Formula WON

 

WORDS + PHOTOS: ANDREW RICHARDSON

When a lawn-mower dealer's fortunes faltered, he turned to boats. It proved to be a winning formula.

Sydney's Macarthur Marine has a new showroom ? and what a 'room'. The floor is larger than a football field and has the capacity to hold more than 100 boats under the one roof.
The background behind all this expansion has more to do with grass growing than marine growth! Turns out that Macarthur Marine's holding company is Australia's leading Toro lawnmower dealer and as the drought hit, so did some of the mower trade ? so three years ago, owner Eric Gilleland decided to expanded into boats.
After some hard work Macarthur Marine have built up an import range that includes Formula Boats, Ebbtide, Rinker, Grady-Whites and Larson.
But it doesn't stop there. Macarthur Marine also sell locally built Stacer Boats, Western Australia Razerline, Mustang, Yamaha outboards and they are also Sydney's only combined Yamaha/Stacer dealer.
inland Boating
On the map of Sydney, Camden NSW, is not close to the water, so why set up there? Peter Squire explained that: "Macarthur Marine are in a position where we can keep a huge amount of stock on one site from tinnies right up to large powerboats and we are an equal distance from all of Sydney's waterways ? all only about 50 minutes away."

read on below advertisement


With all these new imports on offer the Modern Boating team felt like kids in a new lolly shop. We decided to test the Formula 27PC because of Formula Boats' high performance reputation. Macarthur Marine is also Australia's only Grady White dealer so I reckon one of those well-reputed fishing platforms will be on the agenda for a review soon.
Macarthur Marine have arranged to keep some of their stock on the harbour so we met up with Macarthur's Peter Squire at Carreening Cove Boat Brokerage right on the harbour at Milsons Point. Once all the covers were off, it wasn't long before we had the twin-engined sports cruiser powering down the harbour towards Rose Bay.
The Formula 27PC is promoted as offering cruising comfort and superior performance in an innovative design. "The swept-back look is accomplished through the curved glass windshield and streamlined exterior styling. The 27ft deep-vee hull is designed to slice through the waves, delivering the exciting performance which always defines a Formula."
Formula Boats have a history of producing top-notch performance powerboats and the 27PC certainly offered first-rate power out of the hole, combined with some awesome performance in the turns.

next page »



« go back