A local boat building business has launched their tenth and most expensive boat to date.
The multi-million dollar catamaran, Omahu, set sail on November 24 from Kōpū to Coromandel where its new owners enjoyed an afternoon fishing and scallop diving.
Omahu, a Roger Hill displacement catamaran, is the result of just over two years’ work by Pipiroa boat building business Lifestyle Yachts, with the help of up to 15 local businesses.
Lifestyle Yachts director Aaron Beattie, who’s built boats in Pipiroa for 16 of his 32 years in the trade, said Omahu came up “really nice” with everything the owners could possibly need for long periods away.
It came with on board air conditioning, dive compresses, a washing machine, a full galley, barbeque, two showers and two toilets, he said.
It also holds 5000 litres of fuel and 700 litres of water, and its onboard water maker can make 200 litres of fresh water per hour from sea water.
The catamaran is also equipped with electronically controlled double 400 hp Yamaha motors, allowing it to cruise at 17 knots and reach top speeds of 26 knots.
Kōpū’s Stainless Specialist Installations director John Liddall said it was great to be apart of Omahu’s challenging construction and was “pretty proud” of the end result.
Originally from Auckland, Mr Beattie said the advantages of his Pipiroa workshop was the open space and the freedom from the rat race.
“We don’t have the high rents that a lot of these guys are having to charge in Auckland or Tauranga which keeps the price of the boats down a wee bit,” he said.
“We’re in talks with a couple of other people interested in us building them luxury vessels.”
Lifestyle Yachts launched their last boat Affinity three years ago, which went to Tonga to repair one of their trimarans damaged in Cyclone Gita.
