Reflections
The Ray Bryant Story
Ray’s father Dick served with the RNZN during WWII as chief stoker on HMNZS Leander and was aboard her at the Battle of Kolombangara in 1943, where he lost a number of workmates.
After the war Bryant married Bawden, settled in New Lynn and got a job with UEB, cardboard manufacturers. Ray was born in 1956 and, upon leaving school in 1968, began a mechanic apprenticeship with Mason Bros, later Mason & Mesco. Besides diesel and petrol forklift engines, Bryant learned general engineering and gas-fitting.
After qualifying, he had stints with Scandinavian Motors and Clifton Enterprises, before joining Miller Moyes in 1976, because “I loved boats and wanted to work on outboards.”
After a stint in Australia working on outboards in Townsville, Darwin and Cairns, Bryant came back to Miller Moyes, which by then had merged with Seacraft.
In 1986 he joined Roger Puttick at Howick Boat and Motors, with the understanding they’d become business partners if it
worked out. While Puttick was a born salesman, his attitudes towards the finances didn’t sit well with Bryant, so instead he went out on his own as Ray Bryant Marine.
Despite the awful timing – he started a month before the 1987 share-market crash – his business was an immediate success and he paid back the $5,000 he’d borrowed from his father in three months.
Initially operating from a 3m x 6m space in an industrial building at Half Moon Bay Marina, over time Bryant gradually took over more and more space. It was, and remains, a great location, not only because of the marina client base, but the close by Half Moon Bay launching ramp is one of the busiest in Auckland.
In fact one of his earliest marketing promotions – putting flyers under the windscreens of parked trailer boats – has worked so well that Bryant’s still got customers who came to him from those flyers 30 years ago.
Initially he had the Auckland franchise for Honda outboards, which at the time only went up to 15hp, but soon secured the rights to Mariner outboards, a more popular brand, and he let the Honda franchise go.
Being involved in powerboat racing – more on this later – indirectly led to Bryant gaining the rights to sell Mercury high performance (HP) products. Over time, after several approaches to Mercury NZ, Bryant became a full Mercury Dealer and has never looked back.
“Our outboard sales jumped 30% overnight simply because of the Mercury brand.”
This also gave Bryant the opportunity to get into the Mercruiser range of petrol and diesel sterndrives. The marina travel-lift and hardstand is adjacent to Bryant’s workshop and boats can be parked outside or backed into the workshop if required.
Stern drives require more maintenance than shafts so they make up a significant part of Bryant’s business, more so in recent times.
“The big problem for sternlegs now is that we’re seeing a
...a gregarious personality, indepth knowledge and a passion for marine engines has been a winning combination.
lot more corrosion, especially in the [raw water] pickups, since they banned tin from antifouling. So we’re seeing a lot more overheats and such issues. The only [antifouling] paints we can use around the legs are basically just boot-topping and they’re just not as effective.”
Bryant initially became involved in powerboat racing swinging a spanner on the Jack Tapp-designed, Ian Johnsondriven race boat Rumours. Initially powered by a V8 outboard, the heavy flywheel effect of the single engine would tip Rumours onto its side when it left the water on wave crests, so it would land more on its side than the bottom.
“It was scary, real scary,” he recalls. “The things we used to do – and get away with – just scare me silly to think about now.”
He then became involved with the ex-wayne Wilkinson race boat, Lynx, a six-litre class racing powercat driven by twin 2.5 litre Mercury outboards.
A group of them were involved, including Trevor Tucker and Alan Tuck, and they initially raced Lynx as an open boat, but after a few crashes overseas the Union Internationle Motonautique (UIM) rules were changed for the class requiring enclosed canopies.
“We had that thing going to 110mph,” says Bryant. “But then they discovered that crashing anything over 80mph crushes your head inside your helmet so we all had to fit F16 fighter canopies.” His racing highlight was winning the New Zealand six-litre class in Lynx as co-driver/mechanic in 1990.
Bryant’s since given up power boat racing – these days he prefers spending time with his other toys, an older model Genesis 31 or a Porsche 911. Actually, he only has a third share in the boat: “I only do 30 hours a year so a third is about as much as I can justify.”
While he has sold boats over the years, most notably the Sea Nymph brand, he’s learned you either get into them in a big way or not at all. “The bigger companies have gone for volume and low margins, we can’t compete with that. So I decided to go back to what I know, which is engines.”
Given the age of many of his customer’s boats, Bryant’s become an expert in repowering and prides himself in matching boats and motors. “We’ve had some really interesting repowers such as a 7m Profile which we repowered from a 300hp Yamaha outboard to a 260hp Mercruiser diesel, with 1.5m added to the hull.”
But while Bryant’s happy face and easy banter wins friends, he’s not afraid to call it as it is.
“With marine engines you have to be honest and tell it as you see it. And if their boat engine is past its use-by date, they have to be told.”
Bryant’s seen many changes in the marine engine business over the years, more so as engines have become increasingly sophisticated, with reliance on computers and other electronic wizardry.
Mercury requires all of Bryant’s staff be certified, which lasts two years. The certification process is carried out through Mercury University and is done live through online computer classes in work hours. Class sizes are kept to a dozen or less
and students have every opportunity to ask questions and clarify any questions. The classes are backed up with regular examinations.
Another change is that customer expectations have increased. While this is generally a good thing, in some cases it’s gone too far the other way and some customer expectations simply cannot be met.
“There have only been two customers I’ve written to saying ‘Sorry but we can’t do your work any longer because we can’t meet your expectations.’ But after going elsewhere, both customers came back to us and with more respect for what we do, which was nice.”
Bryant does a little sailing, but safely from the dock with his Electron model yacht, which he bought from Des Townson many years ago. He got to know Townson because the latter kept his yacht on a marina five minutes walk from Bryant’s premises.
These days he’s not often found on the tools – he’s usually found out back mentoring staff. He’s built a good team up including Andy, Brad and Scot who’ve all been with him for years. But retirement’s on the agenda and Bryant’s considering how best to achieve this.
This got us talking about the possibility of a Capital Gains Tax, which if implemented will inevitably impact all small business owner (see above).
This aside, Bryant’s the first to admit he’s had a good run with some lucky breaks. But there are other reasons for his success; no shortage of hard work, a gregarious personality, in-depth knowledge and a passion for marine engines has been a winning combination.
Well done Ray.