I was recently invited to meet Nick Ogden, the Chairman of the Performance Marine Group (PMG), which includes Performance Sailcraft Australia (PSA), up at their new facility in Morriset on the Central Coast.
A lot of rumours circulated last year when the PSA facility on the Central Coast closed down and all the equipment appeared on an auction site. According to Nick, this was a “misunderstanding” as the only items supposed to have been on the auction site after the PMG purchase of the business from the Spencer family in New Zealand, were those things that were no longer required, not all the tooling and boat building equipment.
A lot of that tooling is now in use at their new facility, which looks immaculate, well laid out and very professional. Along with the tooling, Nick and his team have a number of the old staff, including Steve, a veteran of over 20 years with PSA in charge of the production. Whilst discussing that little subject of mast rake variances with Steve, he was keen to point out that with the quality of manufacturing they now implement, that rake variance is now down to less than 10mm – along way from the 60mm+ that Steve said was the norm back when he started building Lasers.
Nick was very proud to discuss the heritage that PSA brings with it from the Laser/ILCA world. A history that stretches over 70 years making them one of the oldest Laser boat builders in the world. He is also proud of the fact that “Lasers” they produce come from moulds built off the original plugs bought off Bruce Kirby back in 1998. When I enquired about these plugs, I was advised that they were somewhere very safe! They are after all the future of the class.
Current production is around 300 boats per year, but there is plenty of scope to increase this as they settle into the new facility. They are currently actively hiring and roles include boat builders and key to the growth, a new Business Development Manager for Oceania region – so if you’re after a new challenge get in touch with Nick!
PMG have several sponsored sailors including Healy Ryan and Sylvie Stannage and are planning to increase this to over 40 sailors on a 3 tier sponsorship basis. With local legend and super-coach Brett Beyer on-board in an ambassador’s role, you can be sure that the kit you get from PSA is going to be top quality.
In fact, quality lies at the heart of how Nick sees them selling PSA boats on the international market against other ILCA builders. He is 100% focussed on quality and this is reflected in what I saw on the shopfloor.
Nick and his wife Jo are both over in Australia at present from their home in Jersey to oversee the expansion of the production facility, which includes a showroom to hold all the equipment you will need to keep you ILCA in top condition. There will also be room for a new project, the Rascal, that Nick and his team are working on behind the scenes – a “watch this space” moment that shows that Nick is not going to be just sitting watching Lasers (or ILCAs) go out the door.
Although Nick did sail Flying Fifteens back in the day, in his spare time, Nick is now into endurance offshore racing aboard his boat “Thunder Child II” which holds multiple UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique) world records.
@performancesailcraftaustralia
@NSWACTLasers
https://www.54knots.com/
https://www.performancemarine.group/
https://psasailing.com.au/
https://europe.performancesailcraft.com/
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