REVIVAL

Victorian boating icon, Sam Catanese’s latest venture, Revival Boats, celebrates 10 years of building Australia’s best value fibreglass all-rounders.

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Upon completion of his apprenticeship, and following several years on his own repairing and maintaining power boats and yachts, Sam established the iconic Aussie brand, Stejcraft in 1971. A hands on artisan, Sam immersed himself in all facets of the boat-building process helping to pioneer the fledgling Australian fibreglass boat-building industry in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

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In 2008, after almost 40 years at the helm, Sam passed Stejcraft on to his son, Tim, and embarked on a very brief (3-month) retirement. As the wake of the GFC saw a tsunami of cheap used imports flood the local market, Sam was roused to take up a new challenge. By harnessing his substantial experience, he developed a versatile range of value-conscious inshore and offshore craft that would help turn the tide and “revive” the ailing local boat industry. And so, Revival Boats was launched.

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The 2018 model range comprises variants to cater to most boating experiences. From the compact R525 Series with its remarkable ride, to the blue-water-oriented R640 OffShore, the Revival fleet which now includes the R530, R580 and R590 Series, has resonated with Aussie boating families.

Revival currently builds around three (3) hulls per week in its Melbourne facility making it one of the most prolific manufacturers of fibreglass trailer boats in Australia. Each hull is painstakingly hand-crafted to exacting specifications and unlike many brand owners, Sam proudly has his hands (literally) on every hull produced in his factory.

Revival’s guiding principal is to craft versatile boats for real-world boating families and each hull we hand-craft benefits from Sam’s 60-plus years of boat-building expertise.

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