Sailing from nappies ‘til now

My sailing memories begin at the age of two years old when I was tossed out of an Australian designed sailing dinghy in Sydney harbour. Undeterred by this early experience my childhood involved racing flying 11’s class sailing dinghies and cruising the east coast of  Australia in trailer sailors.

I first began selling boats in 1985 and commenced work as an apprentice broker in 1987. Selling mainly second-hand yachts I quickly developed a good sales record averaging one sale every second to third day and in 1990 I was promoted to brokerage manager and profit shareholder. Summers have always involved twilight racing of various yachts on the beautiful Pittwater, Sydney.

I have travelled extensively in Europe finding work delivering a Sigma 36 from Portugal and Spain back to England and as first mate on a 125ft motor sailor. Undoubtedly the best months of my life, being paid to explore Europe in absolute luxury.

I returned home around Christmas 1996 and was invited to do the 50^th Sydney to Hobart race aboard a new custom-built Ron Holland 44 racer/cruiser. This was an amazing experience-Bass Strait is 10 times worse than I could even imagine-it made the Bay of Biscay look like a millpond.

Whilst I had been away the boating market in Australia hadn’t really changed with Australian sailors still only being offered the mass produced imports from France and America. Whilst racing on Swedish and Danish yachts in Switzerland I got to know the Scandinavian craftsmanship and was impressed by the traditional boat building methods.

I could see that there was an opening for high quality yachts in Australia offering good stability and strong safe construction for Australians wishing to sail the Pacific. My target was to find timeless elegant yachts built to the highest quality rather than just a price and therefore maintaining their resale value.

Windcraft has been growing at 100% a year for the last 5 years

A lot of our energy and resources will be used to educate the Australian customer that they are better off paying a little more money for the Hallberg-Rassy quality by which other yachts are measured. Windcraft offer high quality new and preloved yachts and pride ourselves on our experience and service, which is second to none. Throughout my career I have attended courses on sales and marketing, which have enhanced my skills and kept me motivated.

Windcraft has four staff- Rob Lang 59 years old who has competed in 12 Sydney to Hobart Yacht racers and is very involved at the local Newport Yacht Club, Nick Black 20 years old who is studying Computer Engineering at University my wife Catherine who looks after the showroom and office and myself. We are situated in one of the busiest marinas in northern Sydney.

Peter Hrones
Managing Director Windcraft Australia Pty Ltd at Bayview Anchorage-Sydney.