GOAT Marine: So much more than tiller extensions
by Mark Jardine 14 Nov 2024 04:00 PST
Steve Badham with one of his tiller extensions © Mark Jardine
If you were at the Dinghy Show a couple of years back you may well have seen Steve Badham selling tiller extensions on a small stand. Those that picked them up would have noticed they were really light and immensely strong whilst also being shatterproof for increased safety.
Steve knows his carbon, being an engineer who learned its properties from one of the best composite professors. Over many years he's experimented, honed his skills and played with techniques and technology to make things better.
Tiller extensions are one thing, and ultra light, ultra stiff are the properties you want in yours, but Steve had bigger plans. He's never been happy with the status quo, continuously striving for better, aiming to create the best, which is where GOAT Marine comes in.
Serial entrepreneur and owner of several highly successful businesses Rhys Rollitt recognised Steve's skills and came on board to help accelerate growth. He's extremely hands-on, just as at home optimising a hull production technique or polishing a deck as planning the company's strategy.
Together Steve and Rhys form a formidable partnership, and have surrounded themselves with family and employees who share their infectious dynamism.
GOAT Marine has rapidly become a boat builder, parts manufacturer, chandlery with showroom, partnering with Allen and Robline, sailing clothing outlet, partnering with Zhik, boat service centre and they are dealer for Topper Sailboats in the South West. They have boat building facilities in Cornwall and Cumbria. GOAT Marine pride themselves on working with the right partners for their brand and these brands ticks those boxes for them.
The team are all active sailors. They're proud of their Designed by Sailors for Sailors strapline and have quickly become embedded in the grass roots UK sailing circuit, sponsoring classes such as the Enterprise, Solo, Cadets and Topper. They were on-site as a sponsor for the Cadet Nationals and representing Zhik for the Cadet Worlds in Plymouth, at which point they helped kit out the Indian team with Zhik gear, to help with the change in climate, while at the same time ensuring everyone's boats were rigged properly and repaired when needed.
On the boat building side they have acquired moulds for the Enterprise, Solo, 505, Flying Fifteen, Merlin Rocket, K6, ISO, Alto, and can build you any of these, plus they are launching the new Aigos class in 2025.
The Aigos was named during a competition at the Southampton International Boat Show. In Ancient Greek ɑἰγο-, or aigo-, means goat, so was aptly chosen as the winner. It's a two-handed hiking dinghy with asymmetric spinnaker, with fine entry on the bow, leading into a flat underside towards the stern to enable true planing both upwind and down. The rigging will be simple, with the focus being fast and fun.
The pre-production hull has been used to test sheeting angles, balance and other concepts, and they'll have five ready for the 2025 Dinghy Show. You can be sure we'll be out on the water to give it a go as soon as possible.
GOAT Marine are thinking carefully about finance packages and service agreements for the Aigos. They aim to offer winter maintenance for club-owned fleets, keeping their investment in top condition and allowing members to spend more time on the water. We'll keep you posted with how this develops. The target price for the Aigos is £13,000, which - shared between two - makes it an attractive option for a high-performance double-hander.
On the parts manufacturing side, GOAT Marine are pioneering techniques with 3D printing, environmentally-friendly resins, and low temperature cure techniques. Recycling and reusing offcut materials has been built into the business model from day one, with the idea that minimising waste isn't just the green option; it reduces costs for sailors.
Process management is a speciality of Rhys's, and you can see him constantly thinking about layouts, requirements and storage positions while touring the Cornwall build shed in its developmental state. Reducing the man hours and materials to build a boat, whilst also keeping an exacting standard, is the goal.
Measuring out resin and cutting fibreglass sheets in the most efficient way, investing in gelcoat spray guns, and heating individual build bays to maintain optimum temperature, means quality can be maintained time after time.
In the carbon layup room custom mandrels and moulds turn out spinnaker poles and tiller extensions, with workshop tool stations looking more like a Formula One team's garage.
Take, for example, their ILCA tiller. Designed to be as flat as possible where the mainsheet traveller crosses, tapering to a diamond shape for strength, the aluminium mould has a bulge at the end so that the tiller extension fitting fits perfectly.
Regular Laser and ILCA sailors will notice how the square end which goes into the stock is thinner than usual, which is where an innovative set of 3D printed shims can be used to adjust the angle of your tiller to suit when the pintle positions on boats can be variable. How often has your tiller been rubbing the deck at the stern or felt too low or high? GOAT Marine's solution allows you to have it your way every time.
They also 3D print the insert for the universal joint between the tiller and tiller extension, using a combination of carbon fibre and rubber to give a more positive feel for sailors, as well as forming a better bond between the extension and the UJ fitting. Everywhere you look, the ethos of 'if it can be made better, we will make it better' is employed.
A closer look around the Solo in the showroom reveals a plethora of 3D fittings, from toe strap ends, Micro Compass brackets and even bungs, all with GOAT branding on them. We'll be bringing you details on each class and their own features in other articles.
Steve still makes tiller extensions and is rightly very proud of them, but GOAT Marine is now so much more, with plenty more in the pipeline, if you'll pardon the pun.
The website homepage says 'If it's not good enough for GOAT Marine, it's not good enough', and it truly is the mantra they live and work by. The goal of providing sailors with the best of the best is in their veins.
Find out more at goatmarine.co.uk and follow their journey here as we bring you more news on their growth and plans in the sailing world.