In 2017 McConaghy Boats celebrates his 50 year anniversary at the forefront of the composite industry. We retrace the history of one of the most famous yard in the world!
McConaghy Boats was founded by John McConaghy in 1967, building 12, 16, and 18 foot skiffs, Tornado and A-class catamarans, moths and other high performance dinghies. Early boats were built of plywood, quickly after McConaghy began engineering and perfecting the vacuum formed foam sandwich, fibreglass / Kevlar construction method, which proved an immediate success.
In the year 2000, long term McConaghy employees, Jono Morris and Mark Evans embraced the opportunity to take over the company from founder John McConaghy and longtime business partner Steve Moxham.
In 2006 the company expanded and opened a 2,500 square meter facility in China which has since grown to 10,000m2 producing yachts ranging from Mach 2 foiling moths and the Olympic Class Elliott 6m, to Volvo 70 and America’s Cup racers, luxury custom motor yachts and a whole range of industrial solutions and products including hovercrafts and their technically challenging carbon fibre propellers.
With manufacturing bases in Australia and China, and a design office in New Zealand, McConaghy now deploys its wealth of talent across a number of different divisions, extending the strong commercial platform that has allowed it to defy industry trends and continue to thrive even in the toughest economic conditions.
The company was further strengthened in early 2014 with the signing of an investment agreement with Hong Kong based Tiger Group Investments, a prominent commercial marine company led by keen yachtsman Graham Porter. The new partnership with Tiger Group provides capital for investment in state of the art facilities, machinery and equipment at McConaghy’s operations in China and Sydney.
In 2014 McConaghy expanded its operation to New Zealand securing key engineering design and management personnel who provide detailed design and project management support to the McConaghy Group.
LATEST NEWS FROM THE YARD
This year, Phantom International and McConaghy have announced a new boat building partnership. McConaghy will build the Phantom International range, including the new 18ft foiling catamaran Flying Phantom Essentiel, launched at Paris Boat Show in December last year.