58 AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 | International Boat Industry ibinews.com
Markets & Regions
EQUIPMENT & SERVICES | SOUTH AFRICA
Gecat Marine allows clients to customise a lot. Flybridges and helm-towers are often requestedEQUIPMENT & SERVICES
ULLMAN SAILS
Ullman Sails (South Africa) has two
facilities, one in Cape Town and one in
Durban. The latter is relatively small and
specialises in one-design/sub-30ft sector.
This Cape Town business is substantial and8.6m and a max beam of 2.95m; minimal
draught; and can come with or without a
mini-fly. They usually have single or twin
outboards. Excluding engines price start at
around ZAR1.3m.
From its 800m2 facility in Beaconvale,
a suburb to the east of Cape Town, the
company also builds hull pods that convert
PWCs into sportsboats, useful as surf-
rescue craft, and the ubiquitous third-
world Pangas, long low-freeboard launches
used by everyone from fisherman to river
traders, not to mention the odd pirate.GECAT MARINE
Errol Plowes’s Gecat Marine builds his
own design of 21ft-42ft powercats, mostly
for local leisure and commercial use. All
these days are outboard-propelled, almost
always with Suzukis these days, although
it has built plenty of boats with sterndrives
and straight shafts in the past. His Francis
Bay-based business employs just eight
and builds five or six small boats a year;
occasionally up to 10. Pre-GFC, when the
local market was much stronger, Gecat had
a workforce of up to 20 and has managed
to deliver up to 15 boats a year. Sales are
mostly direct, but there are Gecat dealers
in Cape Town and Australia. There are
three basic power-cat models now, but
Gecat allows its clients to customise a
lot. Flybridges and helm-towers are often
requested. The smallest model is the Gecat
21, prices for which start at R198,000,
excluding engines and trailer. Then
there is the new Gecat 23/25, the first of
which launches in late 2019 and is aimedprimarily at the game-fishing market.
The Gecat 28 is also mostly used for
competitive fishing. The base price for the
28 begins at R516,000, excluding engines
and a trailer, but including the biggest twin
250hp outboards and trailers would be
more like R1.5m to R1.7m. The older Gecat
35 Gullwing and new 42 Gullwing, the first
of which delivered last year, are mostly
used by charter-fishing companies. Prices
including twin 300hp Suzukis, which mean
top speeds of 38 knots, would be in the
region of R2.6m and R3.5m respectively.
“If there is one obvious trend I can
see, it is that the market presently wants
smaller boats,” says Plowes. “Then there
is probably more leisure-related business
around for us these days, although in the
past we have done well with the likes of
diamond mines and trout farms.”JACOBS BROTHERS
The Jacobs family’s love of boats has
developed into a successful boat-
fabrication business – power and sail,
workboats or yachts. The family launched
their first boat, a 45ft all-steel Van de Stadt
cruiser, back in 1974, which was quickly
followed by an all-aluminium Andre
Mauric 47-footer, for which they fabricated
their own spars and marinised their own
Mercedes diesel; the family owned her for
12 years. Their next project was for their
first actual client. She was a Dudley Dix-
drawn aluminium Shearwater 39. Scroll
forward to today and the business has a
30-afloat-boat portfolio to its credit, the
biggest of which was a 74ft all-aluminiumPhil Southwell-designed fast cruiser.
The yard’s real specialty these days is
aluminium expedition style sailing cruisers.
For instance, a recent delivery was a 56ft Ed
Joy-designed cutter. Summer 2019 saw the
completion of a 12m aluminium ferry that
was bound for Mozambique.
Employing just six, including Fuad
Jacobs’s sons Sieraj and Taariq, the business
is presently based in a residential suburb,
but the Jacobs are soon to start breaking
ground on a purpose-built new 900m^2
factory 3km away, the design of which is
already complete, he says. Fuad Jacobs of Jacobs BrothersERROL PLOWES, OWNER
GECAT MARINEIf there's one
obvious trend
I can see, it is
that the market
presently wants
smaller boats