Page 36 - Folk Boat Year Book 2021

Europa Composites-Overview and Introduction (Advertorial)

Firstly, we want to introduce ourselves and give an overview of our work to date and
on-going services that we can provide Folkboat members and, thank those who have
trusted us with their yachts to date.

We have been established since 2014 (as a trading entity) and have a broad depth of
experience and projects. Dan McAdam who is business lead and has over 30 years
fully qualified boat building experience, serving his apprenticeship on the Clyde and
moving to Lymington in the early 90’s working with Neville Hutton on famous yachts
of their time, ‘Mean Machine’, ‘Pinta’ and the famous wooden composite ¾ tonner
‘Old Mother Gun’. Over the years many motor and yacht builds and full refits have
been completed both in the UK and abroad.

2020 has been a year of change in many ways, and as a business we have taken the
bold step to embark on a large investment program to give us better reach and scale.
Whilst businesses contract, we feel strongly that this era provides opportunity, and
therefore have taken on a large-scale site and additional resources, located on the
banks of the Lymington River. The units we now occupy are over 15,000 square feet,
with significant indoor and outdoor storage. As well as relocating our business, we
have located our engineering partners who mass produce and fabricate fittings, and
bespoke metal work. To finish our goals in 2020, we want to encourage and support
apprenticeships in boat building, we feel strongly that the UK needs to retain its
heritage in this field and are currently taking on three new apprentices. All in all, we
see the future is one filled with optimism.

Going back to our most recent work covered this includes some significant Folkboats,
working with owners to completely refit and produce fabulous boats. The first recent
refit was GBR673 ‘So!’ which was a 1998 Folkebåd Centraalen boat. ‘So!’ has been
fully optimised with new deck layout, over 200 hours spent re-fairing the keel and
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numerous other enhancements. The boat has proven to be fast having come 5 at the
2019 Folkboat Gold Cup, and then following up at the German end of season regatta
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(Rolling Home 2019), where the team finished 4 . 2020 has been one of disruption
when it comes to sailing events, but ‘So!’ managed to get out for Hamble Classic
Week, winning their class and the concourse de elegance for modern classics. This
was followed by the pseudo ‘National Championships’ at Lymington, convincingly
winning the event with a 1,1,7,1 score line.

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