Eden Waddington, a 32-year-old from Christchurch who was visiting the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show for the first time, is now the proud owner of the show’s Surtees/Yamaha Grand Prize.
Eden had come to the show looking for a new, bigger boat after he and his partner had decided they needed to upsize their existing trailerboat.
They have certainly now got their wish. Their new Surtees/Yamaha Grand Prize boat is a 7.5m Surtees 750 Game Fisher Open Cabin, powered by twin Yamaha 150hp 4-stroke outboards and fitted with Yamaha’s new Helm Master boat control system. It sits on an $18,500 Hosking braked tandem trailer fitted with a Balex Auto Boat Loader and includes a comprehensive twin-screen Garmin electronics package worth $17,000.
It was another highly successful year for New Zealand’s largest, longest-running and most popular boat show. Attendance was up around 5% and follows an 8% increase in 2018. Those attending appeared to be in a spending mood, too, with many exhibitors reporting large increases in both sales and levels of genuine inquiries.
The 2019 show also saw the debut of the new Hutchwilco Pool, a 20-metre aquatic arena that hosted a wide variety of exciting demonstrations and fun activities for the whole family.
Stabicraft founder and member of the New Zealand Order of Merit Paul Adams was inducted into the New Zealand Boat Show Hall of Fame and Extreme Boats again took out the prestigious Boat of the Show: Supreme Winner Award for their new Extreme 745 Walk Around. The 745 also won Best New Model and Specialist Fishing Boat Up To 8 Metres.
Other Boat of the Show Award winners were the Surtees 540 Workmate Hardtop (Specialist Fishing Boat Up To 6 Metres), Extreme 645 Centre Console (Specialist Fishing Boat Up To 7 Metres), Grady White 330 Express Vista (Specialist Fishing Boat Open), McLay 611 CrossXover (All Purpose Family Boat Up To 6 Metres), Stabicraft 2250 Ultra Centrecab (All Purpose Family Boat Up To 7 Metres), Rayglass Legend 2500 (All Purpose Family Boat Up To 8 Metres) and Rayglass Legend 2800 (All Purpose Family Boat Open).
The new Coastguard App won the Altus Most Innovative Local Product Award and the Oceanvolt Servoprop was the winner of the Altus Most Innovative Local Product Award.
The Tenob Wholesale Marine Stand of the Show winners were Balex Marine (Most Innovative Stand), Beacon Marine (Best Interactive Stand), Fishing & Adventure (Best Small Stand) and Suzuki NZ (Best Commercial Stand).
The 2020 Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show will be held at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane Auckland for the 65th consecutive year on May 14-17, 2020.
