ibinews.com International Boat Industry | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 57
says Ken Bircher. “I’m currently trying
to source a new waterside facility with
government help. At the moment it takes
a lorry over an hour to get a finished boat
from the yard to the launch point and
all the usual wide-load preparations and
approvals are tiresome. Our five-year plan
is to be building six to eight boats a year, up
from the present average of two per year.”VISION & FUSION
Knysna-based Vision Yachts is building
a reworked version of what started out
as the Matrix 450, which was originally
designed by Peter Wehrley at Matrix
Yachts, which built just two of them before
ultimately focussing on its 70ft-plus sailing
cat offerings. This semi-custom model
uses the old Matrix 450 hull, but has a
completely new deck and cockpit. It is
now known as the Vision 444 and the first
one, SY Nomadic, launched in March 2019
and delivered to a Canadian paraplegic,
who specified the boat in various ways to
accommodate his wheelchair. The specs
included side gates and two low wheel-
helms installed rather than the usual
single wheel on the deckhouse bulkhead.
The delivery price for that boat was
US$640,000. Summer 2019 sees two more
in build – the 444 #02, which was in fit-
out for delivery to the USA for September
2019 and weighed in at US$560,000, and
444 #03, which was in the mould and
destined for a Channel Islands-based client
that wants her to have Oceanvolt electric
propulsion. The previous two boats had
40hp Nannidiesels and saildrives. Vision
444#04 is available for delivery in 2020.
The 444s are infused using vinylester resin.
Owned by James Turner and Brent Watts,
Vision Yachts was employing 22 people in
summer 2019, but was going to need tohire more in the coming months when the
hull of 444 #03 pops from the mould, says
production manager Steve Hopper.
Vision Yachts’ adjacent sister company,
Fusion Powerboats, offers a three-model
17ft-21ft range of centre-console runabouts
for single or twin outboards. As of summer
2019, the models were the Fusion 17, of
which 76 had been built in the four years
since the company started, the 19, of which
51 had been shipped, and the new for late
2018 21, seven of which have already been
handed over – which respectively will take
up to 140hp, 250hp and 300hp. The last of
the old Fusion 15s, of which 60 were built,
delivered in early 2019. The Fusion side
of the business employs 26 people and is
aiming to deliver up to 50 engineless boats
this year, according to general manager
Luke Petzer, mostly via a national dealer
network of seven dealers — Cape Town,
Johannesburg, two in Durban, East
London, St Francis, Knysna and Plett; three
of them are Yamaha outlets. As of early
June, 15 had been despatched. It recently
shipped four boats to Australia. Fusion
does its own stainless steel work and road-
trailers.CURRENT MARINE
Julian Kneale’s Current Marine in Knysna
has developed its own niche – lightweight
high-performance structures – mostly
carbonfibre and various exotics. A typical
year would see perhaps one and a half
custom boats delivered, meaning three
every two years, plus five flat-pack kits. It
does a lot with Jeff Schionning, a South
African designer that’s based in Australia.
Not surprisingly, being a South African
builder, most of what he does are fast cats.
But unusually it also laminates its own
carbon masts and wing masts.Current Marine is presently
championing two carbonfibre/S-glass cats
designs that will be built under licence
from Schionning – the CM^2 45 and CM^251- and 36ft all-carbon trimaran, the CM^3 36.
Both the former have evolved from the
G-Force 14 SY Waho, which delivered in
- CM245 #01 is under construction
for delivery in May 2020; the client is a
doctor based in Auckland, New Zealand.
This contract is a no-holds-barred racing
version with carbon wing-mast and
daggerboards started at €700,000 but has
since climbed to nearer €750,000. Prices
for an epoxy version would start at around
€530,000.
Julian Kneale says a CM^2 45 will take
around 12 months to build, so as of
summer 2019 he was hopeful of starting
the next one on spec and in enough time
to get her over to the US in time for an
Annapolis 2020 showing. Indeed, if sales go
according to plan, he says that he hopes to
deliver two during 2020 and perhaps three
for 2021.
Current Marine has already built one
CM^3 36. It was shipped to the UK in a 40ft
container in autumn 2018.
ADMIRAL POWERCATS
Alan Geeling’s Admiral Powercats is
presently building small riverboats for
Airbnb-style accommodation in the
V&A Waterfront, the heart of Cape
Town’s tourist district. The design is the
Leisureliner II, a rework of the original
Angelo Lavranos-designed Leisureliner,
getting on for a hundred of which were
built by various South African builders
over at least two decades, including for a
time John Robertson Yachts, a predecessor
of R&C. They were supposedly shipped all
over Africa and as far afield as the USA.
The Leisureliner II has an LOA of The Fusion 21 launched in late 2018 Current Marine’s Julian Kneale. Current
works closely with SA designer Jeff Schionning The Leisureliner II from Admiral Powercats