John DeRooy known as "Dutch" has been in the marine industry for more than 34 years building boats. Dutch's previous shop was in Australia and his shop was opened in Canada in October 2008.
In 1992, Dutch began building in aluminum. He soon found himself branching out to all welded aluminum drift boats, rescue boats, tour boats, ski boats and pontoon boats. Dutch's development of his hulls came from a knowledge base gained from various forms of power boat racing, ski boats and offshore racing and hull performance.
Dutch has been involved in Jet Sprint Boat Racing in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America since 1989 when he started racing at the first purpose built tract in South Australia.
In 1995, a group of racers from the USA were invited to Australia to drive local boats at a race meeting and to introduce them to a purpose built course which was not available to them at that stage. In late 1995 Dutch built 8 hulls which were then named "Shotgun Sprinters" for the USA market. These boats were then shipped to the USA, where they were fitted out and many are still competing very successfully in 2009.
The first purpose course was built in Marsing, Ohio USA by JR Kent who owned a property on the edge of the Snake River. The first meeting was an International Invitation which was a prelude to World Series events. Over the following years Dutch's Shotgun hulls ran very successfully in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.
In 2004 Dutch closed his shop in Australia and moved to Canada. His plan was to slow down and he went to work for some companies building boats.
In early 2008, Dutch found himself missing the racing and building his own custom aluminum line of boats and in October 2008, he opened his shop in Port McNeill, B.C.
Dutch is once again applying his knowledge base to designing and building custom built aluminum boats to customers needs. He has been also designing and building his own line of aluminum trailers.
For Dutch, his world would not be complete without his aluminum Shotgun hulls for the Jet Sprint racing scene.
In 2009 Dutch found himself with a very interesting challenge. He was asked to put together a whale skeleton for the Whale Interpretation Center in Telegraph Cove, B.C. There are some interesting pictures on the project page.
