Introduction

Since the design of the Procharter range of boats we have dominated the charter boat market in the Uk. We have built a number of boats for commercial use in Ireland, Holland, Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Greece. Due to Greece being the other side of Europe to us and ideally suited to supply boats to the Mediterranean and Southern Europe we now have agents in Athens www.procharter.gr and we will be manufacturing the Procharter range in Greece for 2009. www.procharter.nl will be on line in the next few months with a demonstrator based near Amsterdam. We have built high speed ferries which are working up to 60 miles (100km) off the west coast of Scotland and the Orkney Islands. We are currently building a 100 passenger Americana Ferry for the UK. We are also designing a 60ft (18.3m) Americana for pleasure use. The boat will be kept on a mooring in the Thames and used as a house boat. The interesting part of this build is the boat will be able to launch and recover a Sea Plane from the rear deck. So, even if you think your dream boat is impossible to have, phone us before you give up.

We have been building around 30 combined P3 and P4 boats per year. 2008 saw the introduction of 3 more boats to the Procharter range making a line up as follows.

The Camargue

The P3

The Vayron

The P4

The Americana

We are a very successful business. At any one time we have around a £1million in stock/assets and a turnover of around a £1million.

The reason we are so successful is our boats are extremely well made and very competitively priced. We keep our boat prices to little above build cost price. Our aim is to get production up to at least 60 units per year and then sell Company to one of the large pleasure boat manufacturers. The little profit we do make is reinvested into the company and used to tool up for new models that will attract a wider customer base.

Our thoughts are this. We want to sell more boats, the type of boat or the job it will do is not important to us because all boats start off as Hulls and decks. With this in mind we looked at the ferry market.

Our research started by putting ourselves in a ferry operators shoes. We searched the internet but did not find a ferry manufacturer that offered a ready to go ferry in plain and simple language along with the in the water price. It was a bit like looking in a shop window where the goods are not priced. I feel if a seller does not proudly show the cost of his goods he has something to hide.

We did get some prices and were quite surprised at the high prices being asked. We have built class 5 and class 6 boats in the past. 2 of which were glass bottom boats. We have an Americana ferry for 100 passengers under construction now. We also build a number of boats for export and often the specification required for these boats matches and even sometimes passes the requirements for a UK ferry so we know what we are talking about when it comes to building ferries and how much it costs.

We have applied the same way of pricing our ferries as we did our charter boats. When making a quotation we price all parts and materials at cost to us and only make a profit from our labour. We are not trying to make money from building each ferry, we are trying to increase our turnover by increasing the number of boats we build. A high volume of builds means we can build cheaper so don't be put off by the lack of high prices.

The most expensive product isn't always the best!

Our charter boats are individually built for each customer to his own layout and ideas so offering this way of building boats to ferry operators can only be a good thing. The layout of a ferry needs to be suitable for the type of work it will be doing and the best person to decide this is the operator.

The Procharter hull makes an ideal base for a ferry for a number of reasons.

1. All Procharters are made from all composite materials. We only use wood in places where we need to screw into and then we fully encapsulate it in fibreglass. All non moving parts of a boat like the decks and seating should have a longer life than plywood can offer.

2. Our boats are light in weight due to the products we use. As an example our 50 passenger P4 ferry weighs only 7.5 tonnes when launched and will cruise at 17kts loaded with just 400 horse power. Our philosophy is the more weight you create when building a boat the fewer payloads it can carry or the more diesel it will take to push it through the water. I think you will agree. DIESEL IS NOT GOING TO GET ANY CHEAPER!

3. Because we use all composite materials for the total build your ferry maintenance is kept to a minimum. For example our doors do not swell up or crack nor do they need oiling or varnishing because they are fibreglass. The screws that hold them on won't come loose because we bolt them on. Should you need to wash out your wheelhouse not a problem just use your deck wash. You can even have your floor self draining.

4. We designed our hulls for stability. All boat builders will crow about their products and how good they are. We say, look in the back of a fishing
Magazine at the charter ads and ask the skipper of a P4 how stable and economical his boat and don't forget to ask him the size of his engine.

5. We build to your countries regulations and under the supervision of a surveyor from that country. Some countries have little or no regulations and ferries to these countries are still built to the same specification but are much cheaper due to the absence of surveyor’s fees and the time wasted waiting for a surveyor’s inspection.

6. All stage payments are in arrears. Only when we have finished a build stage and the customer or his surveyor has inspected that stage we issue the invoice.

7. All boats are fitted with a 24 hour live stream web cam. You can not only watch your boat being built, you can record it to dvd.

