For a state that has 105 km long coastline and a boomingtourism industry, life-saving boats can always come handy.
All of 45, Ratnaker Dandekar from Divar saw many touristsvisiting the state get consumed by the treacherous waters of the sea. Knowingthe thrills of the sea Ratnaker decided to launch into boat building.
Aquarius Fibre Glass Pvt Ltd owned by Ratnaker Dandekar hasbeen into boat building since 1996 in Divar.
“The sea teaches me to deal with life and business,” smilesRatnaker, who is an Instrumentation Engineer from Pune University.
But why boats? Dandekar’s father, late Sharad Dandekar, wasa Naval architect. A pioneer in fibre glass product manufacturing, way back in1973, late Sharad started building boats at Bastora on partnership basis.
When the partnership closed in 1992, Ratnaker started hisown unit at Cuncolim Industrial Estate and the idea of Aquarius Fibre Glass wasborn.
“We have built some 350 odd boats of various sizes “ from5.5 feet to 13 feet in length till date,” says Ratnaker.
There are two life-saving boat building companies “ one inChennai on the East coast and the other is Ratnaker’s in Goa on the West Coast.
“Life-saving boats have a very special market. We have tofollow international standards. Ours is life-time guarantee,” Ratnaker said.
Apart from boatbuilding Ratnaker caters to other needs of sailors and prototyping work for seamen.He is involved in innovative projects like fast rescue boats and petrol boats.
He also made a small boat ‘Pasai daan’ of 10 mt length forGIDC, 12 big boats of 20 metre length “ passenger vessels “ for Keralagovernment and 30 boats of 13 mt for Goa Shipyard.
Ratnaker’s company also deals in buoyant apparatus,motorboats, nautics and fast interceptors.
“We are also interested in building boats for oceansailing,” Ratnaker said and expressed his desire to start a trainingassociation for sailing in Goa.
