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About

Coromandel Marine is founded, owned and operated by me, Tom van Praagh. I have spent my life in and around boats. Over the last 20 years working in the marine industry, I have developed a broad skill set that enables me to design, build, operate and maintain almost any type of vessel.  

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My professional journey in the marine industry started in my teenage years working on pleasure craft. I have now worked on dozens of different vessels, from a 40-foot sail yacht to a 288-foot super yacht. When I wasn't at sea, my tertiary studies started with a Certificate in Boatbuilding - this gave me the perfect grounding for a Bachelor of Marine Design. After completing my studies, I worked as a designer at Yachting Developments (luxury composite boatbuilder) until I was headhunted to work in the design team at Southern Spars (the worlds leading spar maker and now Americas Cup-winning boat builder). 

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After a few years at Southern Spars, the call of the sea became too loud - I needed to go back. I returned to Europe to find work on boats again - yet, this time I was armed with my skipper's ticket and a string of other marine qualifications, and crucially, more experience.

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After thousands of miles at sea, numerous ports all over the world and countless memories - my thirties suddenly appeared on the horizon - so I decided to return to NZ to drop anchor and find a land-based marine industry role. I fortunately secured a job before I landed in NZ, for a company called Orakei Management Limited. At Orakei, I performed a number of different roles as the business grew and evolved. I started off as a detailer and progressed to Service Manager. It was a perfect environment to develop my knowledge on how to maintain, skipper and manage various types of pleasure craft.  

 

I have had a connection to the Coromandel since I was a little kid. I have early memories of fishing off Cooks Beach. Snapper fishing during the 80's and 90's in the Coro seemed so easy back then! As I hit my teens we would regularly head to the Coromandel for surf trips, dive missions, and for the summer holidays. As I got older my love for the Coromandel grew and my wife and I were lucky enough to buy our own slice of paradise in 2014. In 2022 we finally made the permanent shift to Tairua and our little family could finally call the Coromandel home.

 

The move to Tairua gave me the opportunity to combine my passion for the sea and my love of working on boats. Coromandel Marine was born.  
 

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