RNLI could be a real life-saver

Mar 13 2007 By James Barton, The Journal

A Northumberland boatbuilder is sailing ahead after making a £600,000 investment. James Barton speaks to managing director Nick Spurr who, with his wife Katie, founded the business 11 years ago.

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The Amble Boat Company could see its revenues boosted by as much as £300,000 should it secure more maintenance and repair work from the RNLI. The boatyard, run by husband and wife Nick and Katie Spurr in the coastal town, has been fighting back, trying to recover after it lost to other yards much of the £400,000 lifeboat work it used to do annually.

This was because the RNLI decided about seven years ago to use more resilient materials - and thus fewer repairs were needed.

But now the Spurrs hope that more lifeboat work will come to them after they completed a £600,000 upgrade of the yard. Most of this was paid for by the Spurrs, but it was boosted by an £80,000 grant from regional development agency One NorthEast.

The boat company has already seen its sales, half of which come from repairs and boatbuilding, increase by 18% since the improvement work. Following the upgrade, which involved a new quay wall, a £100,000 boat hoist, lifting dock and back-filling old slipways to achieve a larger working area, Amble won back the RNLI as a customer.

Mr Spurr said: "The RNLI currently generates £15,000 a year for us as we carry out repair work on their boats, but this is only the thin edge of the wedge.

"We are keen to do a higher level of work and, significantly, they are coming to the yard to carry out an audit at the end of the month.

"After the audit, if we achieve preferred contractor status, there is no reason we cannot be involved in the maintenance and repair work required for the entire North-East fleet [six all-weather boats] between their required five-year services." This type of refit is called a Prism service by the RNLI and involves the boats being partially stripped and repainted, work that requires more skill and is more thorough than the current work undertaken at the yard.

"This could be worth anything up to £300,000 a year," said Mr Spurr.

The three-acre boat yard now has an average of about 25 boats in storage or being built or repaired at any one time and staff levels have been boosted by four to 15.

Amble also builds small boats for commercial applications, such as aluminium vessels used for oil pollution control in South Korea, Bahrain and Jordan and more recently building a prototype for Aberdeen company, the Maritime Rescue Institute. "The glass fibre- based boat system we built for them is very exciting because it has such a wide potential market," he said.

The single-engined boat is easily transportable in a 40 ft container and can be deployed very quickly and easily with the use of an in-built crane.

"It lends itself for use in disaster areas and has possible military applications. We expect a large number of orders during the course of this year," Mr Spurr said.

Amble also acts as a franchise business for the French leisure sail and power boat manufacturer Beneteau, and supports an office at the Royal Quays Marina in North Shields which is manned by yacht broker David Wood.

He looks after franchise and brokerage sales, which make up about half of Amble's total sales.

Mr Spurr said: "We are currently operating at almost full capacity in the yard.

"But if we get the increase in work-load then we will look at investing in further storage space."