2,500m2 to the mammoth operation
McConaghy Boats are celebrating a half-century in performance boatbuilding this year with an impressive pedigree of raceboat excellence that, in the hands of the world’s best sailors, has now won pretty much every major contest in the sport. This ranges from Aussie 18s in Sydney Harbour to custom offshore IOR, IMS and IRC designs, ACC America’s Cup boats, first-to- finish maxis, supermaxis… the list goes on and on. Oh yes, did we mention the Andrew McDougall Mach 2 foiler Moths which continue to pour out of the door of the company’s Chinese facility? Yet, rather than rest on these
laurels of always being on the cutting edge of composite fabrications, McConaghy have recently further notched up the pace to adopt some recent innovations that will have this firm well poised to enter the next half-century with
56 SEAHORSE
greater efficiencies and versatilities in production of a new range of boat types wider than ever before. A recent infusion of capital from
Tiger Group Investments prompted a significant growth in infrastructure, placing McConaghy in a position to meet the ongoing demands of a competitive marketplace that is evolving in its appetite for every form of performance sailing boat from those foiling Moths to supermaxis. ‘This is an exciting time,’ admits co-owner Mark Evans. ‘We are expanding rapidly in both breadth and depth of our skillsets which will give us greater diversity in product lines as the different markets evolve.’ For more than a decade Evans
has overseen the development of McConaghy’s China operation just outside Hong Kong from its modest beginnings in two buildings of
Above: the Botín office has certainly found its feet with its very advanced CFD-based aero package. Botín’s first Fast40+ is a perfect baby sister to the breathtaking Maxi72
Cannonball (issue 449). We know
Botín are fully up to speed with the IRC system on which the Fast40+ is based so expect the bar to be raised now, yet again…
it is now, with over 12,500m2 of
space spread over five buildings. Along with the additional floor
space, the acquisition of more equipment has increased production capacity two-fold from just a year ago, and Evans and his team are now hiring at the rate of 10 new employees per week, with over 200 currently employed. With such extensive use of pre-preg composites, five-axis CNC milling machines for tooling, autoclaves and the like, the new hirings include qualified engineers and technicians who help manage the details of design and fabrication for any composite assembly order they take on. To add to this capability, Evans
recently purchased three German- made Kuka robots that he says will greatly enhance the speed and accuracy of parts production in
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