CASINO founder, property developer and horse racing identity Lloyd Williams has a new toy - a 14-metre wooden boat built from scratch in Sorrento by the Wooden Boat Shop.

Named after one of Mr Williams' Melbourne Cup winners, Efficient was lifted onto a low loader and taken to the Sorrento-Queenscliff ferry early on January 15.

It was launched in Queenscliff harbour using the new travel lift and is undergoing sea trials.

It took Tim and Sally Phillips and their Wooden Boat Shop team about four years to complete the project. Efficient is powered by a 500-horsepower Yanmar diesel.

Wooden Boat Shop has evolved from a purpose-built facility for couta boat construction to a complete facility for wooden boat maintenance, restoration and construction.

Tim Phillips has been "messing about" in boats off the southern peninsula since childhood. After working in the family building business he realised a lifelong dream to build wooden boats when he started working with renowned fisherman and boat builder Jack Norling and then with the legendary Ken Lacco.

Mr Phillips is regarded as the man who helped revive the unique Australian couta boat, only two of which sailed Port Phillip when the boatbuilder was a young man.

Hoofnote: Mr Williams and his wife Suzy have won three Melbourne Cups with Just A Dash (1981), What A Nuisance (1985) and Efficient (2007).