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White yachts moored in a calm marina at first light

A lifelong love of boats, and the skill to care for them

Shipwright and boat repairs in the Illawarra. Callum Ashdown is a qualified shipwright with 30 years in composites, caring for gelcoat, fibreglass and carbon fibre in his Port Kembla workshop or at your boat.

Call Callumon 0491 573 770 Describe the damage
Callum Ashdown, shipwright

Callum Ashdown, qualified shipwright

Callum's love of boats started with his grandfather, sailing dinghies on Lake Illawarra and building them together. It became a lifetime at the trade.

He built production catamarans and race yachts in Sydney, specialising in resin infusion, and spent a few seasons repairing charter fleets in the Whitsundays. He then set up Fifth Wave Marine and opened his own workshop in Port Kembla.

He still sails catamarans himself, so he knows what a boat means to the person who owns it: the weekends, the races, the early starts on still water. Yours gets the care he would give his own.

A weathered hand resting on a varnished timber tiller out on the water

Repairs and builds

Fibreglass and composite boats of every size, from everyday scuffs to deep gouges and collision damage.

Not only boats. Callum also does fibreglass and gelcoat work on caravans, ute trays, commercial tanks, water slides, ice boxes, moulding and custom builds.

  • A rotary polisher bringing white gelcoat on a boat hull up to a mirror gloss

    Gelcoat repairs and restoration

    Scratches, chips, gouges and fading repaired, and fresh gelcoat applied, then cut and polished until the repair disappears into the finish around it.

  • Gloved hands brushing resin into fibreglass tape along the joint between a transom and hull

    Structural composite repairs

    Hulls, decks and keels: holes and cracks from a collision, grounding or age, soft spots and delamination in the deck, and osmosis dried out, repaired and sealed.

  • Gloved hands smoothing carbon fibre cloth into the curve of a part

    Custom carbon fibre parts

    Tillers, bowsprits, rudder stocks, dash panels and more, laid up to suit the boat, and broken carbon parts rebuilt.

From trailer boats to caravans

Callum works on every kind of boat, and on fibreglass that never goes near the water.

  • Hands sanding a faired repair on the stern of a small fishing boat on its trailer, beside the outboard and rod holders

    Fishing and trailer boats

    Knocks from the ramp and the trailer, hulls and transoms.

  • A small cabin cruiser on its trailer with fresh fibreglass laminated into a repair on the bow, resin cup and roller beside it

    Cabin cruisers

    Hulls, decks, soft spots and tired gelcoat.

  • Gloved hands spreading filler over a repaired crack in the fibreglass corner of a caravan

    Caravans

    Cracked and damaged fibreglass panels and corners.

Done properly, you can't find the repair.

Fibreglass work is patient work. Damaged laminate is cut back to sound glass, rebuilt layer by layer, faired until the light runs true along the hull, then finished to match the gelcoat around it.

From trailer boats to yachts and racing catamarans, every repair gets the same patience.

How a fibreglass repair comes together

Every job is different, but a structural repair is done in the same order. Skip a step and it shows, sooner or later.

  1. Damaged fibreglass being ground back to a clean taper on a white hull

    01

    Cut back to sound glass

    Damaged and wet laminate is ground away and the edges are tapered, so the new glass has a broad, clean surface to bond to.

  2. Fibreglass cloth wetted out with resin and rolled into a tapered repair

    02

    Rebuild the laminate

    New glass goes in layer by layer and is rolled out with resin, putting back the strength that was lost rather than just filling the hole.

  3. A long sanding board fairing a filled repair on a hull

    03

    Fair it

    The area is filled and long-boarded until it runs true with the rest of the hull, checked by eye in raking light.

  4. A hand running along a finished, glossy white hull to check it by feel

    04

    Gelcoat and finish

    Fresh gelcoat goes on and is wet-sanded and polished back to a gloss. The last check is by hand.

“Callum sorted out a soft patch in the floor of our half cabin and matched the gelcoat so well I can’t find where he worked. Kept me posted the whole way.”
Russell Kinnane, half-cabin owner

The workshop in Port Kembla

4/18 Keelson Place
Port Kembla NSW 2505

A secure, undercover workshop with room for boats on their trailers and the machinery to do the job properly. Open Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm. If the boat can't come to Callum, he can come to the boat.

Get directions in Google Maps
Fibreglass cloth, carbon twill, laminating rollers and resin cups on a workbench

Let's get your boat back on the water

Whatever the damage, the first step is a conversation. Call Callum to talk through what your boat needs.

Call Callumon 0491 573 770 Send the details

Questions boat owners ask

If yours isn't here, call Callum on 0491 573 770.

Can Callum come to the boat?

Yes. As well as the undercover workshop in Port Kembla, Callum offers a mobile service. Call to talk about where the boat is and what it needs.

Can you make a part rather than repair it?

Yes. Callum makes custom carbon fibre parts, including tillers, bowsprits, rudder stocks and dash panels, and takes on moulding and custom builds.

What about osmosis and soft decks?

Both are structural repairs Callum carries out. Osmosis in a fibreglass hull is dried out, repaired and sealed with protective coatings; soft spots and delamination in a deck are cut out and rebuilt.

How do I get a price?

Call Callum on 0491 573 770, or use the form below to tell him what the boat is, where the damage is and how it happened. Every job starts with a conversation about what you need.

Tell Callum about the boat

A call is the quickest way to talk it through. Or send the details here, with what the boat is and what happened.

0491 573 770

Email callum@fifthwave.com.au

Workshop 4/18 Keelson Place, Port Kembla

Hours Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm