Lance Fink is the founder and director of Tristram Marine. Having recently passed the batten onto his sons and semi-retired, it seemed appropriate to recap his business career and its successes, challenges, and obstacles. This is his story.
It begins with Lance’s father, Ray, who left school as a teenager to become a carpenter. However, Ray loved boats more than houses and, in the mid-1950s, became
a boatbuilder for the late Bob Wild in Hamilton.
Ray went out in 1960, building his first commission in the basement of his Hamilton house, a Hartley hull with decks and cabin of his own design. As his business grew, Ray shifted to another home and workshop in Tamahere, just outside Hamilton, where he spent the next 36 years building timber boats.
“He built so many timber trailer boats and launches, I don’t know how he did it,” recalls Lance, the second of Ray and Thelma’s four sons, the others being Warren, Miles, and Andrew.
Lance was born 1958 and started his timber boatbuilding apprenticeship with Ray in 1976. He would spend the next 11 years with his father.
“I disliked school and couldn’t wait to enter the marine industry.”
In 1981, Lance married Bronwyn – “She’s been my rock” – and the couple would eventually have two sons, Tristram (1986) and Kingsley (1990).
In 1985, Lance started building an 8.5m trailerable open flybridge launch, Vangelise, which was eventually sold to Hugh Glover. Vangelise was finished off soon after the arrival of Lance and Bronwyn’s son, Tristram. It was Glover who suggested adopting the brand name Tristram for Vangelise and any future builds because, “Tristram’s unexpected arrival placed some healthy pressure on our completion date.’’
The Tristram brand was born.
In 1987, the booming share market had left many people with bulging wallets. Boat orders were at an all-time high, and many boatbuilders were booked 18 months in advance.
One of Ray’s clients wanted a 13m timber Pelin Eclipse, which was too big for Ray’s workshop. Lance took over this contract with his father’s blessing to go out on his own. Aged 28, Lance borrowed $15,000 for plant and machinery to start Lance Fink Boatbuilders, which in later years marketed the brand Tristram.
Three months after starting his business, the share market crashed, torpedoing the Pelin contract, and Lance had to resort to painting and repairing boats.
“I just had to go back to square one.”
After 15 months of hand-to-mouth work, Lance got a commission to finish off a 15m steel Ganley yacht, building his first factory big enough to accept it. However, when that commission also fell over, he decided to pivot away from custom builds and instead went into the production GRP runabout business, designing the Tristram 550 in 1989.
“I’d learned a lot from my father, plus I’d picked up a lot of experience over the years about what made a good runabout perform.”
Building the hull and deck plugs was a labour of love, as Lance – typically – ensured every detail was perfect. In what would become a Tristram hallmark, Lance designed a deep V hull, 19.5o, with slightly wider chines to handle the bigger motors that were then becoming the norm.
“The 550 Delux became the start of what you see here today,” said Lance from his spacious office on the second floor of the impressive 13,000m2 property now home to Tristram Marine.
The first Tristram 550, powered by a Yamaha 140hp, was launched on Christmas Eve, 1990. With 40 family and friends watching, Lance could only hope he’d got the waterlines right.
“Thankfully, it floated right on its designed waterline.”
Dave Wallace was so impressed with the boat that he bought it and named it Moments. Lance borrowed it back a few months later and, with two other Tristram 550s, exhibited it at the 1991 Greenlane Boat Show, which led to more sales. Lance borrowed Moments again for the 1991 Atlantic Powerboat Rally and, despite being the smallest boat there, came home 16th overall.
“You could do anything with that hull.”
Nevertheless, breaking into a crowded GRP trailer boat market was tough, with a price to pay.
“I never saw my son Tristram grow up because I worked seven days a week. It was difficult to develop a new brand name in a crowded market.”
From the beginning, Lance set standards for building, selling, and servicing more like those of a quality European car dealership than a traditional boatbuilding operation. He also had to learn GRP production boatbuilding.
“I got a lot of help from Ashley Kendall of Ashmar on how to build GRP boats. I’ll always be grateful to him.”
While details have improved, the methods used to build Lance’s first boats are still in use today: solid GRP in the lower hulls, GRP/Coremat in the topsides, and GRP/Coremat/foam in the decks and cabin.
“I hand-laid the first few boats before I bought a chopper gun from Ashmar. Provided it’s correctly operated, a spray chopper gun makes a neater layup.”
Building a dealer network was the hardest part. Fred Hoogveld of Gulfland Marine in Whangaparaoa, Auckland, was his first official dealer.
“This was a wonderful connection.”
While Phil Butler and Bob Tait of Paraparaumu Marine in Wellington also became dealers, Lance decided to do most of his own retailing. Customers would pay the same price whether they bought from him or a dealer in another city. This method of selling has served Lance well and is still used today.
