Victoria Police's new boat, the VP01 built by Q-West, having a test drive. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED
Whanganui's Q-West boat builders have been at it again.
For the past 12 months they have been building a new foil boat for the Victoria Police and recently completed the vessel, called VP01.
Q-West general manager Colin Mitchell said that they have worked with Victoria Police before.
"The first boat we built for Victoria Police was VP09 and they were very impressed with it, so they went out to tender for VP01 and secured the job," he said.
"VP01 is a very high-spec patrol boat."
The boat will be based in Port Phillip Bay, it has a top speed of about 36 knots and at 16.8 metres in length, is a whole 2m bigger than VP09.
VP01 is set to skip town on Monday, leaving Whanganui for Tauranga, where it will then be lifted on to a ship which will set sail for Australia.
"It will arrive in Melbourne by the end of the month and then be delivered to their naval base a day or so after that," Mr Mitchell said.
"This will be the biggest boat that they've got, so it will be the flagship boat."
Victoria Police recently spent a week with Q-West doing approval trials and have been coming to Whanganui regularly throughout the build to do inspections.
Mr Mitchell said that the feedback he had received from them was outstanding.
"They're over the moon with its performance and complimentary of Q-West in terms of how we run our business and their experience working with us," he said.
"The craft, they can't fault it, it's everything they wanted and more."
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