(from an interview published in By The Dart Magazine July 2018)
August Race Dartmouth is a relatively new and local marine products business set up by husband and wife team, Peter and Sarah Wallbank. In three short years, its profile and reputation in the UK and overseas has grown markedly. We spoke with CEO and export director, Sarah Wallbank.
About us
We’re based at Dartside Quay in Galmpton. We work with some of the world’s best-known boat builders and marine organisations providing carefully engineered maintenance solutions to every section of the industry from RIBs to yachts and powerboats to SUPs and kayaks. Our products help clean and protect RIB tubes, gel coats, teak decks, marine glass, upholstery and protect your boat interior from mould over winter.
Do you have a background in the industry?
I previously worked in film production but got into the marine industry because we fulfilled my husband’s wish to move back to his home county of Devon to be by the sea.
Peter grew up by the sea and had been working inland in the non-marine chemical industry for 14 years and, upon returning to his hobby, he was wholly disappointed with the performance of the cleaning and maintenance products on the market. So we combined his technical knowledge with my background in design and August Race was founded in 2015.
We are a family business to our core - the company is named after our youngest son August and a lot of the company imagery features our elder son Oscar who has blond curly hair (but August never fails to enjoy pointing out that a lot of the shots of his elder brother are of the back of his head!)
What have been your proudest moments since you started?
Winning a British Marine Trade Award at the annual event in London for 2 years running. Peter won the Chairman’s special award in 2017, and I got a special mention in the Women in the Marine Industry award earlier this year.
We secured our first export deal with US marine industry giant Defender Industries in the States who gave our marker-leading rib tube cleaner the moniker ‘The Holy Grail of rib tube cleaners’.
We have developed products in conjunction with some of the world’s most respected boat builders and companies such as Cobra Ribs and Princess Motor Yacht Sales.
After extensive testing, August Race products have gained the coveted seal of approval from esteemed global gel-coat manufacturer Scott Bader (in one test of our gel-coat de-stainer, a panel was submerged for a full 30 days to check for degradation and it passed with flying colours).
We are stocked in over 200 independent chandleries throughout the UK and have a rapidly growing global network of distributors. We are at the forefront of innovation and constantly formulating new ground-breaking products.
Plans for the future?
We are in the final stages of developing our new clothing and accessory range and I am enjoying using skills from my previous career on this project and this will be launched at the Southampton Boat Show in September. In addition, we are busy working on a range of environmentally friendly hydro-phobic coatings too which we also intend to launch there.
August Race Dartmouth products are sold locally at Darthaven in Kingswear and Dartmouth Chandlery in Dartmouth.
Tel: 01803 224363
Unit 3, The Dart Building, Dartside Quay, Galmpton, Devon TQ5 0EH
