Anchors Aweigh

Diversity is not something that is often associated with boating and the boating industry. Many people have a stereotypical boater in mind, and I’m guessing as you read this you do too. One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the reach of boating is that so often, the way someone gets into boating in the first place is being exposed by family or close friends. If no one in your orbit is boating, you are much less likely to try it and pass it on to others. However, there are many people doing great work in bringing recreational boating, and the boating industry as a career, to new audiences. Willard Franklin, along with his wife, son and daughter, are working hard to help make boating and fishing more diverse, inclusive, and safe. As members of the Four W's Fishing Team, they work to build communities that support water health, fish, safety, and the joy of boating and fishing. The Four W's Fishing Team promotes the outdoors to elementary, middle school, high school, & college students preparing them for careers in the outdoors. You may also find them educating new and potential boaters at churches, car and boat shows, fairs, and even as a friendly face at the boat ramp! Willard and I discussed how fishing has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, how the Four Ws came about, some great boat safety tips, and much more (including of course who the best angler in the family is). Enjoy!

The boating industry has welcomed over 800,000 new boaters into the fold in the last couple of years and is hard at work reaching new, more diverse audiences to continue growing boating. As more and more people experience boating and boat ownership for the first time, it is incumbent on marine businesses to make sure that the boating experience is as headache-free as possible. One aspect of boat ownership that can be frustrating is not just the expense of service and maintenance, but the challenge in finding good service providers. One company looking to change that dynamic is SHIPSHAPE.PRO.   I got to speak with Merrill Charette, founder and CEO of SHIPSHAPE.PRO. While living on his sailboat the last 5 years, Merrill has launched several marine industry focused businesses, products, and even a podcast! Merrill’s Marine Industry Digital Agency helps marine businesses optimize their presence on the web. On the Shipshape podcast Merrill interviews top boating journalists, experts, and liveaboards exploring the many perspectives of life on the water and in the maritime industry. At SHIPSHAPE.PRO, Merrill is working to connect boat owners and service providers to reduce the friction of boat ownership and help boaters remain boaters for longer. Merrill was also inventor of the Dinghy Thingy which was featured at (and saved) the Newport Boat Show in 2019. We discussed life aboard a sailboat, how he got into the marine business, and much more, enjoy!

I love to mix in guests who may not be ‘in’ the boating industry but rather demonstrate to us what boating can enable. Stephen Ladd is an author and adventurer who certainly pushes the limits on where a boat can take you. In is mid-30s, Steve designed and built a 12-foot boat named Squeak and rowed and sailed her over 6500 miles over a three year journey, chronicling it in his book Three Years in a 12-Foot Boat. Nearly two decades later, Steve teamed up with his now-wife, Ginny, to spend five years on a 21-foot boat, traveling from Florida down through the Western Caribbean, navigating the river systems of South America, having a baby in Brazil and every kind of adventure you can imagine in between. They covered over 18,000 miles via sail, rowing, and motor in some of the later stages and visited almost 20 countries. Please Enjoy as Steve and I discuss his vessel, his journey, and the book it inspired, The Five-Year Voyage.

If you have seen a boat rising out of the water as it gets on plane and seemingly gliding above it, you have seen hydrofoiling in effect! Hydrofoils have been used in high technology applications like the Americas Cup races for years and have recently been applied to recreational craft including smaller runabouts and even surfboards! I have been interested in learning more about foiling on the water, why they are used, what benefits they provide, and how they work. Luckily, I had a chance to speak with Tom Ward, founder of Epoch Boats. Epoch Boats is helping usher in a new era in boating by building accessible hydrofoiling boats that are efficient, eco-friendly, and high performance. Their first class of boats is a skiff series that will be introduced in the middle of 2022. Tom broke into the marine industry as an engineer for SeaStar Solutions where he rose to Director of Engineering and managed a fleet of test boats. He transitioned to Lippert Components where he also held the role of Director of Engineering before deciding to strike out on his own. Tom has also served on the ABYC Tech Board and is a wealth of knowledge about everything that makes boats work. We talked about growing up around boats and sailing, his experiences at SeaStar and Lippert, I got a great education on hydrofoils, and we discussed what Epoch is coming to market with. Enjoy!

Think about your typical vehicle buying experience, whether it be car or boat. You research online, head to the showroom either eager to interact with a salesperson armed with all of your knowledge or dreading the back and forth, let me ask my manager negotiation. Some showrooms may stand out to you – well decorated, nice waiting room, great coffee, for me – an area to wait with kids toys. But the experience can often be….unremarkable. And when it comes to boats, something you are buying for the fun of it, the experience should be remarkable! Boats by George, located on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, is turning this typical shopping experience on its head and innovating the whole boat buying process. Boats By George is celebrating its 40th anniversary and represents esteemed brands like Cobalt, which they are a top 10 global dealer for, Chris Craft, Malibu, Axis, and Barletta Pontoons. With the recent purchase of a 50,000 square foot former event space, Boats By George is creating an immersive and interactive boat buying destination. I spoke to Adam Pensel, General Manager of Boats By George, about how this concept will redefine the showroom experience, bring new potential boaters into the mix, become part of the community, and bring back the joy in vehicle shopping. Adam worked his way up through the family business as a dockhand, delivery captain, salesperson and marketing lead prior to taking the GM role. We also spoke about his early days boating with his family then on his own by age 10, technology and connectivity trends in boating, the importance of safety and conservation, and much more. Fun fact, Adam’s grandfather owned the marina we currently own and operate. When we were renovating, we found his original deed, and saw the mortgage payment. That has gone up just a bit in the past 60 or so years… enjoy!

Making boating easier. Frictionless operation. Lowering the barrier to entry. Reducing the average age of the new boater. These are all goals that are being accomplished through the development and introduction of new and exciting on-board technologies. Connectivity is a major part of some of the largest marine companies in the world including Yamaha and Brunswick. We are all so used to living connected lives and expect that the things we use will ‘play along’. Our cars, our security systems, our fridges, all of these and other IoT enabled devices that make our lives easier are ubiquitous at home and at work….and soon on the water. Siren Marine has been providing boaters with peace of mind by connecting the boater to their boat with real-time monitoring. They want you to spend less time worrying about your boat and more time enjoying it. I recently spoke with Alex Puskar, the National Sales Director for Siren. We have started experimenting with Siren on some of our Freedom Boat Club boats and Alex has been a tremendous resource in getting us set up. Alex is an ABYC Certified Marine Electrician, ABYC certified marine diesel Technician, and a NMEA certified Marine Electronics Installer. He knows his stuff and you can tell. We discussed how he grew up boating and fishing, connected boating and how it helps the user experience, advice for getting started in boating and some other ways in which the industry is appealing to the next generation of boaters. Oh yeah, and this conversation happened days before the HUGE announcement that Yamaha was acquiring Siren, so although that partnership is mentioned, Alex did a great job not blowing his cover and letting the cat out of the bag early. Enjoy!

It is an incredibly exciting time in the boating industry. We have seen two years of record sales, dealers are selling production slots because they can’t get inventory fast enough, more Americans than ever are enjoying time on the water with family and friends, and the pace of innovation continues to accelerate which is providing a better and more frictionless boating experience. Within the innovation category, electric propulsion is experiencing an influx of investment, and new motor options are steadily hitting the market. General Motors recently invested $150 million into Pure Watercraft. ePropulsion just announced a Series B raise in the tens of millions of dollars. Arc electric boats has raised over $30 million with investors including actor Will Smith, music mogul Sean Combs, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Torqeedo continues to impress, recently winning METSTRADE’s Boat Builders Award in collaboration with Groupe Beneteau’s Excess brand and mobility technology company ZF. I enjoyed speaking recently with Ben Sorkin, founder of Flux Marine. Ben grew up boating on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, which has me even more excited about what he is doing. Ben has been able to merge his passion for boating with his passion for tinkering into an exciting start up career. After stints interning at Tesla and working full time designing electric systems at Navatek, plus a decade of planning and researching electric motors on his own, Ben co-founded Flux Marine with the goal of revolutionizing electric propulsion in the marine environment. It was a great time to catch up with Ben as he and his team recently took home two big awards at the Newport boat show, Best Green Product and the Best New Boating Operation, Maintenance or Safety Product. Ben and I discussed how he got his boating and fix-it start, the benefits and challenges of electric boating, we got into the weeds a bit about battery technology and talked about the power their outboards will be brining to the market. Full disclosure, I am an investor in Flux marine and will be purchasing one of their motors to use in our Freedom Boat Club fleet this coming year. Enjoy the conversation!

