About Us
Hidden in the back of beyond by the Kaipara river...
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MCN Shipwrights Ltd. is a small family business. Most of the work is carried out by boatbuilders Marco Scuderi, while painters and other contractors are employed as needed.
The company was born in Okahu Bay in 2008; we were working there on our own boat, while on the public hardstand, when the neighbouring boat owners asked for some modifications to be done to their boats. Having just resigned from Salthouse Boatbuilders, Marco jumped at the opportunity; other boats followed and have not stopped since.
MCN stands for a Sicilian expression used in reference to a person who does his job properly and without fuss. We try to stand by our name!
Marco Scuderi
Marco was born in Sicily in 1974 and entered the Italian Navy aged 15, then studied geology and cartography at university in Italy, emigrating to New Zealand in 1997 where he did a Masters degree and worked for both North Shore and Palmerston North City Councils. Iin 2002, he took up a fellowship to do a PhD degree at the University of Maryland which he finished in 2005.
While in the States the love for wooden boats was rekindled because of a fortuitous meeting with master boatbuilder Paul Rollins during a schooner hunting trip to Maine. Inspired by Paul's orange stained jeans Marco then started an apprenticeship at the Alexandria Seaport Foundation in Virginia.
In 2006 Marco got homesick for this country , and Marco joined Salthouse Boatbuilders in Greenhithe where he completed his apprenticeship in conjunction with the Auckland Traditional Boatbuilding School. He has since finished a second apprenticeship in Marine Engineering with BITO, and has graduated from Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology in Bath, Maine, as Yacht Designer and Naval Architect.