International joint venture for McConaghy

The new company will build large, custom designed composite ocean racing yachts for the world market. McConaghy will also continue business in Sydney.

Production will be based at a new facility JinLi has established just outside Hong Kong. Management and staff from McConaghy will coordinate and manage building procedures while JinLi will deliver the very latest composite technology to each project. Their credo is to build superior one-off racing yachts at the most competitive price.

For more than three decades McConaghy Boats has been recognised for the construction of some of the world's largest, most technically advanced and successful ocean racing yachts, including Genuine Risk and the latest Morning Glory. During the past six months the company has completed two 30-metre long Reichel-Pugh designed canting keel race boats, Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo and Bob Oatley's Wild Oats. Since its inception McConaghy has also achieved high acclaim for their pioneering production techniques and innovative design and production of equipment such as steering wheels and spinnaker poles.

JinLi was established by sailing enthusiast Francis Wu in the late 1980s and since then has grown from being one of the world's largest suppliers of high-tech sailboard equipment to a company creating a widely diversified range of sophisticated composite products, including motorised paragliders, award winning bicycles, snowboards, kite boards and more recently composite panels for high performance motor vehicles and race cars. Well-known world windsurfer champion and supermaxi sailor Anders Bringdal became a partner in JinLi two years ago.

JinLi boasts extensive R&D facilities. The company created the world's first mass production carbon fibre aircraft propellers. It also produces the autoclaved carbonfibre/kevlar and hard-foam sandwich bodies for the Koenigsegg Swedish super cars, including the incredible CCR, which accelerates from 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds and has a top speed of 395km/h.

McConaghy Boats founder, John McConaghy, said the alliance with JinLi came as a consequence of a surge in orders and a desire to grow the company on the international scene. A visit to the JinLi facility confirmed everything he expected of the company, especially when it came to quality control procedures and research. He and his business partners, Mark Evans and Jono Morris, quickly realised that there was a synchronicity between both organisations and what each wanted to achieve in the world market. As a result there was no hesitation in joining forces.

McConaghy Boats plans to rotate its three teams of builders currently working at its headquarters in Sydney to work on projects in China.

Rob Mundle