| Petecraft started in a family of
boat builders with the first boat built by Peter Aquilina in
1958. Peter’s skills came from his father who used to
work on British Navy ships during the Second World War. Initially
Peter was building traditional Maltese wooden boats such as
the Luzzu, the Kajjik and the Fregatina. He used to design the
boat based on small wooden models which he designed himself
to scale. In the early 80s he built his biggest vessel –
a 58 foot fishing boat that is still being used today.
In the mid 80s Petecraft started to build boats using fiberglass.
At first, the Maltese were very skeptical about the benefit
of using this new material, but today no one questions the
benefits. Petecraft occasionally still builds wooden boats
for collectors.
Peter’s three sons, Mario, Simon and Christian used
to help their father for the early days. As they grew up their
influence in the company increased and apart from the traditional
boats, Petecraft started to spend more time and energy building
more modern boats based on a completely different hull designs.
The result is the Fast Fisher range of multipurpose boats
from 13 up to 40 feet. It is today one of the leading models
in its class in Malta.
Today the company is run by Mario, Simon and Christian. From
the humble manufacturing of 3-4 boats during the 80s, Petecraft
is today producing around 30 boats per year.
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