Woody Marine changes hands
Aluminium RIB manufacturer Woody Marine Fabrication (WMF) is under new management after previous owners, Dave Green and his wife Deidre, transferred ownership of the business to former employee and naval architect, Stephen Plumber.
Green described Plummer as an intelligent and well qualified person with a wealth of experience in the industry. “The future of WMF is secure and in capable hands,” he said.
WMF is well known and respected for its many innovations in RIB design. The company was first to install four big-gun outboards on a RIB — Yamaha F350s on the transom of a 14m hull. But that record won’t stand for long. The company has already taken an order for an even larger vessel with five F350s. And of course these boats were all designed by Stephen Plummer.
WMF has had a commercial relationship with New Zealand RIB maker Naiad Inflatables for some time, but Plummer said that relationship had run its course and that it was now time for WMF to move on.
“We’ve developed our own hull designs over the past few years,” he said. “We’re in the process of concluding the design and manufacture of WMF tubes custom-made for our vessels, and I’m confident they’ll be superior to anything we’ve fitted in the past,” he said.