Gold Coast Company Fab Dock Growing Swiftly With Boat Dry Docking System In Nine Countries

IN hindsight, the Fab Dock is “almost embarrassing” in its simplicity, but its creator Dean Howard tossed out scores of prototypes over seven years of designing and refining what is swiftly becoming a marine revolution.

His team’s inflatable dry docking system, designed to eliminate the need for antifoul chemicals, reduce maintenance costs and help boaties park their craft “like a legend”, is popping up under boats in nine countries, with more expansion in the pipeline.

Mr Howard said the company’s prospects had accelerated sharply in the past six months and was on track to increase turnover a staggering tenfold, from $1 million to $10 million, in the coming year.

Gold Coast company Fab Dock has expanded internationally, with systems in place throughout North America, including this one in North Carolina. Photo: Supplied

The company received a grant from the State Government’s Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund to attend major boat shows in Seattle, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where prospective distributors are already clambering to sell the docks to the mammoth boating population there.

The US boating market in is vast, with more than 15.8 million registered recreational boats and about 12,000 marinas — there are also the boating government agencies of the EPA, coast guard, police, and military.

“It’s almost embarrassing that a product this simple has taken a whole team of us seven years to get it right, but it’s a tough environment it’s got to live in so it’s got to be spot-on,” Mr Howard said.

“After all these years with the normal entrepreneurial no money, no wages, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week — in the last six months it’s exploding all around the world.

“Just this morning I sold another two into Hawaii and a couple more on the Coast.”

Fab Dock has doubled its workforce and bought a warehouse in Yatala in the past year.

As well as the State, it has received government support from Gold Coast City Council, with both bodies recognising the company’s environmental credentials along with its practicalities for boaties.

“A lot of people are unaware of how toxic and poisonous antifouls are, which is what everyone has used up until recently to keep the boat clean in the water,” Mr Howard said.

“The volumes, if you multiply the millions and millions of boats in the world by the amount of antifoul applied, it’s hundreds of tonnes of poison every year going into our oceans.”

The Fab Dock works by sinking to allow the boat to pull in on top of it, and then floating back up to lift it from the water and buffer it from the jetty.

“It’s been an evolving process over seven years — I really thank all our early customers for taking a punt and getting in early,” Mr Howard said.

The grant from the council will help them travel to the world’s biggest business-to-business marine industry trade fair, Metstrade in Amsterdam from November 14-16.

“We’ve already got calls from all over Europe and North America from people who want to be distributors, so this is an opportunity to meet them all in a formalised setting and start getting Fab Docks all over the world.”

Source: Gold Coast Bulletin 6 November 2017

The post Gold Coast Company Fab Dock Growing Swiftly With Boat Dry Docking System In Nine Countries appeared first on Real Estate in Australia.