Turning heads at last week's Wanaka A&P Show was the Stabicraft 2100ST-Amphibious by Sealegs.
The amphibious boat - which Stabicraft's Australasian sales manager Sean McColl quipped was the ``best boat on the market'' - was a partnership between the Invercargill boat building company, and Auckland firm Sealegs, a division of listed Future Mobility Solutions, which manufactures amphibious marine craft.
Stabicraft has been a Southland success story. The company began from humble beginnings 31 years ago and now employs 90 staff.
In 2007, chief executive and founder Paul Adams was named a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business.
Stabicraft sold boats all over the world and demand from all its markets was strong, whether it was recreational, fishing, diving, family or commercial, Mr McColl said.
It provided commercial products to the Government, water taxis and glass-bottom boats to tourism operators, and also boats to the military and the likes of Northern Territory and Australian Federal police. Its most popular vessel was the 1550 Fisher, with more than 100 built each year.
Mr McColl said the business continued to innovate, including the likes of the partnership with Sealegs.
There was an option to fit its 21-foot Super Cab boat with Sealegs technology to become an amphibious vessel.
