The origins of a Legend

Rayglass Boat's director Tony Hembrow on board the Rayglass 4000 Legend, which is at the NZ Boat Show this week. Picture / Martin Sykes

Visitors to the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show, where the Rayglass 4000 Legend is on public display for the first time this weekend, could be excused for thinking the company's first foray into the launch market is a development of their successful 12m Protector RIB. However, this is not entirely the case.

Concept planning for the launch began in 2000 and the 4000 Legend hull was ready for production three years ago - then the 2003 America's Cup intervened. Syndicates such as Team New Zealand, who had seen and experienced the 8.5m Rayglass Protectors used as umpire and chase boats during the 2000 Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and America's Cup Regatta, came looking for much larger RIBs.

Rayglass managing director Tony Hembrow quickly realised his company needed to sideline the launch project and use the 4000 hull to produce a line of large Protectors instead.

Though the decision may have been frustrating on one level, there is no denying it made commercial sense.

More than 30 12m Protectors are now in use around the world, some as border patrol and Coastguard vessels.

The testing and commissioning programmes associated with building and delivering these craft, and the feedback sourced from their many professional skippers, has enabled Rayglass to build a database detailing the hull's response to different configurations, sea conditions and loads.

"The Protector database provided valuable information when we restarted the launch programme," says Hembrow. "We knew the hull's optimal weight, balance point and centre of effort and, without building a boat, we understood how the new launch will respond and perform."

With the 4000 Legend and 12m-Protector range sharing similar origins and numerous components, including the hull, hardtop and saloon/helm/galley mouldings, Rayglass has already recovered some of its development costs and this will enable them to market the 4000 Legend at a competitive price.

However, it will be offered as a semi-production boat, enabling buyers to customise the accommodation area and select their preferred engine and driveline packages, so final pricing will vary with each boat.

Though customers can specify the number of cabins and have input into each cabin's layout, Rayglass has built the first 4000 Legend using what they consider to be a stock accommodation plan.

It features a private forward cabin with one double and one single bunk, a combined bathroom with a toilet, shower and vanity (starboard), a wraparound settee (port), a private double cabin with a kingsize bunk positioned athwartship under the saloon (starboard) and a day berth to port, also running under the saloon.

The 4000's helm, saloon and galley layout is identical to that seen on the luxury day-boat version of the 12m Protector that won Boat of the Show last year, and the saloon remains open to the cockpit in keeping with the modern sports boat style.

WITH a semi-enclosed saloon and a large hardwearing cockpit, Hembrow believes the 4000 Legend caters to a wide range of pastimes, including entertaining, fishing, diving and playing with children.

Construction is solid GRP so it's not only strong and sturdy, it's also easy to keep clean, making it ideal as a good, old-fashioned Kiwi blokes' boat one day and a comfortable, safe family cruiser the next, he says.

Depending on the types of engines and drives installed, the 4000 is expected to coastal-cruise fully laden at better than 30 knots.

Engine and driveline options are virtually unrestricted and buyers can chose between shaft drives, stern drives, vee drives and twin outboards.

Hembrow expects most customers to opt for an inboard diesel configuration but he says the reliability, fuel efficiency and cost of fuel-injected four stroke outboards makes for some interesting sums when capital, operating and service costs are considered.

The 4000 Legend was designed, in part, to cater for a number of New Zealand Rayglass owners wanting to move up to a fast coastal cruiser kept on a marina or mooring.

But with around half of the company's production already exported, a new Rayglass manufacturing facility coming on line in September and the giant American marine company Brunswick holding a minority interest, no one should be surprised to see 4000 Legends marketed in Australia, the United States and Europe.