South Australia gets their first FAB Docks
Who could have asked for a better weekend? The blue skies turned the water to a tropical aqua colour (unfortunately not a tropical temperature though), the locals are unbelievably friendly and the crayfish are to die for. My most sincerest thank you goes out to Deane and his wife Prue for their hospitality and generosity and for showing me what boating is like in the real ocean (we get a little soft up here in the Gold Coast Broadwater).
And I must apologise to Alan for making him race back from Melbourne, where he was enjoying centre court seats at the Australian Tennis Open, straight into the hot seat of a demonstration of how to get in and out of a FAB Dock in front of a dozen of his friends, when he had never even seen one in the flesh before. A great job was done and we expect to fill the marina with FAB Docks before the year is out. Thanks.
The old and the new
Gary has to have the busiest pontoon that I have ever seen. With a tinny on a hoist on one side, a drive-on jet ski dock on the other side, two canoes in racks on each side of the walkway, a 38 foot Riviera in an old dry dock system and now his offshore fishing boat in a brand new FAB Dock.
The only complaint that Gary had was that we weren’t around a year ago so that we could have saved him nearly $20 000 on dry docking his Riv.
Each Fab Dock is tailored made for each boat to make berthing easier, hold the boat more secure and minimise the amount of water to pump out.
Each Fab Dock arrives in its own sturdy carry bag in case you ever want to move or sell your boat in the future.
Gladstone’s first FAB Dock customer
With his son enjoying an overseas holiday for Christmas, Les took delivery of the first FAB Dock to be installed in Gladstone.
I have heard many stories about just how bad sea growth is in various marinas and rivers around the country, but Gladstone has to take the cake. You can just watch the stuff growing on your boat.
And with an extremely shallow draft and a tricky crosswind, Les was also very appreciative of the ability of the FAB Dock to make berthing so much easier. He can hardly wait for his own one to arrive in a few weeks time.
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Happy Gold Coast Customers
The rain stayed away just long enough for us to install the latest two FAB Docks without getting drenched during a typical Queensland summers day. Tony can now easily berth his Bayliner in his new FAB Dock instead of having to winch it precariously onto his pontoon and Greg doesn’t have to fight the boat ramp traffic to launch and retrieve his Mariah whenever he and his wife wish to cruise the Broadwater. This means that a quick trip out around the canals to check out the Christmas lights, is exactly that – a quick trip.
Oh, and if you see his Miss Sippy pontoon boat patrolling the Broadwater this summer, get him to pull over, buy an icecream and tell him you saw his boat on the FAB Dock website.
FAB Dock Spreads its Wings
We have just completed delivery of our first FAB Dock in Victoria. Graham took delivery of his FAB Dock for his immaculately presented 8.3 metre Stabi Craft. Of all the amazing options, accessories and personalised items that Graham has managed to build into his boat; it is the “loo with a view” that took the cake. As Graham and his wife are in the enviable position as being able to spend much of the winter months living on their boat in either the Whitsundays or Cairns, his morning view over the Coral Sea and reef is one of a kind.
FAB Dock at the first ever Gold Coast Marine Expo
As many companies have supported us in our first year of operations we thought we would repay the favour and show our support for the inaugural Gold Coast Marine Expo. It was a great weekend with lots of activities to keep everyone amused and the weather was definitely conducive to boating.
We showcased our first Urethane Alloy FAB Dock thanks to the generosity of Jim and Judy Micallef in lending us their beautiful 230 Four Winns Bowrider. There were lots of people who saw a FAB Dock for the first time but there were also a number of people who had witnessed our launch at the Sanctuary Cove show earlier in the year and commented how different it now looked. It is amazing how much you can actually change on such a simple product and how quickly you learn what needs changing when real customers start using them. We have worked around the clock for the past few months making sure that every minute detail on our FAB Dock is absolutely perfect and bullet proof and are now well on track to achieving our goal of being the number one dry docking system in the world within twelve months of our launch.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our ‘early adopter’ clients for showing faith in our product, company and service and we promise to look after you like you are family.
See you at the next show.
Magazines
A big thank you to both Tradeaboat and Club Marine for helping to get our product and brand established in the Australian marine market. The response has been overwhelming and we are doing our best to answer all the enquiries and get all your FAB Docks measured, produced and installed.
Look out for future stories and notices in these magazines and other reputable marine publications.
Why you need one
We went through many different variations throughout the prototyping (or trial and error) stage, but in between models we either paid to store the boat on land or we made sure the next prototype was ready to install.
However, during one of these transition periods we did neither and left our unprotected boat to the mercy of the ocean. In less than four weeks our pristine hull went from the condition seen above, to the one below:
Keeping Dry
I get lots of questions about just how dry does the FAB Dock keep my boat. I could go on and on about the months we spent designing and testing and prototyping numerous ideas and models before we arrived at the perfect solution, or I could show you in a simple picture.
This is the transom of our boat showing the leg and tilt ram on the left with the transducer to the right of it. Not a puddle, pool or drop of water to be seen.
Our boat, which doesn’t have anti-foul on it, has now been living in various prototype versions of a FAB Dock for over a year and when we pulled it out a few weeks ago, was as clean as the day we put it in.
Sanctuary Cove Boat Show Wrap
A very big thank you to everyone that came down to visit us at the show for our international launch of our FAB Dock dry docking system.
It is always a nervous moment when you finally release a product that you have spent nearly a year and a half working on. Will our potential customers think it is as good as we think it is? Have we thought of all the possible scenarios? What could possibly go wrong? Are we on the money? And a multitude of other doubting questions. But we were rewarded with a resounding thumbs up with the only negative comment coming from our competitors (understandable and expected, in fact would have been disappointed if they hadn’t).
The biggest thing to come out of the show was the overwhelming response to customers willing to pay the extra premium for the upgraded material in order to gain the 5 year warranty. This did catch us by surprise a little bit and hence we now have to quickly work to readjust our supply and manufacturing processes to reflect this customer demand.
So we ask these customers to be patient for a little while while we work to be to able to fill their orders.
Watch this space for future updates.
Cheers
Dean
PS: A very big thank you to Captain Carl and his Crew on the Masteka 2 for all their assistance during the setup for the show and while the show was underway (and not driving over our little boat on your way back in after the auction). We wish you all a safe passage where ever in the world you are heading.