Q-West Boat Builders operational manager Chass Wardle with the foil boat VP03 built for Victoria Police in Australia. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Q-West Boat Builders operational manager Chass Wardle with the foil boat VP03 built for Victoria Police in Australia. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
Victoria Police in Australia will soon have a new foil boat courtesy of Whanganui’s Q-West Boat Builders.
VP03 is the third patrol vessel Q-West has built for Victoria Police.
Q-West operational manager Chass Wardle said Victoria Police told the company they “don’t want to go anywhere else or get anyother type of boat” because of the work Q-West does.
“They are so happy with these ... repeat work is something that we are really proud of,” Wardle said.
“It’s great, we are very proud that we get to do it for them again. We’ve got a great relationship with them.
“Generally, any time someone wants to expand a fleet on [the first boat] that we have built them, in most cases, if not all cases, they have come back to us rather than go anywhere else.”
Wardle said the trials looked at the commissioning and performance of the boat before the surveyor signed it off in the third and final week.
“It’s all good signing off a fresh-water system but do we have any issues with it while the boat is underway? How does the boat go in terms of speed and turning? Is it agile? How does the foil perform? All that sort of stuff,” he said.
VP03 will be shipped to Australia about mid-June.
Wardle said the Q-West team was proud to have earned the respect of organisations and clients for their competence and professionalism.
“It’s humbling and it’s down to the whole team. It’s always nice to showcase how well we can round out a project. We seem to be able to deliver everything a client wants; they get an exceptional boat and they just love it.
