In March 1980, Boatshop Philippines began its first boatbuilding project
in a grass roofed shed on the west coast of Leyte Island. Boatshop founder
and manager Mike Allen had been leisurely sailing through the Philippines
when he met a locally employed expat wishing to have a small multihull
cruiser built to enjoy the sheltered waters of the islands. The boat was a
John Marples designed Seaclipper 28 trimaran.
The choice of design and timing were fortuitous. Just after completing
the Seaclipper project, Allen met Marple's design partner and multihull
pioneer Jim Brown, who had come to the Philippines to construct a prototype
Constant Camber fishing "banka". Allen joined the project, and there began
his apprenticeship in Brown's patented hull construction technology.
Following the completion of the banka project, Allen stayed on to
construct a prototype fishing catamaran Brown had designed for use in third
world fisheries, also built in Constant Camber. A container full of
Constant Camber panels were manufactured and shipped to Tuvalu in the
central Pacific where, as a demonstration project funded by Save The
Children, Brown assembled them into a cargo carrying catamaran.
Simultaneously another Marples design, a 30-foot folding Trimaran was built
for a separate client.
In 1983 a new shop was begun in Compostela on the east coast of Cebu
island and Boatshop Philippines was formally opened for business. Friends
were not optimistic about setting up a yacht building operation in such an
out-of-the-way location, but orders were not long in arriving. The first
project, a 50' Norm Cross designed trimaran, was in the order book before
the shop building was completed, and soon the lights were burning late in
the Boatshop to keep up with years of steady orders for custom-built
multihull sailboats.
The Compostela shop site was situated on an exposed coastline,and after
two harrowing experiences with typhoons, a search for a less exposed
location was made. A well-protected waterside property located on a small
bay was eventually purchased. A few more years passed however, before a new
shop building could be completed. In 1999 the shop was transferred, and
Boatshop Philippines is now located in it's permanent home in a sturdy all
steel 1200 sq. meter building on the protected shores of Carmen bay on the
island of Cebu.
In 1991 the first 15
mtr. sailing catamaran was owner completed and
launched from hulls and design provided by the Boatshop from its new Visayan tropical design series. Launchings of this series now include an
11
mtr. (36 ft.), 12.2
mtr. (40 ft.), 13.4
mt. (44 ft.), two other
15-meter designs, and an *18 meter (60 ft.)* version. All of
these designs and several other banka designs have been built utilising the
same simple Constant Camber vacuum mold.
In spite of the early pessimism of well-intended friends, 24 boats,
mostly sailing multihulls, have been built. Seventeen of the projects have
been using the vacuum laminated Constant Camber hulls, making Boatshop
Philippines one of the most experienced builders in the world using this
technique.
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