Returning to the boats, the second Tristram design was the 521, a slightly smaller version of the 550, which proved another success story.
Since those two boats, Tristram has added another model every 12 to 24 months; see the sidebar for the complete list. While each new model has its own unique features, certain fundamental principles are common to all Tristrams.
“21 degrees is pretty standard across our range. We’ve gone up to 22 at times, but we’d never go to 23.”
Another constant is the meticulous attention to detail, from laminating to the final application of pinstriping just before delivery. In fact, until 2018, Lance had trusted no one but himself to apply the pinstriping.
“Since I retired, Kingsley has been doing it. He’s the only one that has been able to take that job over from me.”
Tristram Marine supplied Yamaha and OMC outboards at their client’s choice until they became an official OMC agent in 1997. When OMC encountered difficulties in 2000, Lance was awarded a Yamaha outboard franchise. Wanting to give his customers an inboard option for the Grandeur 851, Tristram became a Mercury sterndrive dealer in 2003, eventually allowing Tristram to offer Mercury outboards as well.
According to Lance, sterndrives have several advantages: “The boarding platform is bigger with a sterndrive, and the engine box can become an integral part of the seating. Weight distribution is excellent, too, and the fuel consumption is better. Of course, outboard-engined Tristram’s have advantages of their own!”
Lance’s brother Andrew is the founder and owner of Enduro Trailers, which operates next door. All Tristram trailer boats leave the factory fitted on an Enduro Trailer built by Andrew and his team.
Like other New Zealand boatbuilders, Tristram has faced and overcome its share of challenges. The worst happened in March 2010, when a fire broke out in the laminating room on a Sunday afternoon. While the fire brigade arrived quickly, putting it out proved extremely difficult due to the quantity of chemicals. Fortunately, because the facility was built as two separate buildings, the concrete dividing wall stopped the fire from spreading to the finishing bay, showroom and office complex.
Besides the loss of production, the most extensive damage was the destruction of most of the company’s then-current moulds. The only hull mould not destroyed was the Tristram 881 and some Cabriolet deck moulds. One significant loss was the mould for the 741, which contained the first brand-new hull. Fortunately, the 741 hull and deck plugs survived, which enabled new moulds to be built relatively quickly. As their moulds and plugs had been destroyed, Tristram dropped the 521 and 781 from the lineup, which helped rationalise the model range.
“The fire put us back five years, but we survived. Only 10% of companies survive a fire like that. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved getting back up and running.”
Tristram Marine survived the fire, thrived, and now employs 40 full-time team members.
“It’s our fourth factory move in Te Rapa,” said Lance as he showed this writer through Tristram Marine’s factory complex. The larger two-storey building has a double-height showroom, with offices and conference rooms on the second floor. Behind this is a separate, climate-controlled laminating room, another massive space for assembling the boats, and dedicated spaces for covers and upholstery. Across the hardstand area is another large building that is solely for servicing.
“We service every make and model,” quips Lance as we walk through.
Quality starts at the top, and the fastidious Lance quickly picked up the merest piece of rubbish off the floor. Even after 37 years, the man’s devotion to his business is highly impressive.
Tristram Marine now retails its boats across the country and also exports boats overseas, with all sales handled in-house.
“The quality of Tristram Marine’s product requires in-depth knowledge and passion.”
Nowadays, all Tristram boats are built to order, and they haven’t had a stock boat on the floor for over eight years. Not that the showroom isn’t full of boats – many customers store their boats at Tristram Marine over the winter. This is probably where the tongue-in-cheek saying “You don’t own a Tristram; Lance lets you borrow it back when you need it!” originates.
Lance officially retired in 2018 when his two sons, Tristram and Kingsley, took over the day-to-day operations.
“That’s the biggest achievement any father can have,” said their proud dad.
Tristram is the Business Development Manager and Chief Financial Officer. He’s been involved in Tristram Marine’s marketing since his teenage years and developed a wealth of knowledge as an accountant after eight years with Deloitte. Kingsley is the General Manager responsible for the factory’s day-to-day operation and works with Lance on the design side. However, Lance and Bronwyn are still regularly seen around Tristram Marine and remain passionate about their company and its products.
“Our boats have won many boat show awards over the years, which is a testament to our respect for our clients and fantastic team.”
From a business that started with a $15,000 loan, Tristram Marine is now one of the country’s most successful, privately owned boatbuilding companies.
However, this is far from an overnight success; Lance and Bronwyn have been driven by passion, fuelled by commitment, and lubricated with plenty of hard work for 37 years to reach this position.
Lance and Bronwyn Fink are yet another fascinating chapter in the wonderfully diverse tapestry of New Zealand production boatbuilding.
And a story that’s far from over.
