Furuno Australia has chosen a CruiseCraft boat to help showcase a strong selection of their high quality marine electronics in real on-water conditions.

Fitted out with the latest selection of depth sounders, GPS plotter equipment, autopilot and radar technology, the new CruiseCraft Explorer 625 will travel throughout the east coast of Australia to help promote and support the Furuno brand to both OEM and customers alike.

Furuno Australia is a dedicated distribution office and trade entity set up in South East Queensland by parent company J.N. Taylor & Co Ltd based in Western Australia. Rapidly expanding across a range of boat markets over the last 5 years, Furuno Australia decided it was time step up their marketing initiative. Furuno Australia’s General Manager Ben Mudd explains.

“With the leisure, cruising, and sportsfishing markets all warming to more exotic electronics packages, it was time for a classy vessel to showcase the Furuno range on the water,” said Ben.

“Armed with a Helm Planner kit and tape measure, we went about finding the right boat during the Brisbane Boat Show and came up with a shortlist of contenders. Soon after, an order was made out to the team at CruiseCraft and the journey began.”

Based in Murarrie Queensland, Ben Mudd and his team are conveniently located near the CruiseCraft factory in Hemmant. As well as the advantage of proximity during the lengthy installation process, the new Furuno CruiseCraft partnership is based on a foundation steeped in marine heritage and quality.

“We were well aware of the rich history and quality reputation that CruiseCraft brings to our association,” said Ben

“We share similarities in that Furuno earned its strong reputation in the commercial market by building quality components to a standard, not a price. As a result, Furuno have won the best fish finder at the international NMEA annual awards for an unprecedented 35 years in a row. We believe all our markets will appreciate the quality of this boating package.“

The list of marine electronic equipment on the CruiseCraft 625 Explorer is nothing short of staggering. The Furuno package has no less than 5 transducers ranging from 600W to 2kW, 3 fish finders, a 10.4” Navnet VX2 Plotter/Radar system with Video in/out, ARPA, AIS receiver and Autopilot with Gyro stabilised heading sensor, all linked via Ethernet and/or NMEA. Icom communication and Clarion entertainment units are linked with the Furuno system including a DVD signal to the Plotter/Radar.

While this entire system would never realistically be found on one single trailerboat, the principle of having a full complement of marine electronics suited to a range of markets and applications on one boat, according to Ben, will work well for Furuno.

“This boat offers us a range of benefits. It will provide the perfect field-ready training platform for our sales reps, demonstrate Furuno’s capabilities to prospective commercial and trailerboat markets, assist both manufacturers and customers with installation solutions and support existing customers with real advice. Our CruiseCraft Explorer is also easily trailerable making it extremely portable to access boat shows, clubs and government agencies across Eastern Australia.”

Furuno Australia were also impressed with the manufacturing team at CruiseCraft who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the intricate fit-out process went smoothly.

“The Nichols family are quality people and went to great lengths to meet our every individual need on this project,” said Ben.

“No request was too hard and it was very helpful to be so close by during the construction process to oversee a lot of the technical installations. We are very much looking forward to demonstrating the capabilities of two big names in Australian boating.”

CruiseCraft is a wholly family owned, third generation Australian boat manufacturing business, operating from their Brisbane manufacturing facility. CruiseCraft boats are distributed exclusively through a network of Authorised Dealers throughout Australia and selected international markets.

For further information on this story contact:

Peter Benston
Sales & Marketing Manager, CruiseCraft
Tel (07) 3390 4877
Fax (07) 3390 5756
Email peterb@cruisecraft.com.au