Europe's Delphia sails into Australian Boat Shows

by Helen Hopcroft on 21 Mar 2007 Newcomer to the Australian boating scene, Delphia Yachts, will show off some of its latest models at Sanctuary Cove Boat Show, 24-27 May including the Delphia 29, 37 & 40.

The news Delphia 33, 37, 40 & 24 Sportswill be at the Sydney Boat Show, 2-7 August.

These Polish built yachts, Delphia have generated a significant amount of interest.

Sail-World spoke to Delphia Yachts's Andrew McPhail about the job of building up the Delphia brand from scratch.

'While Delphia are a well known and respected brand in Europe, the boatyard was founded in 1990 and they have a staff of 350, it's a new name here. We're still only 14 months into it, but there's certainly a lot of people have seen them, and even when you walk into yacht clubs, more and more people are aware of the name.'

Delphia yachts have building yachts for many, many years and they do offer a lot of value for money, without sacrificing any quality.'

Importing any new high end product into the Australian market might seem a tough business, but McPhail believes that his job is made easier by the reasonable price of his yachts and the high quality of standard inclusions.

'The Delphia brand has been very well received at the shows. The standard of inclusions is great. Firstly; they're all top quality inclusions. And secondly; there tend to be more inclusions like the refrigeration, anchor winch, that sort of thing than everyone else is offering as an add on to a base boat.'

'So it's a very good value for money package.'

'Everything that's gone into the package is as good a quality as you can get. From the anchor winch, to the deck, to the rig, to the deck hard wear, to the refrigeration, stainless steel, gas stove and oven. It's all basically as good as you can buy.'

'All the deck gear is Lewmar. All the hatches and ports are Lewmar. The rigging is from Selden in Sweden. And they tend to be doing the rigs now for pretty much all the production yachts coming out of Europe.'

'It’s high quality stuff, its high quality kit and they really haven't spared any expense with the inclusions or putting the boats together.'

The European boat builders are internationally competitive. Some of the German companies have invested in state of the art, highly mechanized factories with computer driven production lines. Delphia relies on the lower labour costs of Poland and its tradition of ship building to help carve out its niche in the market.

'Everyone else now is using mechanized production now in Europe. These boats are still hand laid. They're solid vinylester lay ups. And the quality of their tooling is such that the mouldings and the finishes everywhere on the boat are pretty much as good as is possible to do.'

'They're solid below the water line and balsa cored above. The decks are balsa cored. All the stainless steel work is done in the factory and the quality of that is every bit as good, if not better, than anything else that's going round.'

McPhail has a very clear sense of the brands potential market in Australia. He is selling to people that want an easy to sail cruising yacht, at a reasonable price, with a package that includes everything that you need to make sailing comfortable. He sells to people that don't want to buy the boat and then pay extra for things like sails, headsail furlers and refrigeration.

He says that the Delphia 37 and 40 footers have proved very popular with the local market.

'They're a solid boat. They're not trying to be a race boat, or trying to be a racer/cruiser. They are a cruising yacht. But I'm certainly from a racing background and I was more than pleasantly surprised; they sail very, very well. They're a very sea kindly boat too.'

'Our base package to sailaway is tending to be less than everyone else's at this stage. So this is obviously good for us, and good for the customer. If you add all that up its $10,000 or $15,000 worth of standard inclusions which you'd have to add to any other yacht to bring it up to the same speed.'

'The standard package for the cruisers includes anchor winch, isotherm refrigeration, gas stove and oven, two sails and roller reefing on the headsail.

'The base 40 footer is a three cabin version and at this stage that's still a sailaway at $299k. With all of those inclusions. The 37' is sailaway at $255k. Again, with all those standard inclusions. And the initial price for the 33' will be $195k.'

If racing is more your thing, Delphia is bringing a new 24' sports model into the country. It will be on display at the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show.

'It's been very well received in Europe. The reports we're getting are that it's certainly winning some races and it's at the top of the sports boat fleet.'

'I believe its going to be well received from the point of view from price; it comes complete with the three sails. The asymmetrical spinnaker, main and headsail. It's going to retail for about $53,000.'

'I think that price is considerably less than the competition. We certainly believe it should have similar performance.'

Whether you're racing or cruising it's inevitable that sooner or later you will break something or drop it over the side. McPhail is keen to point out that all the gear on the entire Delphia range is able to be serviced or replaced in Australia.

'If something breaks down, or is damaged for any reason, there's no waiting, we have local parts availability.'

McPhail is looking forward to the exposure the boats will receive at the 2007 Sydney and Sanctuary Cove shows. He is confident that the local market will recognize the merits of the new brand, and respond to their honest, unpretentious design. He says that the standard of the Delphia range make the tough job of breaking into the Australian market comparatively easy.

'They are a really nice, quality yacht. I think that everyone that steps aboard is pleasantly surprised at the quality they see at the price.'





Delphia Yachts Australia

Address : 7 Patterson St
City : Midge Point
State : QLD
Postcode : 4800
Country : Australia
Phone : 0749476211
Fax : 0749476214
Email : info@delphiayachts.com.au

http://www.delphiayachts.com.au