SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—A Filipino-owned firm in this free port has launched the first pleasure boat manufactured here, adding another dimension to Subic’s bid for maritime-hub status that has so far produced four container ships for export.

Australasia Marine Alliance Corp. (AMAC) is an “alternative” maker of recreational boats in the Philippines, according to Mustang Marine Australia Services Pty Ltd., the oldest and second largest boat builder in Australia.

AMAC produced the boat here in five months, said AMAC managing director Henry Co.

The pleasure craft is now ready to be shipped to its owner in Thailand, he added.

AMAC’s Mustang Marine 2800 Sports Cruiser is a 28-footer pleasure boat powered by a MerCruiser 5.0L MPI Bravo3 260-horsepower, 300-liter gasoline engine.

Co said it gave a “very impressive performance” during its recent sea trials and sliced through the water at a top speed of 30.4 knots, or 35 miles an hour.

“Mustang Marine general manager Chris Heaton came here to witness the trials and checked everything. And he was very impressed by the quality of the boat we made,” said Co.

The A$120,000 cruiser is the first of its model and one of the smallest boats built under the Mustang brand name, Co said.

“Yet it is practically a livable boat with superb craftsmanship and elegant designs found in its kitchen, toilet, bedroom and lounge,” he added.

AMAC received some technical assistance from Mustang Australia during the boat’s five-month production phase.

“We have to train people step by step, so production of the first boat took quite long,” Co explained. “But by the end of the year, we will gear up to about two to three units a month of this size,” he said.

Co earlier presented a prototype of the cruiser to SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga.

Salonga said the successful sea trial of the Mustang is a milestone for the free port’s bid to become a maritime hub in the Southeast Asia.

“There’s no doubt that other boat makers in Australia would want to see how the first boat that AMAC constructed in Subic with Filipino workers works. With proven high quality craftsmanship and competitive labor resource, I am confident that more orders will start coming in,” Salonga said.