2005 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE: FRANK SIMPSON
A South island man, Frank Simpson built up a business that today continues in family ownership. In 2005 the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show acknowledged his efforts by bestowing on him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Simpson originally built R Class cats and wooden trailers in his mother’s garage in the early 1950s. Simpson sailed in the Olympic trials in both NZ and Australia in 1954. He later traveled to Germany and saw fiberglass being used in manufacturing and subsequently, in 1957, started building shower tubs and washtubs in mother’s garage.
Simpson formed Fi-Glass in 1958 and built the first Fi-Glass Fisherman in 1959. He truly revolutionised production boatbuilding in this country.