FC Management managing director Matthew Bayles said that the 24-metre vessel had been under construction for about two months and would carry up to 300 tonnes of cargo.

"When we finished the last one, Captain Bill, we sold it pretty easily, so we just started building another one. We build them for something to do - we might keep it and we might sell it, " he said.

"We were doing six a year for a while, but lately it's about one every two years.

"We've got to have a certain number of people here for maintenance with the Flinders Island (shipping) trade.

"We build the boats when they're not doing maintenance.

"It keeps them in a job.

"I've got a got team of blokes out the back that I've got to keep working.

"We built a warehouse in Launceston last year and the fellows in the workshop did all that."

Years in the shipbuilding trade have not dulled Mr Bayles's sense of humour, as The Examiner soon discovered when it asked how many people worked at the facility. "About half of them."

"There's about 12 blokes in the workshop and 30 altogether, counting the boat crews."