The Designer

Steve Ekman first began drawing boat lines on skills he started developing aged 14. Ekman maintains it is much easier to build a boat he has designed himself. The last big boat he designed and built was the 12.2m monohull launch, Sweet Release, for the same owner.

As a young fellow Ekman used to admire the launches and hulls featured in the boating magazines of the time, but took up building boats instead of designing as a career, working with Heritage Marine, Sensation Yachts, and McMullen and Wing in Auckland before heading overseas to do some sailing.



Having married, he returned home and took up boat- building again at Deemings Yard, Opua, in the Bay of Islands, working on refitting and painting visiting cruising boats. Whilst living in nearby Russell he rekindled his design skills, thanks to the help of a friendly neighbour who helped many budding designers in New Zealand - the late designer, John Spencer. "A great guy, an amazing guy," remembers Ekman," - and I learnt a lot off him." The marriage ended, and Ekman moved away from the picturesque Russell waterfront to Whangarei where he decided to "get out of boats". That settled, he moved into the aluminium window business but when the company manager's runabout "fell to bits" Ekman did the major repair job. The boss was so impressed that he recruited his resident boatbuilder/designer to sort out his requirements for a family oriented game fishing launch.