From backyard shed to big success

The idea of craftsmanship is synonymous with the perception of superyachts, from exquisite details in interior finishing to handcrafted, one-off pieces of furniture and bespoke fabrics and textiles. Even the construction of a superyacht, from the engineering of the platform to the installation of the systems, is a masterclass in the highest level of tradesmanship. It’s an industry that sets standards and which keeps rare skills alive for future generations to learn and to enjoy.

For Mathew and John Hornsby, the yacht and superyacht industry has helped them turn fine woodworking into a global business – the brothers are the founders of Williams Jet Tenders which, over the past two decades, has grown to become one of the world’s leading suppliers of yacht and superyacht tenders.

It didn’t exactly start out like that, however. “Like all good businesses, we started in an actual garden shed,” begins Mathew Hornsby. “John and I are practical people and we always enjoyed boating on the River Thames or up in the UK’s Lake District, so there were a few ingredients already in place. We both went to university and studied non-boating stuff, but we always had this interest in building and creating things which came through our father, who loved his woodworking and craftsmanship.”

This led to the brothers starting a project – to build a wooden boat in a shed in the garden of the family home, in the heart of middle England just south of Oxford. Their inspiration came from classic US lake boats and the iconic Rivas of the 1950s and 1960s, and the result was a stunning, classic wooden speedboat which they called the Tahoe 20. It was the end of the 1990s, and along the way their parents remortgaged their house to support the siblings. “So we have these roots of starting with nothing,” Hornsby says.

With the boat built, it was time to crane it out of the back garden and onto the water. It quickly garnered rave reviews and admiring gazes, but the process had the brothers thinking. “Those wooden boats absorb so much time and money – that’s why we had to remortgage the house,” Hornsby explains. “We enjoyed building boats and we were pretty good at it, but could we make any money? We quickly realised that unless we wanted a small, classic boat business – which was pretty fragile – the labour involved was prohibitive.”

At this point, around the turn of the millennium, the brothers’ path took an unexpected turn thanks to boat industry connections and some meetings at the London Boat Show. “It’s all about people, and it’s all about connections,” Hornsby asserts. “And it’s all about chance encounters and putting your foot forward – and then doors can open. Be confident enough to shake someone’s hand and you never know what might happen.”

They realised there was a gap in the market for small, waterjet-powered tenders. “So we started to build a little jet tender and sourced an engine from South Carolina in the US – we flew to the swamps and found this backwoods company, because we didn’t have access to the mainstream engine builders,” says Hornsby. “But it got us started.” From those humble beginnings their company grew, attracting investment from serial yacht owner Ray Parker, and developing a range of GRP waterjet RIBs that have become an industry standard. Today, Williams Jet Tenders employs 140 people and produces around 1,100 boats per year which can be found on yachts from 40 feet to 40 metres.

It speaks to a growing sector of the superyacht market, in which small boats play as important a role as the mother ship. Indeed, there’s an entire global industry just building tenders, runabouts and RIBs for yachts and superyachts, from established names producing more standardised series models to fully bespoke tender companies whose exquisitely crafted, million-dollar tailored creations often mirror the smallest styling details of the superyachts they serve.

While the Hornsby’s boats may be different to the original wooden runabouts they built in the garden shed, the ethos of the company remains the same, and the Hornsbys have stayed true to their roots. The factory is located just six miles from the original garden shed, and its impact on the local economy is significant. “We’re on the edge of a village called Berinsfield, and it’s essentially an overspill estate from Oxford, with low aspirations as a community,” says Hornsby. “We’re the biggest business here – we employ probably 20 to 30 people from the village itself, with the rest from the surrounding area, and we sponsor the community centre. We also have an apprenticeship scheme and we’re always keen to bring on young, talented people.”

As for the craftsmanship that went into those first wooden boats? While the nature of their boatbuilding might be different now, that eye for detail and desire to inspire craft in others is still as strong as ever. “Come 5.30pm when there’s no one here, we’re out looking at what has been built, having a look underneath bits,” he smiles. “We’re an owner-run business and we’ve got a history and background, and that’s a culture that’s fairly easy to maintain because we’re here every day and this is our life.

“We need to be proud of what we build here, and we need to be able to say ‘that’s a Williams and it has been built correctly, and we haven’t cut any corners’,” he continues. “We try to instil that in our apprentices and get them thinking the same way. I think David Beckham bought one of our boats out in Miami last year, and that’s worth telling the guys and girls in the workshop because that really means something to them, that they made that boat and now David and Victoria and the kids might be out on it.” It’s also, as it turns out, a neat metaphor for the importance of what companies in the yacht industry like Williams are doing. It’s a small thing relatively, but the impact it has on people’s lives and families – even the Beckhams – can be huge.