We have seen technological advancements drive tremendous change in the boating world. Most prominently, these new technologies have improved the boats themselves – more on-board electronics and capabilities, better boat building processes and materials, connected apps and more. But outside the boats, technology is helping the businesses who enable boating – marinas! One such area is marina management software. What was once (and still, often, is) done with pen and paper and endless file folders can now be streamlined in a do-it-all marina software suite. Slip reservations, service work orders, inventory management, invoicing, and more are available at the tips of our fingers. This improves the efficiency of the business, surely. But is also improves the boating experience for the customer with easier tracking of billing, online payments and reservations, and the ability to quickly pull up a service history on a boat. I recently spoke with Lucas Isola, founder of Molo (disclosure: we use Molo as our marina management service provider), a management platform for marina businesses. When Lucas saw a marina owner struggling to keep track of their business, he combined his lifelong passion for boating and deep tech background in the medical industry to try to solve this problem. The result, Molo, is an iPad and web-based software that helps marine businesses gain efficiency and offer new levels of customer service. We discuss how software is helping boaters and marina owners, his life in boating, how he got his family into boating, and more. Enjoy!

There have been some extremely exciting developments in the electric boating space in the past year. PURE Watercraft raised over $37million to continue their expansion. Vision Marine had a successful IPO. Torqeedo delivered its 100,000th motor. And a variety of smaller companies are making strong plays as the space grows. While the momentum is exciting, it is clear there is still a long way to go to make electric a widely adopt way to power a boat. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graham Balch, Managing Broker of Green Yacht Sales. Graham is an avid sailor and joined the boating industry after stints as a consultant, educator, getting his MBA and then shifting course and starting in the brokerage business before launching his own venture. Before striking off on his own, Graham distinguished himself in the brokerage world with a variety of performance awards, including Highest number of sailboat sales out of 300 sales reps nationwide. Green Yachts began in 2019 and is dedicated to supporting the electric boating community on the water by selling, servicing, and advocating electric powered boats. Green Yachts aspires to helping customers who want the benefits of electric propulsion while enjoying inspiring, well-made, award-winning boats. I learned a lot from Graham and love his strategy of making sure people who do go electric are successful with it. This means making sure they have not only the right motor, but the right boat, the right technical skills, and the right expectations. Graham and I discussed what drove him to focus on electric boating, design and technological advances and needs, what consumers can look for in the future, and more. Enjoy!

In the five years I have spent as part of the boating industry, I have often tried to put into words how impactful boating can be for creating memories, sharing experiences, and just spending quality time with family and friends enjoying the beauty of being on the water. In that time, I don’t think I have ever done it as effectively as Jesse Simpkins does day in and day out. Jesse is the Director of Marketing for St. Croix Rods and was recently named the Chairman of the Board of the American Sportfishing Association. You can tell even from this short conversation that Jesse eats, sleeps and breathes fishing, and loves sharing it with others. From conservation efforts to ensure strong fisheries, to improving rod technology making the experience more enjoyable, access to fishing is a major focus for Jesse in both his product and advocacy roles. We discussed Jesse’s first fishing experiences on a farm pond, his evolution into the serious angler he is today, great products coming out of St. Croix (and what goes into them), and some of the important advocacy issues the industry is tackling around Conservation. Enjoy!