Flagship of family line

By ROBIN BAILEY

Bob Salthouse has been designing boats for 50 years. Sailboats, launches, wooden boats, workboats charter boats and luxury pleasure boats. More than 750 in a career that is far from over.

The latest of his creations is the Salthouse 65 Blackjack, a production launch beautifully handcrafted to meet the requirements of an experienced and discerning overseas owner demanding meticulous custom finish for the production hull.

The 65 is the flagship of the Salthouse Marine Group range. It combines advanced technology with proven blue-water performance and on-board luxury.

It follows an impressive list of Salthouse designs from the 32m alloy superyacht Pacific Mermaid to some of the most successful production designs New Zealand has seen. These include the Cavalier 32 and 39 range of production yachts from the 1970s. There were 170 of the 32s built and 84 of the 39s.

Equally successful was the Corsair range of 10.9m (36ft) launches with more than 150 produced in three models from 1973 onwards.

Over the years a series of one-off commissions included the famous game-fisher Te Ariki Nui in 1983 and the 27.4m (90ft) Pacific Challenge for the America's Cup in Fremantle in 1985.

In 1985 came the 15.2m (50ft) Sovereign high-speed sports cruiser range that continued in production until 1996 when the mould was modified to produce the wide-bodied Sovereign. Still in production the range includes 50, 55, 57 and 62 models ranging from 15m to 19m.

Bob Salthouse is the principal, director and designer at Salthouse Marine Group in Henderson. He formed the company in 1983 to develop his design interests after first operating a successful partnership with his brother Bob as Salthouse Brothers Ltd for 27 years.

Today, daughter Julie is general manager of the company. She came aboard in 1999 after a career in human resource management and a background in information technology and accounting. Her experience in management and marketing is helping to develop the business as it continues to expand into international markets.

With a staff of 75, she co-ordinates the work of the management teams at Henderson where boatbuilding, cabinetmaking and upholstery crews do everything in-house.

This, the manager says, enables the company to customise Salthouse production boats to meet clients' specific needs. Blackjack is a good example. It comes with about $350,000 worth of optional extras including 500kg of stereo and entertainment equipment, an electronic saloon table, aft flybridge helming station, coffee-maker, wine-cooler and trash compactor.

The company general manager may come to the industry from a commercial background, but she knows the designing and building of boats from the ground up having "grown up in a boatyard". And she is a deep-sea angler and a national record-holder.

Another key family member of the team is Rob Salthouse who, like sister Julie, joined in 1999. He co-ordinates the transition from concept to reality, ensuring that what the customer wants is what the customer gets. He comes to the job from a background as a sailmaker with specialist knowledge of electronics and instrumentation.

He is also a sailor of some note. He was involved in our first America's Cup challenges in Perth on KZ5 and KZ7 and in Sardinia where they won the world 12m championship. Rob has also sailed as trimmer on winning Admirals Cup, Kenwood Cup and Southern Cross Cup teams. He was trimmer and helmsman on Tyco in the Volvo round-the-world race and will be involved with Emirates Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup challenge.

SPECIFICATIONS

LOA: 20.73m (68ft)

Hull: 19.81m (65ft)

Beam: 5.61m (18.4ft)

Draft: 1.22m (4ft)

Displacement: 28,000kg (61,740lb)

Fuel capacity: 5000ltrs (1,321gal)

Engines: twin C18 1000hp Caterpillar

Cruising speed: 25knots

Maximum laden speed: 33knots

Price (basic 65): $2,495,435 (+GST)