Laver Marine
Landlocked Piopio has a unique boatbuilder in town
Piopio, in the heart of the King Country — a landlocked area with a village population of about 400 — is the last place you’d expect to find a boat builder. But boat builder Max Laver is well settled there and business is thriving.
Boat repairs, restoration, and making small craft by hand are the specialities of Max’s business, where he works with fibreglass and timber, and specializes in custom-built dinghies.
“We focus on how well we can make a dinghy, not how cheaply,” he says.
Max is a marine surveyor as well as a boat builder.
He spent two years in Lowestoft in England learning City and Guilds–level wooden boat building and finished his time doing two more years of learning in New Brunswick, Canada.
In 2009, after many years spent boat building, Max decided to study marine surveying and the two qualifications work hand in hand. “I didn’t excel at school as a kid, but I loved to build,” he says. “I didn’t do well at maths except when it meant building something. It all made sense then.”
Now aged 51, Max’s business is humming along and his big workshop on the main street of Piopio has many projects underway, not to mention a
variety of things going on in a number of sheds out the back.
Yacht tenders, duck-hunting boats, rowboats of all sizes, sail boats, and even custom-made boats for flounder fishing all come out of Max’s workshop.
The road to Piopio
Originally from the UK and Ireland, Max was raised in Canada and after years travelling and working around the world, he is now ensconced in Piopio.
Why Piopio we ask? There’s always a woman involved, is the reply.
Max met his wife Rachael in 2007, and in 2013 the couple moved to Rachael’s hometown, Piopio, where they set up Laver Marine. Rachael works for the company doing the admin work.
Max enjoys variety. He recently recreated an authentic copy of New Zealand’s first school bus — a 30-seat Model T — which was one of three custom-made buses that carted kids to a consolidated school in Piopio (which was also a first, centralizing a lot of small country schools into one). The story of that bus build is coming up in a later issue of The Shed.
The boats
Inside the front door of Laver Marine
is a beautifully finished, custom-made, flat-bottomed wooden dory, made to use in K¯awhia for flounder fishing. “It’s a New Zealand design with macrocarpa on ply and mac ribs,” says Max.
It is ‘carvel’ built, whereby the wooden planks are fastened edge to edge, rather than ‘clinker’ built, where the planks overlap.
“The planks are cold-moulded and bent by hand, set by a jig and wedges, and glued. I use a West System two-pot epoxy,” he says.
Macrocarpa
Max uses a range of wood to make his dinghies but one of his favourites is macrocarpa.
“I didn’t excel at school as a kid, but I loved to build”
“Mac. is a really underrated timber,” he says. “It’s really user-friendly and is great for outside projects, provided it is oiled properly.
“We use it a lot for boat building and outside furniture. I have found [that] it can sustain exterior exposure in its natural state for some time. We have untreated mac. furniture in our yard that is over three years old and shows no rot or deterioration.
“It’s easy on the tools and the more I use it the more I like it.”
He seals the macrocarpa with his own brew of Danish oil. He mixes onethird boiled linseed oil with one-third turps and one-third of a varnish called ‘Bondall Monocel’.
There are five models in the Laver Marine range. The Teddington was the original rowboat, followed by the larger motor boat, the Putney. The Romney fishing or duck boat is another option for rowing or motoring. The Nelson Lugger, a sailing dinghy, has recently been added to the fleet. The Shepperton is a cathedral-hull design that is extremely stable with plenty of inboard space, ideal for fishing, ship-to-shore, or pleasure boating.
Max’s range of small boats can be seen at dinghy.co.nz.
“It’s easy on the tools and the more I use it the more I like it”