MasterTech Marine Ltd's Karl Rastrick says people are coming out in their hundreds to investigate the boating scene in Tauranga.

At a boating open day held at Tauranga Bridge Marina, Karl and his team were giving the public an opportunity to test drive aluminium hull boats and a range of engines.
Karl says the Evinrude E-Tec engines are becoming very popular and developing into an 'iconic brand”. This was evident by Karl's estimate of about 250 people coming to the open day to test drive them on Extreme boats.
He was surprised by this and says it goes against the grain of what many people think about the state of the economy.
'There's plenty of talk in the media about people not spending, but people seem to be thinking about summer and getting out in a boat.”
Karl says business is good and there is wide interest in boating from different parts of the country.
'Most people today were from Tauranga but there were some from Auckland and even from as far away as Taranaki.”
It's not just New Zealanders showing interest in recreational boating either. Karl says there are a large number of migrants who look to enjoy boating in New Zealand as it may have been too expensive for them in their native country.
'I have had sales to British, Irish and South Africans recently and even to an Indian couple,” says Karl.
Along with these first timers from overseas, Karl says there is also a growing interest by New Zealanders to enjoy leisure boating. He says this was apparent at the open day with a recognisable number of Kiwi novices.