Rob O'Keeffe Joinery
Job profile: Annihilator repairs
Annihilator is a Grand Prix Hydroplane which has been competing for a few years now and is still going hard and strong. The boat has raced successfully in NZ and Australia and has held major trophies including AE Baker, Masport Cup, EC Griffiths and all available NZ National Titles at one time or another. Annihilator won the 2006 GP Hydroplane World Championship. at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand.
With the pressure of competition over the years, much of the hull has had to be rebuilt and replaced. In 2004 Rob and his team spent about two months on one particular repair job.
"The boat had been racing in the harbour at Dargaville and it either hit a wave, or something broke on the boat ... it was going about 250 km/hr at the time so the front of the boat dug into the water and things went very wrong... and a lot of damage was done." Rob O'Keeffe
"There was a lot of hours done on the job over that two month period. We had five guys working on it nearly full time, and a lot of us were doing well over 100 hours a week on it."
However the deadline was successfully met and Annihilator was back in the water racing on schedule.
