The Mair Brothers’

Story While David, Kerry and Tony Mair are hardly boating household names, the three brothers have respectively built thousands of dinghies, anchors and marina berths. Here are their stories. David

The Mair family grew up in Stanley Point, Devonport and, through their father Merv, the three brothers were introduced to boating at an early age, P Class sailing at Devonport, fishing from the family launch in Auckland, Rotorua and Great Barrier Island, and much more. Boating certainly influenced their choice of careers. The eldest, David did a marine fitter-and-turner apprenticeship at the Devonport Naval Dockyards, before joining Merv’s shop, Mair’s Stationery on Queen St, which besides selling newspapers, stationery and tobacco, was also a hairdresser. Merv died a year later, and David ran the business with his mother for several years.

Meanwhile the youngest brother, Tony, had met two boatbuilders, Brian White and Steve Worsefold, who were selling dinghy moulds for GRP construction. Recognising the potential, Tony invited David to join forces. They named their company Dinghy Developments and the GRP dinghies Seabird.

“Tony and I went to our first Auckland Boat Show with a stand, and came away with 60 orders,” recalls David. They also received orders from two Australian boat dealers, Peter Hunt and Cedric Williams, so the company was exporting from day one.

Seabird dinghies were multi-purpose, able to be rowed, sailed or motored. To set off the colourful GRP hulls, kauri was used for the gunwales, seats, centreboards and rudder. The GRP layup was substantial which, while heavy, ensured long life. Other models were added to the Seabird range over the years, including the pretty little Okura Gig developed by the Hart Bros.

In 1977 Tony got itchy feet and sold out to David, leaving him to carry on alone. By now Dinghy Developments was a thriving operation with over 30 Seabird dealers throughout New Zealand.

But the seasonal nature of dinghy sales created difficulties. To meet the summer demand, David had a team of up to 30 building dinghies. During the slow winter months, he’d have to lay off staff to remain afloat financially.

The obvious solution of stockpiling boats during the winter proved difficult as this required capital and, unlike today’s, bank overdraft interest rates then ran as high as 22 percent. David eventually created an export market for the off-season here, setting up a California dealer to sell Seabirds.

Unlike most New Zealand boatbuilders Seabird survived the 1979 Boat Tax, but it wasn’t immune to exchange rates, which ballooned in the mid 1980s and affected export earnings.

A stressed David suffered a health scare, prompting him to sell Dinghy Developments. By then he had built over 6,000 Seabirds. Sadly the new owner ran the company down and it was eventually wound up.

While on holiday David met Dick Smith, then owner of the Musket Cove Resort in Fiji, who offered him a job skippering a game-fishing boat. David and his wife Melita worked for Smith for three years before deciding a bigger boat was required. Back in New Zealand, they bought the 16.7m launch, Zeus, designed by Alan Mummery and built by Mcmullen and Wing.

After an extensive refit, the couple spent the next eight years running Zeus in Tonga, with regular trips back to New Zealand for maintenance. Since then David’s run a marine insurance brokerage in Opua. He retired three years ago. When interviewed,

Kerry sold Manson Anchors to his son Stephen in 1998, and in 2008 Ned Wood bought a share. The pair have since founded a separate company, Bowmaster, specialising in deployment systems for Manson anchors.

After the sale of Manson, Kerry and wife Jan took six leisurely years to circumnavigate the Pacific. This included cruising to Japan, Alaska, rounding Cape Horn twice, and several months in the Antarctic. Their yacht Vision is a 17m Denis Ganley-designed, round-bilge steel cutter, and Kerry has blessed her heavy construction several times during the couple’s 70,000-mile voyages.

“We hit a whale just out of Tahiti, we’ve hit logs off Canada and several uncharted rocks in Antarctic – apart from a dent when we hit the whale, there’s been no damage.” Interestingly, with the whole Manson anchor range to choose from, Kerry still prefers a plough anchor, which has safely held Vision in 70-plus knot storms in Antarctica.

When interviewed, the 72-year old Kerry was just finishing an extensive refit of Vision, and he and Jan are due to resume their retirement cruising later this year.

Youngest brother Tony started boating early: “The old man threw me in a P Class when I was five.”

Tony attended Auckland University and, after completing an engineering degree in 1973, joined Wilkins & Davies Construction. After working on the Bluff Aluminium Smelter and Manapouri Underground Power Station projects, Tony tackled projects on various Pacific Islands. This included driving a 500m channel through a Samoan coral reef and building 48 bridges in Fiji.

He had three years away from engineering through his involvement with Dinghy Developments as detailed above. After selling his share to David in 1977, he re-joined Wilkins & Davies.

After more marine projects in Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo, he returned to New Zealand and was appointed project engineer for building the Westpark (now Hobsonville) Marina.

He headed further marina projects for Wilkins & Davies, including Gulf Harbour, Pine Harbour, Bucklands Beach, Mana and the Breakwater Marina in Townsville.

When Wilkins & Davies ceased trading in 1989, Tony went out on his own and he’s been involved with marina building ever since. The list of marinas he’s been involved with comprises over 6,000 berths.

In New Zealand there’s Whitianga, Bayswater, Half Moon Bay, Tutukaka, Opua, Orakei and Whangamata; in Australia there’s Townsville, Able Point and Shute Harbour; in Fiji Musket Cove, in Canada, Songees and Santosa Is; and in Singapore, Sentosa.

Even more impressive are the marinas he’s funded personally: Tutukaka, Opua, and Orakei. Taking on the commitment to fund and build a marina is not for the faint-hearted – the risks and challenges are immense.

“The day you start it’s 100 percent risk. Can these berths be sold?”