Chris Spriggens – Diversity of journey matched by devotion to the brand
Chris Spriggens started the conversation by stating that he was going to, “Leave everything in Ross Willaton’s Staff Profile exactly the same, except for his name, when he got injured, and replace mechanic with boatbuilder.”
Truth of it is that Chris was part of the original five that got Maritimo underway back in 2003. “There was Bill Barry-Cotter, Gary Hewson, Phil Fraser, Martin Lewis, and myself when we built the plugs for the original 60. When this was complete, I ventured off to an overseas project. After a couple of years, I returned to build the race boats.”
“Those next years included time in England, Norway, Italy, and Doha repairing them after accidents. Returning back here in Australia in between trips, I subsequently ran R&D for a while. There is a lot we learned from racing that did and still does go into production today. It includes things like ride, which translates into a comfortable time at the helm, as well as strength and efficiency.”
“At the time of the GFC I headed off again overseas to do my own thing once more. I ended up in American Samoa building a 100-foot, high spec, carbon fibre canoe of all things, which was a flagship for one of their annual Flag Days for all the different villages.”
Returning again, Spriggens went back to head R&D at Maritimo, and this tenure also included time running the CNC machine, before becoming the Production Manager at the then new Coomera facility. It was about this time that he got his Maritimo-exclusive nickname, Spriggo, which has stayed with him to today. As the number of boats being constructed each grew, so too did the hours, and a few years back Spriggens sought to dial his duties back to something more manageable. This saw him move to the Hope Island facility.
Most recently he has had a customer facing role for Australia and New Zealand, which includes a bit of travel, and managing a lot of people with a vast array of skills. No doubt, Spriggens’ efforts here are why so many owners speak so highly of Maritimo service and all it stands for.
The reduction in work hours may not have gone exactly to plan, so after five years performing this crucial role, Spriggens is going back to Coomera to utilise his wealth of knowledge across so many roles/duties/decades. This critical role for new product development will ensure things created in R&D have the maximum applicability and ease of incorporation into production.
No doubt this will be right in Spriggens’ wheelhouse, and it set to be no more than four days a week, which is bound to be a delight to the devoted Maritimo man who does not want to stop anytime soon. It is definitely going to utilise all of his skills and will allow for what looks good on a screen to actually be made in real life, and most of all, get the job done properly.
Given that the Gold Coast is a nexus to this journey, you could think that Spriggens was born there. However, to once again highlight the incredibly diverse journey, Spriggens was actually born in India to British parents. He spent time between the two countries until he as about six years of age when the family went to New Zealand, which is where Spriggens did all of his schooling and most importantly, that boatbuilding apprenticeship.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school. My dad was dragging me around all these different factories, asking if I wanted to do this, wanted to do that, and nothing took my fancy. One night I came home from school and dad said I have got you a boatbuilding apprenticeship and you start next week and that was the beginning. We lived just up the road from the water. So, on most nights when I’d get home from school, I’d just wheel my boat down the road into the water and go sailing for an hour or so after school. And then go racing most weekends.”
“The shed I started my career in is now a historical site, all part of the America’s Cup zone in Auckland. I did a lot of boatbuilding there and overseas when a mate came to New Zealand and said, ‘I need you to build me a boat.’ He was managing Dick Johnson’s race car team at the time. I was married, my wife was pregnant with our daughter, had a young son already, and just said ‘Yes!’ Thing was, he needed it done in Australia. I came to Australia, and never went back.”
The boat Spriggens was building was a Scott Robson powercat. That was up in Acacia Ridge, where Johnson’s HQ was. As it turns out, there was another Robson powercat being constructed on the Gold Coast by Phil Fraser. Fraser chased Spriggens to work for him in the end, and it was Fraser who got Spriggens into the Maritimo fold by virtue of his longstanding friendship with Bill Barry-Cotter. When Fraser passed away, it was Spriggens who took over the Production Manager’s role.
The amazing diversity of tasks over such a long journey to date has seen Spriggens build boats in single skin caulked hulls, then we went diagonal planking, next was cedar core, followed by foam core, and ultimately, we went to carbon fibre and vacuum bagging.
As such, there are not only the skills, but enduring memories from such a long tenure. “Probably one of my favourite memories was when we were building the first 60. Bill was sitting on top of the upside-down hull towards the bow, and he and Martin Lewis were cutting the bow thruster tunnel in. Bill’s up there with a jigsaw, and the two of them were creating this hole, trying to get the tube through. That’s a memory I’ll never forget. It typifies that Bill out there doing it, and he’s going to make it happen by hook or by crook.”
“You know, he owns the company, and yet there he is, sitting with a jigsaw, covered in all manner of stuff and dust, getting into it. It was all lined up by laser in the finish.”
“Any company is always going to have issues that come up with any new product, but it’s how those issues are dealt with that the customer remembers. Throughout the whole time, and in all the different areas, this is what we aim to do and what the customers say to us. It is why they stay with us for multiple boats. That is pretty positive stuff when you’re out on the tools making it all happen and creating owner’s dreams,” added Spriggens.
Maritimo have the actual staff who built the boat on the craft at boat shows to show people through. Spriggens was on board an M70 at Sanctuary Cove one year, and a guest came up and said, ‘Hello Bill, how are you going?’ I said, “Sorry. I am not Bill, and the guy went off through the boat happily. A couple of hours later, another guy comes up and said, ‘Hey Bill. I know you from here and there.’ To which I said, as much as I’d like to be Bill, I’m actually not Bill. It has happened again and again over the years. So much so that I have just slotted in and played along. Even as recently as last week, some new customers were collecting their boat and said, ‘Are you Bill?’ So don’t be surprised if you hear me say, yes, and then carry on regardless…”
