Plain sailing for boat builder thanks to global contracts

A small Cork-based boat-building company is enjoying major international success having recently won contracts to supply pilot and rescue vessels to a number of countries worldwide.

Safehaven Marine, which was founded in 1998 by its managing director Frank Kowalski, has also just built a new pilot boat for the Port of Cork which will be officially named Fáilte next week.

The company, which employs 25 people at two plants in Little Island and Youghal, will reach a milestone shortly when its 100th vessel is completed.

“At the moment we’re certainly bucking the trend and if the economy starts picking up we would have the opportunity to expand and take on more people,” Mr Kowalski said.

The company has built passenger boats, diving boats, and angling boats in the past, but has found a niche market building high-quality pilot and rescue boats, especially when the bottom fell out of the commercial market.

To date Safehaven Marine has exported such vessels to Britain, Faroe Islands, Holland, Denmark, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Azores, South Africa, and the US.

“We’re currently working on a pilot boat for Mozambique and one for Spain. We’re also building a second pilot for the Port of Liverpool and a self-righting lifeboat for the Faroe Islands,” Mr Kowalski said.

He added that the order book for next year looks healthy and a few large contracts are pending.

“We would hope to get a full order book up to the end of 2013,” he said.

The company has become so renowned around the world that most clients now travel to it.

However, Mr Kowalski says he has no intention of sitting on his laurels.

“I have an agent working for us in the Iberian peninsula covering Spain and Portugal and now we are trying to break into the markets in Brazil,” Mr Kowalski said.

“There is also large potential in the Middle East market which we hope to break into next year.”

The Fáilte boat, meanwhile, is replacing the Sonia (named after Sonia O’Sullivan) which is being taken out of service after 14 years as one of the Port of Cork’s two pilot boats.