8. Our boats are nearly the same beam from the helm to the transom. The Procharter does not go out to a point at the bow to keep the boat as short as possible.

9. Choice of wheelhouse style from all canvas to fully enclosed and half and half.

10. After you have considered all of the above,

check our price list!

We offer 4 of our hulls for ferries.

1. The P3. 10ft (3m) beam. From 25ft and in every length in between to 35 ft (7.6m to 10.6m.) This is a very economical fast ferry/tripping boat particularly
Suited to the 12 to 25 passengers market.

2. The Vayron. 12ft (3.6m) beam. From 28ft and in every length to 39ft (8.5m to 11.9m) up to 40 passengers.

3. The P4. 13ft (3.9m) beam. From 33ft and every length to 40ft (10.1m to 12.2m) up to 50 passengers.

4. The Americana. 16ft (4.9m) beam. From 35ft and every length to 50ft (10.6m to 5.3m) over 100 passengers.

Please check them out and contact us by phone or email with any questions you may have. Remember, the most expensive isn't always the best!

P3 & Camargue

ProCharter P3 Passenger 'Fast' Ferry

£ Call for a Quote

The main core of our business, is the manufacture of work boats for the charter fishing, diving and potting market.

Over the past couple of years we have received ever-increasing orders for tripping boats. I believe this to be because of the incredible stability our boats have and because of the unique way we manufacture our boats, light with an impressive top speed and good fuel economy. www.explorercharters.co.uk has recently been operating a procharter 31ft for tripping. Steve tells us this boat is burning 1 litre per mile.

In the past we have converted our wheelhouse by widening it 8". Whilst this did the job it did look like a conversion. We have now designed an extra wide wheelhouse with 3 windows to the front.

ECO TOURER WHEELHOUSE	PULLMAN WHEELHOUSE	TRANSPORTER WHEELHOUSE

 

These Wheelhouses are available throughout the ProCharter Range.

We now make a 35 foot, 10 foot Beam fast ferry with 12 forward facing seats in the heated wheelhouse for 12 passengers with good visibility. With outside seating on the deck for 12 or more. A deck toilet is optional.

Using a Mercruiser 230 hp diesel this boat will make close to 30 kts loaded, this is with a bravo 2 leg. Using a 320hp mercruiser with a bravo 3 leg I would expect this to be 35 knots. We also offer this boat with a shaft drive 28 knots or Hamilton Jet drive 35 knots.

The cost of this boat with a COP 60 miles licence not including lifesaving equipment is £95,000 plus vat for the 230hp, £98,000 plus vat for the 320hp and £112,500 for the shaft or jet drive. These prices can be reduced for summer builds.

I know you charter skippers are shy to work with stern drives and although shaft drive is available I strongly recommend you consider the stern drive. Performance and incredible economy from a 4.2 litre engine. The manoeuvrability is fantastic. There is also a saving of around £14,000 pounds on the purchase price to a shaft or jet driven boat. The reason for this is quite simple, the power unit is £1000's cheaper to buy and around 2 weeks quicker to fit. They don't last as long as the shaft or jet but they are only just over £3000 to buy a new one or £1000 to fully recondition your old one. Fitting time is less than an hour. You can buy 4/5 new legs complete before the layout cost is the same as the shaft. Whilst the years tick by your diesel costs will probably be half of that of a shaft drive. When you think how many ribs there are working as charter boats, they all use stern drives and don't seem to have a problem. Then there is our Royal Navy. When you think they are certainly the largest operators at sea in this country, and with all of that experience, they use stern drives or water jets.

Not convinced? Ok, then consider the Hamilton jet drive. Not as frugal as the stern drive but just as fast, although that is with a larger engine. The Hamilton Water Jet will last longer than the gearbox on a shaft drive boat, no propeller to snag, drives in 18 inches (45cm) of water with 12 passengers and 2 crew. Manoeuvrability? they can be made to move sideways. To berth I find them just like parallel parking a car in the street. Incredible.

As with all Procharter boats the option of fitted water ballast tanks is available, weight her down when she needs and still enjoy the low fuel cost of a light boat when you don't.

If this is of any interest to you either now or for next year please give me a call on 01208 812888. There are other ways of reducing the cost of this boat.

Vayron

Vayron 40 passenger Ferry

Our Vayron is also available as a ferry. As a class six ferry there is enough deck area to seat 40 passengers, this can be either with a fully enclosed wheelhouse, partially enclosed wheelhouse with an open back area, or a partially enclosed wheelhouse with either a hard roof to the back with canvas sides or full canvas canopy. As a non-class six ferry there is room for even more seating..

