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Tallie Marine... A N A M E W R I TTE N A N D R I D I N G A C R O S S
South Africas waters For generations the name of Tallie has been synonimous with South African commercial boatbuilding. The exceptional quality and customer service provided by this West Cape boat yard are bywords among customers from governments to fishermen. Colin Chinery talks to Managing Director Anton Tallie about his craft and his values.
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t Helena Bay is the one place on the West Coast where you can watch the sun rise over the sea. In the changing morning light distant dolphins enchant their shoreline spectators. 150 kilometers north of Cape Town, the largest bay in Africa is also home to South Africa’s fishing industry. Tinned fish products such as pilchards in tomato puree, hake and fish-meal are processed at factory concentrations in communities like Stompneus Bay, West Point and Sandy Point. Together they provide more that half the country’s R2 billion annual fish production. And at Sandy Point Harbour is the only commercial boat builder in the country – Tallie Marine, a name much respected in boat building and fishing, and synonymous with this part of the world. Managing Director Anton Tallie recalls a visit two years ago from a party of Norwegians. “One of them was a fisherman, another an architect and the third an attorney. They were looking to buy glass fibre vessels and had been all round Europe and as far as China. When they came to our yard they told me they would look no further. My boats, they said, were the best they had seen.”
Custom built Tallie Marine will customise any boat according to instruction; quality, value and customer service as assured as the local weather is capricious. In the last 15 years 130 vessels have been conceived and finished at its harbour side yard; landing craft, catamarans, but above all fishing boats, from 33ft prawn trawlers to 83 ft stern trawlers. Vessels have been supplied for Mozambique, Namibia and to the Government of Angola as well as the South African market. 4
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Family business This is a family business, the fourth generation of Tallies’ since forebears settled here from Malta, and from modest beginnings began building wooden boats for the local market. As well as Anton, there is son Antonie, Director/Mechanical Engineer, brother Hein, Director/Shipwright, Anton’s wife Rinette, Financial Director, and Donna Tallie Marketing manager, daughter-in-law, married to Antonie. Tallie Marine began in 1988 as a maintenance and repair shop, working on
wooden, steel and GRP (glass reinforced plastic) vessels. But with limited life span and high maintenance costs, Anton saw that wooden vessels would become almost extinct, and so in 1995 he designed and built his first GRP. GRP doesn’t corrode, is fairly low maintenance and relatively light weight. Well built and maintained GRP boats are standing the test of time, and for the past 15 years Tallie has been a One Stop boat building and maintenance yard with a reputation for exceptional quality, affordability and customer focus. “I grew up with wooden boat building,” says the 60 year old MD. “My grandfather, father, and his brothers were all shipwrights, and in their time they built a lot of wooden boats. But scarcity of the right wood for the right application, the price and the limited lifespan of wooden vessels moved us away from this form of construction. That’s why we moved to GRP.”
The One Stop Yard Tallie Marine does everything under one roof from moulding and filling the boat structure and applying the wood and steel work, to fitting accommodation, wheelhouses, winches and aft storage platforms.
We believe in service, service to our people and service to our customers This says Anton Tallie, is what makes this company so versatile. Design is geared towards low resistance, so maintaining excellent speed with low HP engines and saving on fuel and running costs. Wood and steel are used in limited areas; hardwood for accommodation, bulwark
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capping and in some window designs, and all steel is either 316 stainless steel or galvanized mild steel. The vessel bottom is painted with antifouling, but with the rest of the colouring all in the gelcoat and fibreglass, no further painting is required.
Harvest of the sea Tallie Marine vessels are built for diverse fishing applications including bottom trawling, purse seining, long lining, mining, squid fishing and research. A seine is a net laid out in a circle around a school of fish and drawn into a purse that closes the bottom, trapping the catch inside. Seiners are used for pilchards, anchovy and horse mackerel, with crews ranging from two or three to more than a dozen deckhands. Longliners commonly target swordfish, tuna, halibut, sablefish, using a long line with baited hooks attached at intervals. Designed with large hold capacities, Tallie Marine vessels nonetheless maintain www.southafricamag.com
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spacious engine room and accommodation areas. Many are built to include more than one application enabling products to be processed at sea. The moulds are so versatile that a range of sizes, from 33 feet to 100 feet, are able to be built. “Around Cape Point we fish in some of the roughest weather anywhere in the world. It’s very hard work, and it’s hard on the equipment. And unlike in Europe, people here tend not to look after their vessels that well. Private owners are an exception, but some skippers are very hard on their vessels. It’s all a bit different. So the vessels have to be strong in all kinds of weather and maintenance free.”
Values and ethos As a well established and respected family, the Tallies’ have succeeded in transmitting their high standards and work ethos into a company that is reliable, viable and – through employment opportunities - a source of upliftment for the local community and the lives of its employees. 6
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“The name Tallie has been synonimous with boat building in South Africa for many years. And for me the most important thing in my life is our name; it’s very very dear to me.
Belief in service “We believe in service, service to our people and service to our customers. The atmosphere in our yard and workshops is fantastic. We don’t have strikes, we don’t have problems. And that’s very important.” If Tallie Marine is the only commercial boat builder in South Africa, anything approaching monopoly power holds no temptations. “For the past two years we have absorbed all cost increases and kept our prices. If you raise your prices people can’t buy and I would have to have lay-offs in my yard. So I keep the prices down. I would love to take orders from abroad and our prices are very good, but transport to Europe is very expensive. “My core people have been with the company since before 1995 and I have some here who started with my late father. So I
Tallie Marine Boatyard We build them tough for the rough seas! must keep busy and keep the guys employed. And we try to help the local people, and this also helps us to stay in business.”
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Skills and loyalty Tallie Marine employs around 80 and trains and up-skills new recruits who have aptitude and potential. Here stability is a feature as it is with the supply chain. “We tend to stay with our suppliers and don’t jump from one to another. We don’t do that sort of thing. For me that’s unethical.” Building fine boats is one expression of a talent and personality, but for Anton Tallie is boating also a relaxation and recreation?
Whenever I see my boats I’m proud
For all your boatbuilding requirements as well as maintenance, repairs and refurbishments that will add years to your vessel!
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“You know if you are a mechanic you need to have a race car. But that’s not always the case. I have 5.5 metre rubber duck which I use to catch fish with. I enjoy that, but for recreation I fly in the Western Cape area, with a gyrocopter and I also fly with fixed wing. And yes I have built my own.”
Adrenalin Does the sight of a Tallie boat out on the waters still turn the heart? “You know it’s funny to think, but you do get used to it. Up to a point we build on a production line so many of the boats are the same, you don’t have that adrenalin like with the first vessel of a kind. But if we do a new kind of vessel, a new development, well then something of that old feeling returns. Now I’m busy training my grandson. He’s four and I had him out in a boat yesterday.” “But whenever I see my boats I’m proud. Many times I wish my father was still here to see what we have done. He would have been proud too.” END
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