing at their head office in Western Sydney to be the only Australian-made handheld UHF CB radio on the market.
Global marine clothing manufacturer and distributor Zhik are delighted to announce Kubus Sports, distributors of premium technical marine and sports brands, as their newly appointed distributor for the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Kubus Sports was founded in 1970 and, together with 45 years expertise in selling technical sailing clothing, has expanded their multiple portfolio of brands into wind and kite surfing, foiling and water sports, winter sports and field hockey. Piet Poelmann, CEO of Zhik adds, "We are thrilled to be in partnership with Kubus Sports and are impressed with their highly professional team and organisation. They are a household name in the Dutch marine market, and their experience, expertise and enthusiasm for top quality technical brands is exactly what we need to build Zhik's presence in these markets."
ATL Composites have existed for 41 years in Australia and are now located at Molendinar, a short distance from the Gold Coast beaches. While remaining a leading supplier to the high-performance yachting market, ATL Composites has used their knowledge in the performance of composite materials to diversify into other industries where there is also a demand for lighter, stronger, stiffer, more durable structures. A recent project at Blackpond Marine relied on ATL Composites' Technirez R1510 system to breathe new life into the stern tubes of a long-range cruising aluminium superyacht, MV My Way.
Named in homage to Frank Sinatra's most famous song, the 35-metre luxury catamaran was rebuilt in 1997 specifically for cruising the east coast of Australia. Her owner and captain have a 16-year working relationship with GCCM and its on-site trades, and on this occasion the 25-year-old vessel was hauled out for work to repair the stern tubes when it was found that saltwater had caused significant pitting to occur within them. "The pitting went through the full thickness of the stern tube allowing saltwater from the bearing lubrication to enter the fuel tank," said Dan Bradford, Naval Architect at Blackpond. "This fault was detected at the conclusion of the yard period. The vessel was scheduled to return to service in time for Christmas, so a rapid solution was required."
Finally, news from one of Australia's largest luxury yacht builders, Maritimo. This year is set to be a very exciting and successful one for the award-winning manufacturer. On top of a very strong 2020 the coming 12 months are set to be extremely strong in terms of the number of new model world releases, new model announcements, further state-of-the-art facility upgrades, workforce expansions, and new owners welcomed into the Maritimo family. Maritimo finished 2020 on a very successful note with near record forward orders and a pre-Christmas delivery of over $13 million worth of new vessels shipped from the Port of Brisbane to excited owners across the globe.
While we reach the majority of marine industry decision makers and influencers with this weekly newsletter within Australia, if you know of colleagues or friends who would benefit from receiving the news feel free in directing them to the sign-up page: www.marinebusinessworld.com/Australia/newsletter
Footnote
Many of our contacts also access two other websites that we manage, sail-world.com and powerboat.world. Our global group websites were visited by over 800,000 unique visitors during the past 30 days, of which 89,500 accessed Sail-World Australia - the highest-reaching sailing website in the country, as measured by third-party Google Analytics statistics. We work hard to bring you the latest news across all the boating platforms, and this is part of the reason for our success which we gladly share with all our readers and numerous sponsors. We hope everyone, readers and industry members, has a successful 2021.
Stay Safe,
Peter Rendle peter.rendle@marinebusinessworld.com