Boat building alive and well on Arran
From repairing HDPE workboats at the local fish farm to becoming the only manufacturer of HDPE workboats in Scotland, Iain and Sandra Monteith’s family-run business in Whiting Bay has built an enviable reputation within the UK market.
Arran Workboats Ltd (AWB) build HDPE workboats ranging from six metres to nine metres in length; each boat customised to meet the customer needs. The boat business has been built successfully over the past 10 years with more than 40 workboats now in daily use.
All of the boats are designed and built from scratch on Arran. These rugged workboats, built from high-density polyethylene resin (HDPE), are built for extreme conditions and with a lifespan in excess of 25 years, they provide great value for the customer.
The MCA have heavily regulated this sector of the market to protect users at their place of work and AWB work closely with Qualified Marine Surveyors throughout the build process.
AWB’s calculations and designs have been passed by CE Proof and build certificates issued by HPI verification services. This is only after the boats have been rigorously tested, including drop tests, stability tests, swamp tests and weld tests.
It is no mean feat to achieve the accreditation from CE Proof and it has been a lot of hard work and considerable investment.
All Boats are CE certified to design Category C (ISO12217) and a declaration of conformity to ISO 12217 is supplied with every boat. Each boat carries the CE mark and Hull Identification number. A quality control inspection is carried out prior to delivery of each boat. The finished boats are coded by the MCA and the coding is renewed each year.
Building
Arran Haulage transport the raw materials to the AWB’s workshop where the building process begins. Each component is drawn on the CAD machine, where they are converted to the CNC programme. The boats are fabricated on jigs and rotating spits that have been designed and manufactured in house. The heat press for bending the HDPE has also been designed and manufactured in house. All employees who build the boats are all certified by the Welding Institute.
The boats are suitable for a wide range of customers, including fish farms, dive companies, marinas, harbour companies, marine companies, adventure companies and marine research organisations.
The list is not exhaustive and enquiries are also received from customers wishing to use the boats for leisure use. The robustness of the boats makes them suitable for working in shallow rocky coastlines and as each boat can be customised to meet specific needs, their range of use is continuously expanding.
AWB now have boats operating all along the west coast of Scotland including the Outer Hebrides, Colonsay and Rum. Boats also operate in the North and South of Ireland, England, and as far afield to Madeira. The current batch of boats under construction will be heading to Lewis, Harris, Skye, Mull and County Galway, with future orders confirmed from Shetland and Orkney. Tenders being worked on could see the geographic reach of the business extend to Germany, the Faroe Islands and as far a field as Greenland.
Business growth comes mainly from customer recommendations, which is great testament to the quality of the product.
The options available to customers range from ‘bare hull’ boats to full ‘turnkey packages’ and due to the efficiency of the process, coupled with skill and dedication of the employees, build time can be as little as eight weeks for a ‘bare hull’ and 10 weeks for a ‘turnkey package’.
AWB are extremely mindful of the environment and ensure that 100 per cent of materials are recycled. Recycling machines have been designed and built in house to ensure that 100 per cent of materials are recycled. Arran Haulage transports our plastic waste to a state-of-the-art recycling centre in Inchinan.
Innovation is a core component of the business and
both marine surveyors and customers have been very impressed with the ‘Man Overboard Recovery System’, which includes a reboarding ladder that has been designed and built in house and is now fitted as standard on all new Arran Workboats. This helps improve safety at sea which is at the heart of customers’ requirements.
Breaking into new markets is never an easy task, but AWB has built new workboats for the three largest fish farming businesses in Scotland and this has been achieved by providing an excellent product at a competitive price, and through listening to the customer’s individual needs.
With each of these customers a brand new design of boat was developed in house to satisfy their needs. Input is received from the individual site manager and the boat is tailored even further to suit their needs. In addition, many fish farm sites are now located further offshore and the boats have been developed to cater for this development.
On every occasion, when a new build has been delivered and been in use, feedback is then sought from people who use the boat on a daily basis. The feedback is then used in AWB’s continuous improvement programme. This feedback ensures that the AWB continues to be best in class and leads the market. The excellent feedback on the design, safety and handling of the boats in the water has led to repeat orders and recommendations to other seafarers.
New boat designs and innovations are constantly being tried and tested in the workshop and prototypes are developed. Customers are then invited to the workshop to view the prototypes and their feedback is listened to very carefully. This feedback is invaluable to the business going forward.
Arran Workboats provides employment for 10 local people and Iain and Sandra have doubled the workforce in the last couple of years as demand for the product has increased. Four of the staff are under the age of 30 and they have learned their trade through on site training and also training programmes.
The result is a highly skilled workforce and one that produces a quality product.
It is also great that these young people have been able to remain on Arran rather than move to the mainland for employment opportunities.