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Seawind celebrates arrival of first Seawind 1160 produced in Vietnam

'Avalon Spirit launch' Seawind Catamarans Click Here to view large photo

At the 14th annual Seawind Pittwater Regatta, Seawind celebrated the arrival of the 101st Seawind 1160, and the first Seawind 1160 produced at the Corsair Marine facility in Vietnam. New owner, Chris Lawrence, christened his new boat 'Avalon Spirit' with champagne across the bow, in front of a large crowd of fellow Seawind owners.

Production of the Seawind 1160 was moved to Vietnam during 2011 with the aim of reducing production costs and passing on this reduction to customers by way of a significant price reduction, while still maintaining the high build quality that Seawind have become world renowned for.

Though production is still gearing up, Seawind have been able to achieve an enormous price reduction from $587,595 to $498,891, a saving of $88,704 making this multi-award winning design very competitive in the Australian and global markets.

Chris Lawrence, Avalon Spirit - Seawind Catamarans Click Here to view large photo

Seawind have also been pleased with the overall product that has been produced with the quality of finish not only being maintained, but also being superior in some areas. This is partly due to the Corsair Marine facility being established in Vietnam for six years with a skilled workforce, and partly due to a number of Seawind’s shipwrights from the Australian facility being relocated to Vietnam to oversee production. As an example, Seawind’s carpenter, Kevin Landry, worked at the Australian facility for over six years installing the timber interiors onboard the Seawind 1160, and is now living in Vietnam full time and managing the timber interior installation across the Seawind range. Seawind’s senior management, including Richard Ward, Mike Rees and Mark Waller also regularly visit the Vietnam factory to oversee setting up the production lines.

Seawind took over Corsair Marine in 2010 as a strategic move to counteract the growing difficulty of maintaining competitiveness with rising manufacturing costs and a sky high Australian dollar in a very competitive global market. Corsair have been manufacturing high performance production trimarans for 25 years and moved their production from the USA to Vietnam six years ago for the very same reasons. The increase in quality has also been noted on the Corsair range, largely due to a greater degree of affordable labour on tap to obtain a higher grade of finish.

Since moving production to the Corsair Marine factory, several Seawinds have already been shipped to Australia and launched including two Seawind 1000XL2’s plus the Seawind 1160 that arrived recently. There are many more on order scheduled to soon ship to Australia, the USA and Dubai.

This year marks Seawind’s 30 years of manufacturing world class multihulls and the group’s recent restructure has now positioned the company to be more competitive in a global market and expand into export markets not before accessible due to the high Australian dollar and high costs of manufacturing in Australia. The company remains 100% Australian owned.

Avalon Spirit - Seawind Catamarans Click Here to view large photo

Avalon Spirit - First Seawind 1160 built in Vietnam - Seawind Catamarans Click Here to view large photo

Seawind will be attending the Gold Coast Marine Expo with a Seawind 1160. For more information visit the Seawind website.

by Brent Vaughan

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4:19 PM Mon 29 Oct 2012GMT

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