TONY HAMBROOK PASSES AWAY
Members of the New Zealand marine industry were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Tony Hambrook on February 1. Tony was renowned as the Managing Director of former industry-leading superyacht builder Alloy Yachts International.
He made a significant contribution to the NZ marine industry’s success on the world stage, and as Chairman of the NZ Marine Export Group (MAREX) for many years, he played a key role in growing New Zealand’s marine exports. He was also instrumental in the setting up as an Industry Trading Organisation back in the 1990s.
Under Hambrook’s leadership Alloy Yachts built 44 superyachts and was awarded 38 International Superyacht Awards. Many of his customers returned repeatedly for a yacht built by Tony and his team. The last yacht built at Alloy Yachts was the 43.89m Hey Jude, launched in December 2014.
Hambrook was born on August 25, 1946 and raised in Motueka where he became a heating and ventilation apprentice at his father’s engineering workshop.
He finished building his first yacht shortly after turning 30, taught himself to sail and circumnavigated the North Island, before setting off on a three-and-ahalf-year offshore adventure.
Back home, he became involved as a consultant with Alloy Yachts, becoming Production Manager and then Managing Director from 1989, a position he held until Alloy Yachts closed its doors in 2015.
He was inducted into the Waitakere Business Hall of Fame in 2006, recognised with the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for distinguished service in the New Zealand marine export sector in 2007 and acknowledged by his peers with the International Superyacht Society – Leadership Award in 2009.
Tony is survived by his wife Kristin, two children, two step-children and nine grandchildren.
Raymarine’s new Follow-on Tiller autopilot controller offers all the benefits of a fully-functional power steering upgrade to any powerboat fitted with a Raymarine Evolution autopilot system. A simple add-on control unit, the Tiller can be installed anywhere onboard: at bridge wing stations, aft docking stations – even into the arms of pilothouse helm chairs. The Tiller requires a single button press to activate Evolution’s Power Steer mode and enables skippers to send precise steering angle commands (up to 35°) to the rudder. Steering adjustments are made with just a simple turn of the lever or dial. The Tiller controller supports both proportional (Full Follow-up) and bang-bang (Non-follow-up) steering modes. A (removable) return spring automatically returns the controller to the 0° centre position upon release. The Tiller Controller is easy to set up and calibrate using the system’s primary autopilot control head or autopilot-enabled Lighthouse II or Lighthouse 3 MFDS. gives boat owners access to engine, boat and route data directly on their smartphone or tablet. The free-todownload app is paired with an onboard Bluetooth interface installed in the boat, which transfers data. This gives instant, live access while onboard and information for referencing back on land. Route history is automatically stored within the app, a perfect planning tool for future trips. The app has a simple and intuitive dashboard-style layout that can be personalised to each customer’s requirements. There is a ‘Captain’ view for onboard operation and a ‘Home’ view to see saved information when not connected to the boat. Boaters can also use the app’s map function to share trips via social media. Easy Connect is compatible with all Evc-equipped diesel and petrol engines in single and twin installations. It’s also compatible with non-evc petrol single installations from the model year 2006 onwards and the interface includes NMEA 2000 functionality.
For what seems like a long time the RIB has dominated both the tender and small-fishingdinghy-fun-machine markets. In the last few years there has indeed been a revolution fuelled by good design and Kiwi ingenuity and True Kit has been in the thick of it all. The True Kit range is the brainchild of Auckland professional sailor and entrepreneur Rod Dawson. “I grew up on boats and spent a lot of time on the water. I saw a lot of people struggling with small tenders. They were either too heavy or too unstable and we wanted to create a quality dinghy platform that could fold up for transportation and be quick to assemble out of the bag.”
The result of a lot of experience and testing is the True Kit Discovery 3.3m and the True Kit Navigator 2.5m-3.5m. The Discovery has its lineage in the all-out fun of the Thunder Cat, while the Navigator has turned the catamaran platform into a serious knockabout tender.