Muir Windlasses

When you go boating and seek out a great anchorage, size up the neighbourhood and geography, press the button to drop anchor, pay out the
required rode - the nautical term for the length of rope and/or chain to hold your boat fast - and put your craft and the crew's future in the hands of the plough and winch.

This fact isn't lost on Tasmanian-based Muir Engineering, nor our premier boatbuilders such as Maritimo and Riviera who fit internationally acclaimed Muir Windlasses. Little wonder, then, that Muir is a rock solid business that has been bucking world trends.

In fact, Muir Engineering recorded its best ever year in business in 2006/07 and the high times on the high seas continued into 2007/08. Company founder and managing director, John Muir, is a savvy businessman who has steered his company on a path to success.

But Muir told Trade-a-Boat that there is no room for complacency in today's tough business world: "... we operate in a highly competitive, very changeable market," he said.
 
"We need to be constantly developing new products and improving our existing products to stay competitive with current and new players. Research and development is important.

"In fact, we have a long-standing commitment to product research and development and will continue to invest in the development of new technology to deliver further improvements in quality," Muir said.

PUSHING THE BARROW
Muir says that when the US and Australian markets crashed in the 1990 recession, it affected sales well into the following year. But the Tassie-based company learnt a lot from that and has second-guessed the market.

"Thankfully, we saw the changing economy coming this time around and as we have invested significantly overseas - I spent seven months of 1989 in Asia, Europe, Canada, the UK and the USA - we are set," Muir said.

"Exporting is a strategy that has worked very well for us; in 2008 exports accounted for 65 per cent of our sales. It is difficult to accurately predict the future, but we expect this will grow to be 70 per cent by 2009," he said.

EXPANSION PLANS
Muir manufactures anchoring and mooring systems - including winches, windlasses, capstans, anchors, and so on - mostly in stainless steel for smaller pleasure craft between 10m and 28m and for superyachts and commercial craft between 30m and 120m.

Muir exports products to more than 40 countries and has been a multiple category winner at the Australian Small Business Awards, Australian Export Awards, Tasmanian Export Awards, as well as achieving an excellence award from Engineers Australia, and two Certificates of Achievements from AusIndustry.

"While it is obviously good to reflect on 40 successful years in business, we need to keep our focus firmly set on the future and future opportunities," said Muir.

With this in mind, Muir Engineering is planning to expand manufacturing in preparation to meet increasing industry demand over the next decade.

FAMILY FIRST
A family-owned company, Muir employs more than 60 people in its head office, manufacturing and design centre in the Hobart suburb of Kingston, and owns and operates warehousing and sales facilities in Sydney and the Gold Coast, Florida in the US, plus Southampton in the UK, employing an additional 10 people to these posts.

"Muir Engineering has always been a family-owned business... with a strong nautical heritage going back to my great grandfather working on square riggers and remote lighthouses," said John Muir.

"I completed an apprenticeship as a diesel fitter and with my father building sailing and fishing boats for two years, before establishing my own diesel-engine repair and marine-engineering business in 1968 on an adjacent site," he said.
 
But you need to go back further to get the full story. It was in 1966 that John Muir began working with his father, Jock, in the family boatbuilding business in the historic Hobart suburb of Battery Point at a time when building timber boats was a specialised skill.

"I initially worked on fishing boats but quickly identified weaknesses in the equipment available at the time," said Muir.

"We specialised first in boat servicing and repair, and given the number of winches we were repairing, I decided to design and manufacture my own.

"At the time, I realised about specialisation and finding a product that I could make and build and grow a business around," he said.

Muir Engineering grew quickly following the move to Kingston and by 1977 the company took its first product overseas.

"Singapore was first, followed by other Asian countries and markets in the Pacific," Muir says.

"In 1980, we attended our first boat show in the US, which gave us the growth we needed for our pleasure boat windlasses," he adds.

Muir says his company was privileged to have worked closely with some of the world's finest naval architects and builders in Australia and overseas.

"We have been working with some of Europe's most reputable and prestigious yards, including Lurssen and Thyssen Krupp both of Germany, and Feadship de Vries, Feadship Van Lent of Holland as well as well known yards in Italy, France, Asia and USA," he says.

With motor and sail yachts getting bigger by the year, Muir is upsizing and developing purpose-built anchoring and mooring equipment for yachts up to 120m in length.

Large yacht equipment is mainly polished 316L stainless steel and the demand today is mainly for vertical windlasses and capstans, and to a lesser degree horizontal windlasses.

Meantime, it is Trade-a-Boat's experience that you can count on a Muir windlass when the going gets tough and you have to retrieve a great length of heavy chain in the dead of night when the wind and waves are battering your boat. For that reason alone, we tip our hats and say thanks.