boatingbusiness.com
MARCH 2022
Person Behind the Face 6 | Business Matters 12 | Marketing 16 | Profile 26
DEVON YARD MARKS 120 YEARS W. Trout & Son boatyard is celebrating 120 years in the business. The boatyard was founded on 2 February 1902 by Daniel Charles Trout who became Harbour Master at Topsham Quay near Exeter in Devon. In May 1918, Daniel fell into the hold of a boat he was converting to carry coal and died from his injuries leaving his son William Charles Trout to take over. In 1927, William’s son Daniel James Trout joined his father in the business, renaming the business W C Trout & Son after the War, building and maintaining small clinker and hard chine wooden boats of up to 25ft for the growing leisure industry. Over the years, the boatyard built many unique wooden clinker and carvel boats, among them the Exe 20 in 1986 and a replica of a Plymouth Hooker gaff rig cutter. Adapted With the advent of GRP in the 1970s, the boat designs were adapted and reworked to fit the new material, initially in the upstairs workshop at Ferry Road, where Trouts produced 29 Exe 17s, and a 17ft motor boat/work boat, over a period of four years. In December 2000, Daniel retired from the partnership and his nephew Mark became a partner in the business with his father Michael. Over the last 20 years, the family has installed pontoon facilities to widen the base of the business, culminating in some 45 berths.
Hydro propulsion Lou Varney obit Rib death pages 1-11
ELECTRONICS 8 The boatyard is celebrating 120 years in the business
During the summer, the berths are rented out for shallow draft boats such as RIBs and small power boats, whilst providing mud winter storage berths for yachts. The company also leases and maintains 29 swinging moorings on the river from Topsham Mooring Association. The yard has taken on additional off-site trailer boat storage and built a marine engineering workshop to carry out maintenance, engine repairs and rebuilds on boats, pontoons and moorings. It also carries out engine repairs and servicing.
Reduction in operating loss Fairline Yachts Ltd had an operating loss of £15.7m, excluding exceptional items, during the year ended 31 December 2020. The boatbuilder had a turnover of £29.2m (2019: £35.8m) down 18%, and a loss after tax of £2.5m (2019: loss of £20.7m) including exceptional items. The boatbuilder’s annual report and financial statements for the year states that exceptional items were generated from the change in shareholders to RiverRock European Fund II in July 2020, resulting in the reduction of shareholder and other debt by £15.9m. Operations and results for 2020 were adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with a reduced factory presence fulfilling customer orders. Around 300 employees were placed on the furlough scheme from April to July while other staff worked from home. Tough decisions had to be made to right-size the
NEWS
business, with current employees down to 310 from a peak of 488. The only boat show that Fairline attended, boot Düsseldorf, resulted in record sales and the launch of two new models. During 2020, the company also launched two new sales innovations – the F-LINE 33 configurator and the Fairline Marina. Looking forward, most of 2022 production slots are sold and allocated out to 2023. At the end of 2021, Derek Carter re-joined the company as chairman and Paul Grys, formerly of JCB was appointed CEO. The new board of directors appointed in 2021 will remain focused on extending the product offering, reviewing pricing to ensure market competitiveness, improving relationships with suppliers and better after sales support. Production efficiency and improving technology will enable the company to meet its short and medium-term goals.
C-Quip Marine Equipment, distributors for Hella Marine High-Performance Lighting.
www.cquip.com
New antennas Navico updates 300 MBs connectivity pages 14-18
INTERIOR FITTING OUT
30% lighter Innovation award Chemical-free pages 20-24
