Thomas Woo of Hong Kong dealership Absolute Marine will never forget his overwhelming first impressions when he visited the then-new Absolute 45 Fly at the 2013 Cannes Yachting Festival. “I was really amazed,” Woo enthusiastically recalls. “I couldn’t believe how much room there was in a small boat – it was designed to be very functional. I fell in love with that flybridge 45.”
After examining the boat, Woo immediately went to meet Cesare Mastroianni, then Sales Manager for Absolute and now the company’s Chief Commercial Officer and Vice-President of Sales.
“I told him that I thought such a beautiful boat with a great use of space would be very suitable for Hong Kong,” Woo says.
Woo ordered the 45 Fly as a stock boat to sell in Hong Kong, an inspired step that would ultimately lead to him becoming the brand’s exclusive dealer in the city and beyond.
When Woo took delivery in 2014, having been on a long waiting list for the popular new model, he quickly attracted interest from would-be owners. They started placing orders in the same year and he established Absolute Marine after he was appointed the sole distributor for Greater China.
A LIFE AQUATIC FROM A YOUNG AGE
No stranger to boating, Woo had taken his first foray into motoryacht ownership at the age of 25, while studying computer science at university in the US. He bought a 28ft Chris-Craft stern-drive cabin cruiser.
“It had two 230hp gasoline engines which gave me lots of problems. I couldn’t afford to get help, but was quite technically minded, so I learned to solve these and do other repairs over a few years and that made me more interested in how boats work. It had inboard engines, there was air-con and a generator, all things found on bigger boats.”
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