Fantastic Plastic

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 28, 2007

Melinda Ham

Everyone knows tinnies are tough. But the new polyethylene boats are tougher still and are selling fast - at the expense of the aluminium boat manufacturers.

Remember those brightly coloured plastic boats you happily played with in the bath as a child? Well now you can have your own grown-up version. It's made of polyethylene, is virtually indestructible and comes in a Smartie-box choice of colours. And it's encroaching on the market of our national boating icon: the tinnie.

DURABILITY

At boat shows, salespeople for the Australian-owned, designed and manufactured Polycraft invite visitors to whack their display boats as hard as they can with a hammer.

"I once had this really strong guy who was flogging the boat so hard that the hammer flew out of his hand and hit an aluminium boat in a neighbouring stand. It made an incredible dent and we had to pay damages but our boat was unscathed," says Stephen Cooper, Polycraft's national sales and marketing manager.

In the United States, Triumph, a division of Genmar, one of the country's largest recreational boat manufacturers, has gone even further. It promotes its plastic boats (which are available here in limited numbers) as "the world's toughest boat". Its television advertisements show a stuntman dropping the boat out of a helicopter, dragging it behind a ute and smashing it into a car and also a tree - with no visible damage. Its boats come with a lifetime guarantee.

THE HISTORY

Plastic boats were first launched in 1959 by the Norwegian manufacturers Pioner, which continues to be the world leader. Since then the company has exported more than 300,000 around the world.

To manufacture the boats, polyethylene powder is poured into a boat-shaped mould. Then, in a process called "rotomoulding", the mould is rotated continuously in a special oven to spread the melting plastic seamlessly into two skins that are joined only at one point.

The boat is then cooled and additions, such as seats, steering wheels, bimini poles and navigation lights, are attached. The same rotomoulding process is used to make water tanks, wheelie bins and playground equipment. The plastic is UV-stabilised and the colour never fades, so you don't have to paint it.

Polyethylene is naturally buoyant and in the rotomoulding process air is trapped between the two skins, adding to this flotation. Because of the boats' seamless construction, they are said to have better impact strength than fibreglass.

Plastic also flexes to absorb the shock of waves, so you have a smoother as well as a quieter ride, enabling you to sneak up on unsuspecting fish.

Until recently, a negligible number of imported American (Triumph) and New Zealand-manufactured (Mac) plastic boats have been sold in Australia in a recreational-boating market estimated at 30,000 sales a year and dominated by aluminium boats, which account for about 80 per cent of sales. Almost all the rest have been fibreglass.

Then, in 2001, Bundaberg Poly Industries, a company that makes water tanks, launched Polycraft, the first Australian polyethylene boat-manufacturing company, which now produces about 1000 boats a year.

The Polycraft can be made in any colour of the rainbow and even any combination of colours. It comes in sizes from three to six metres. "Despite the -colours, these are not the prettiest boats on the market," Cooper says. "They are for hardcore fishermen but also can have a dual purpose as family boats."

Until now, Polycraft has had little competition in Australia. In New Zealand, Mac Boats, a division of Galloway International Limited, was the first manufacturer of polyethylene boats in the region two decades ago. There are a number of Mac Boats already in survey for commercial use in NSW, including ones used by NSW Maritime and Manly Hire.

The latest development with Mac Boats in the Australian market is the alliance with the Haines Group, one of Australia's largest fibreglass-boat manufacturers. At the Melbourne Boat Show earlier this month, the Haines Group relaunched the Kiwi polyethylene boats under its new Ensign brand.

There is a big difference between the boating markets in America and here, says Garth Galloway, managing director of Galloway International Ltd. "In the US, customers want every conceivable added extra. In Australia and New Zealand, customers want a basic boat and want to customise it themselves."

Greg Haines, the managing director of the Haines Group, is confident the new Ensign-Mac boats won't be the cheapest plastic boats on the market but will provide a viable alternative and stiff competition to tinnies.

Steven Arenson, of Sydney Powerboat Centre in Mona Vale, says plastic boats are making significant inroads into the tinnie market. He sells the higher-priced American Triumph boats. "Australians have this longstanding love affair with aluminium boats but it is changing. Plastic boats are for the lazier buyer who doesn't want to do any maintenance or someone who is time-poor but who loves boating."

TEST OF TIME

Mike Molloy is a complete convert to plastic boats. "I was getting fed up with aluminium boats. It's really uncomfortable when you're going through a chop; you nearly shake your teeth out."

Molloy uses his boat for daily commuting to and from his waterfront home on Scotland Island to Bayview on the mainland and also for fishing, cruising up the Hawkesbury River and occasionally going out to sea.

Five years ago, he started researching plastic boats. "I flew up to the Brisbane Boat Show and saw the Polycraft." He immediately bought a 4.3-metre one with a 40-horsepower motor. Molloy had a fibreglass top custom-made for it and people now call it the "Pope-mobile". He says it's by far the best boat he has ever owned.

"It's stood the test of time and I wouldn't buy another boat [even] if I won Lotto," he says.