Wairarapa?s biggest boat ever ready to be launched

AFTER two years in the making, the biggest boat ever designed and built in Wairarapa is just a fortnight away from its maiden voyage.
The 11m by 4m alloy catamaran has been built from go to whoa by Greytown boat building company RJ Marine at their Cotter Street workshop, and boasts two 250 horsepower engines, a toilet and shower, two berths and a 1050 litre fuel tank.
There is very little of the vessel that hasn't been seen to by boat builder Rick Laing or employee Ted Dalby.
Mr Laing said the boat building trade is one that requires its practitioners to be masters of many skills.
"A boat builder can do anything, from stainless steel to fibre-glass to wood. It's high demand work. You have to be able to weld, do design work, sheet metal work and fabrication. We do all the upholstering, plumbing, put in fuel tanks and bolt on motors."
The only thing they do not do themselves is the electrical wiring of the boats.
"We're not marine electricians."
At 30, Mr Laing is young to be in such a position, but credits his success to an eagerness to learn the trade and to put in the work gaining the basic skills needed to be properly able to build boats.
"I've been doing this since I was 18. What got me here is I have been all over New Zealand building boats."
Mr Laing grew up at Te Wharau of third generation farming stock and spent his childhood ? when not up to his elbows in sheep on the farm ? in the water fishing, diving and surfing. This time spent living by the sea as a youngster helped nudge him into an ocean-related career.
The boats made at RJ Marine are fitted out with features to suit the needs of clients, and this big one is no different. It is a customised catamaran designed to suit the needs of its owner, cray fisherman Mike Burkhart.
Mr Burkhart comes from a Wairarapa fishing family, and has been fishing off the South Wairarapa coast since 1980.
Mr Laing said by putting their heads together, they have managed to build a boat that will be perfectly suited to its task.
"We have tried to define everything of what Mike has learnt in his career and everything I have learnt in mine to try and get a more purpose built and comfortable boat. It is versatile enough to do other kinds of fishing and is a manageable size for in shore fishing. It is also big enough for deeper sea fishing."
The boat has a shallow draught, which means it should float in very little water, making it suitable for launching at Flat Point, where Mr Burkhart fishes from.
It is also a tough vessel, able to handle the rough seas of the Wairarapa coast.
Mr Burkhart is happy with how the boat has panned out. "It's the closest, I think, to getting the optimum vessel for this coast. The best time for us to sell crays is June, July and August and as you know the weather out there is pretty nasty. It's a pretty rugged coast and the boat is designed to handle rough seas."
The boat is receiving its final touch-ups and will be launched at Petone in about two weeks, and will be piloted around to Flat Point for a Maori blessing in the afternoon.
From then it will be a working fishing boat.