A landlocked boat builder has a thriving business making craft from macrocarpa
By Ray Cleaver
Photographs: Rob Tucker
Piopio in the heart of the King Country – a landlocked area with a village population of about 400 – is the last place you’d expect to find a boat builder. Boat builder Max Laver, however, is well settled there, and business is thriving.
Boat repairs, restoration, and making small craft by hand is the speciality of Max’s business, where he works with fibreglass and timber, and specialises in custom-built dinghies.
“We focus on how well we can make a dinghy, not how cheaply,” he says.
Max is a marine surveyor as well as a boat builder.
He spent two years in Lowestoft in England learning City and Guild-level wooden boat building, and finished his time doing two more years learning in New Brunswick, Canada.
In 2009, after many years boat building, Max decided to study marine surveying and the two qualifications work hand in hand.
“I didn’t excel at school as a kid, but I loved to build,” he says. “I didn’t do well at maths except when it meant building something. It all made sense then.”
Now aged 51, Max’s business is humming along and his big workshop on the main street of Piopio has many projects underway, not to mention a variety of things going on in a number of sheds out the back.
Yacht tenders, duck hunting boats, rowboats of all sizes, sailboats and even custom-made boats for flounder fishing all come out of Max’s workshop.
No waste
Scrap wood doesn’t get thrown away at Laver Marine. Working at his own bench in the Laver workshop is 83-year-old Michael Piner, happily making children’s toys from leftover wood.
Michael also has seafaring connections. He went to sea aged 14, and worked with waterfront companies after coming to New Zealand in 1960.
He works three mornings a week making trucks and tractors which he gives away as presents or sells and donates the proceeds to Starship Children’s Hospital.
“I’ve always loved working with wood, and it keeps me fit and out of trouble. It’s a good way to coordinate the brain and hands,” he says.
The road to Pio Pio
Originally from the UK and Ireland, Max was raised in Canada, and after years travelling and working around the world, he is now ensconced in Piopio.
Why Piopio, we ask? There’s always a woman involved, was the reply.
Max met his wife Rachael in 2007, and the couple moved to Rachael’s hometown – Piopio – where they set up Laver Marine, and Max became a local.
Rachael works for the company doing the admin work.
Max enjoys variety. He recently recreated an authentic copy of New Zealand’s first school bus – a 30-seat Model T – which was one of three custom-made buses that carted kids to a consolidated school in Piopio (which was also a first, centralising a lot of small country schools into one).
The boats
Inside the front door of Laver Marine is a beautifully finished, custom-made, flat-bottomed wooden dory, made to use in Kawhia for flounder fishing.
“It’s a New Zealand design with macrocarpa on ply and mac ribs,” says Max.
It is carvel built, whereby the wooden planks are fastened edge to edge, rather than clinker built, where the planks overlap.
“The planks are cold-moulded and bent by hand, set by a jig and wedges, and glued. I use a West System two-pot epoxy.”
From little boats to fibreglass truck bins
Working with fibreglass on boats has led to some diversification and experimentation for Max.
In a back shed is the construction of a giant fibreglass mould for the manufacture of bulk transport bins.
Max has been experimenting with special resins that can stand 180-200°C.
Twelve layers of fibreglass cloth are put on under a vacuum that sucks in the resin.
“Using fibreglass on the boats has led to some expansion. It’s a big jump but pretty interesting,” says Max.
Macrocarpa
Max uses a range of wood to make his dinghies, but one of his favourites is macrocarpa.
“Mac is a really underrated timber,” he says. “It’s really user-friendly and is great for outside projects, provided it is oiled properly.
“We use it a lot for boat building and outside furniture. I have found it can sustain exterior exposure in its natural state for some time. We have untreated mac furniture in our yard that is over three years old and shows no rot or deterioration.
“It’s easy on the tools and the more I use it, the more I like it.”
He seals the mac with his own brew of Danish Oil. He mixes one-third boiled linseed oil with one-third turps and one-third of a varnish called Bondall Monocel.
There are five models in the Laver Marine range. The Teddington was the original row boat, followed by the larger motor boat, the Putney. The Romney fishing or duck boat is another option for rowing or motoring. The Nelson Lugger, a sailing dinghy, has recently been added to the fleet. The Shepperton is a cathedral-hull design that is extremely stable with plenty of inboard space, ideal for fishing, ship-to-shore, or pleasure boating.
Max’s range of small boats can be seen at dinghy.co.nz.
Macrocarpa – good for boats
Large, spreading macrocarpas (Cupressus macrocarpa) are a common sight in rural New Zealand, usually growing alongside homesteads and farm buildings. Macrocarpa (also known as Monterey cypress) was brought to New Zealand in the 1860s and planted for shelter.
It is a species of cypress native to the central coast of California.
Macrocarpa is a low to medium-density softwood that looks and works like kauri. Both the heartwood and sapwood of macrocarpa are naturally borer-resistant, which makes them ideal for interior housing purposes.
The New Zealand Farm Forestry Association says that macrocarpa is now a well-known decorative softwood timber which is very popular in New Zealand. The appearance is similar to kauri and quarter-sawn material has a speckled appearance. The heartwood is golden-brown in colour, sometimes with a pinkish tinge. When freshly cut, macrocarpa has a fragrant, spicy smell.
Macrocarpa is relatively easy to mill, dry, work, and finish, and is suitable for interior and exterior uses.
It is used extensively in the joinery, furniture, and boatbuilding trades, and has a low shrinkage factor from green sawn to dry.
Max sources all his macrocarpa locally and has a shed full of timber waiting for various projects.
Canadian canoe
A special project dear to Max’s heart is the construction of a Canadian canoe. This is his own canoe and it’s six metres long. Despite its length, the canoe is very light and designed to be carried by one person.
It is made from rot-resistant Western Red Cedar that Max imported from Canada and made by a strip-planking method, consisting of many thin strips of wood. Each strip is 6mm thick and 12mm wide and bent around a frame.
There is an inner and an outer stem, and the strips are glued to these using a jig and wedges.
The strips are joined with PVA and covered with an epoxy cloth.
There are no ribs, and the teak seats and gunnel contribute to the structural strength of the hull.
“It’s a very labour-intensive job, involving a hell of a lot of sanding,” says Max. “I’ve been working on it for a few years, on and off, and I’ve put maybe 600 hours into it, and there’s still a lot of work to go.
“It’s a project I’m doing for myself and couldn’t put a price on it. I’ll get it in the water eventually.”
