A region on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, Hawkes Bay fronts the might of the Pacific and Southern Oceans. There’s nothing but waves and wild water between it and the next land mass, South America, more than 6,000 nautical miles away.
This is the home of Senator, Alloy Chamber Boats that are shaped by their rugged environment. Built incredibly tough, every Senator is engineered to explore, in all conditions, and always return safely to shore.
Established in 1996, Senator is now the country’s second largest chamber boat designer and manufacturer. Its commitment to safety and performance, in some of the planet’s most challenging conditions, informs everything about the boats and their mission – to rule the sea.
Built with passion
As an early pioneer of alloy chamber boats, we’ve continually evolved and refined our boats to meet the ever changing needs of New Zealand boaties.
Senator is well proven in our most rugged environments and delivers a build and ride quality second to none.
In 1997, avid fisherman and expert aluminium fabricator Wayne McKinley had a lofty idea – to design and build New Zealand’s best aluminium chamber boats. With a clear focus to deliver unsurpassed value, quality and safety, and by continually listening closely to user feedback, this idea quickly became a reality.
Building enduring relationships with respected and trusted marine dealerships throughout New Zealand, has enabled Senator to focus on what we do best – build awesome boats.
Wherever you go in New Zealand you’ll find Senators being enjoyed – from commercial fishing charters to coastguard through to keen recreational users. It’s fair to say (well our loyal users tell us this every day) that the boats we build at Senator lead the way in aluminium chamber boats.
We do our best to put our customers first – after all, without em we’d be buggered.
Our guys put in the hours and rise to the challenge, so when the fishing’s good we get amongst it.
It’s not a job for us, it’s our life – we know how boaties tick because we’re boaties too.
Everyone here knows where we’re going, we’re in this together, we have fun, but we work bloody hard.
We are honest kiwis striving to do the right thing by our boat owners, our dealers and our team.
The Senator Way
What this means for you
Underpinning our whole operation are a series of well thought out, tried and true processes designed to deliver market leading boats that balance cost with benefit.
Our mindset of continual innovation, lean manufacturing paired with a positive and productive Team culture, gives us the ability to constantly improve and hone our skills and ultimately building better, safer and more comfortable boats for kiwi boaties.