As with all Procharter boats the option of fitted water ballast tanks is available, weight her down when she needs and still enjoy the low fuel cost of a light boat when you don't.
Class 6 ferry. 40 passenger Procharter Vayron (www.procharter.co.uk) Any length under 12m. 3.7m beam. We can build to any Countries regulations. Your choice of layout. Choice of wheelhouse design. Custom built to suit you in every way. Cruise at 17kts with 320hp. This is the boat of the future. Ready to go to work price from £175,000 plus taxes but not including life saving equipment or electronics. Please call Andy or Alan 01208 812888 international 00 44 1208 812 888 or email prochartersales@aol.com

PULLMAN WHEELHOUSE	TRANSPORTER WHEELHOUSE
ECO TOURER WHEELHOUSE	CABRIOLET WHEELHOUSE

These Wheelhouses are available throughout the ProCharter Range.

P4

The 50/70 Passenger Ferry

£Call for a quote

At Procharter we have designed an extremely stable hull. It has a beam of 13 feet and is available in lengths from 33 feet to 50 feet. The underwater design is unique to Procharter. A 50 passenger ferry at 40 feet when launched weighed 8.25 tonnes and although it was propped down for 50 passengers it still did 23kts with a 405hp Caterpillar. We offer the choice of fully enclosed, partially enclosed both with your choice of seating layout. At 50 feet in length 70 passengers is possible.

As with all Procharter boats the option of fitted water ballast tanks is available, weight her down when she needs and still enjoy the low fuel cost of a light boat when you don't.

As with all Procharter boats the option of fitted water ballast tanks is available, weight her down when she needs and still enjoy the low fuel cost of a light boat when you don't.

Click below to see the latest photos including three artist impressions of three deck configurations:

ECO TOURER	TRANSPORTER
CABRIOLET	STACKED TRANSPORTER

These Wheelhouses are available throughout the ProCharter Range.

Class 6.. 49/70 passenger ferry. Procharter P4, (www.procharter.co.uk) any length up to 12.2m with a 4m beam.

17kts cruising speed from 400hp. Weight around 7 tonnes giving a very fuel efficient operation.

Built from all composite construction for lightness and durability, low maintenance.

Open or enclosed, your choice of layout.

Each boat is custom built to your exact requirements.

From £195,000 plus taxes. Price does not include lifesaving equipment or electronics.

Please phone Andy or Alan 01208 812888

Photos above are ferry wheelhouse options, fully enclosed, partially enclosed with a hard roof with side curtains and the cabriolet has a full canvas back, removable if required. As with all Procharters you can have the configuration of your choice, you sketch how you would like your wheelhouse to be and that is what we will build. You choose the height of you gunwale. Our P4 hull is extremely stable so it is possible to have 2 decks. With the Cabriolet, it is your choice of how much seating is in the wheelhouse and how much is under canvas. Inside again the choice is yours, from the layout to the type of seating. Helm port or starboard, or even both. Toilet on the deck or down below, your choice. Your choice of drive, single or twin, screw or jet. All colours are the same price.

The red boat in photos 1 to 12 below is a P4 ferry of 40ft (12.2m) UK licensed offshore for 50 passengers up to 17kts. Powered by a Caterpillar C9 @ 405hp. She was down propped for a 4 tonne payload. When craned for launch the boat weighed 7.3 tonnes. On sea trials she had a top speed of 22kts on an each way run on the GPS and can cruise loaded at 17kts. The other photos are actual photos of the ferry working between Mevigissy and Foye in Cornwall (the Dolphins are not employed by The Mevigissy Ferry or Procharter, they were merely spectators).

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9
10	11	12

Photos 4 to 10, Captain John Woods wanted the seating layout to give his customers the best opportunity to view the beautiful Cornish coastline. He is a seasoned operator who knew what he wanted, He designed the layout to the millimetre and actually worked on it's construction.

Photos 14 and 16 are the boat on sea trials. Photo 10 gives a good view of how we use aqua dynamics to lift the bow of the boat. We use as much of the power possible to push the hull forwards and rely on the hull design to lift the bow, you can see in photos 11, 1 and 12 the lack of bow wave. Most common hulls part the water and cut through but as you can see in photos 16 and 17 our hulls encourage this "bow wave" to go under the boat and create more lift. 405hp = 22kts.

A good hull design using modern materials gives a fast and fuel efficient boat. We will print the fuel burn rate when we have the end of season figures.

Glass Bottom Boats

Content and information coming soon.

Fishing and Survey Boats

Content and information coming soon.

Parasending

Content and information coming soon.