52 AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 | International Boat Industry ibinews.com
Markets & Regions
BOATBUILDERS | SOUTH AFRICA
occupy in St Francis Bay. The
business was the latter two’s
idea and, having originally
tried to find a suitable location
in Cape Town, decided St
Francis Bay would work nicely
for everyone involved, not
least because there is a strong
pool of labour in the area that
trained in a buoyant local
furniture industry. Jonathan
Paarman is the cat production
expert. He worked for many
years at Voyage Yachts in Cape Town,
which 10-plus years ago used to be the
country’s second-largest cat builder. “We
started Nexus independently in 2007 and
our first completion was the first Anton du
Toit-designed Nexus 600 sailing cat, which
was built over 2007/08, not great timing
for a spec build, quips Roger Paarman. “We
showed her at the Cape Town show and
actually took two orders there. The second
and third Nexus 600s were eventually
delivered around 2013/14. We also took
the 600 to the 2010 Annapolis Sailboat
Show, where we made contact with Phil
Berman, who was already building 42ft cats
in China, but was looking for somewhere
to build something a little bigger... That
vision has since become a reality for us,
the Balance 526.” A deal was signed with
Berman in 2012 and once the design work
was finalised, again with Anton du Toit,
the first Balance 526 took almost two
years in build, “but getting it right was
the overriding priority for all,” says Roger
Paarman. Balance 526#01 SY L’Ondine
eventually launched in December 2015 and
#02 and #03 followed in 2016 and 2017,#04 and #05 completed in
2018 and #06 delivered earlier
in 2019 and #07 is expected
to handover in October 2019.
During 2020 the next three 526s
should finish in February, July
and September respectively and
work will progress on the first
new Balance 620, which should
deliver in mid-2021. Anton du
Toit is presently working on the
design of the 620, a reworking
of the original Nexus 600 – 620
#01 will effectively be 600 #04 and should
take 18 months to build; subsequent ones
should complete in 14-15 months. This
model is around 35% bigger than the 526- 17 tonnes unloaded as compared 12.5
tonnes unloaded. All the Nexus-built 526s
are epoxy/E-glass/Core-Cell laminated and
all are painted. All the 526s go out with
57hp Yanmars and saildrives, despite the
standard offering being 45hp Yanmars;
and half have the optional daggerboards.
Aluminium spars are standard, but three
of seven delivered have had the optional
carbon spars. All thus far have been three-
cabin boats, but a fourth cabin is available.
Prices FOB Cape Town for the 526 begin
at US$1.4m, but typical deliveries would be
around US$1.6-US$1.7m. The build time of
the 526 is presently 12 months – one every
five months or so.
TWO OCEANS MARINE
Thirty-year-old Two Oceans Marine
is based on two Cape Town sites that
combined provide 5,000m^2 of covered
facilities – the main factory in Paarden
Eiland and the other inside the commercialharbour – from where it builds an amazing
variety of boats large and small, power and
sail, series, semi-custom and custom, but
it has done especially well in recent years
building large cats and powercats. Two are
presently under construction, both drawn
by Anton du Toit. One is an 85ft flybridge
powercat commissioned by a Zimbabwean.
The other is an 82ft all-carbon high-
performance sailing cat SY Liberty that
should launch for late 2019. She was
commissioned by a Swiss client. Unusually
she will have two hinged-glass ‘Windoors’
that open her deckhouse up with the
foredeck area. These doors have been
made by the owner’s company Mecaplex
in Switzerland and utilise proprietary
‘Liteshield’ panels, which combines acrylic
sheets and float-glass.
Since January 2011 it has already
delivered no fewer than 11 big cats between
60ft and 110ft – six sail, five power – a
mix of private yachts, charter and day-
charter vessels and all designed once The fit-out hall at Nexus Yachts Nexus co-owners Jonathan and Roger Paarman Two Oceans Marine offers a variety of boats Cape Town yacht
designer, Anton du Toit