Business View Magazine - March 2016

74 Business View Magazine - April 2016 Business View Magazine - April 2016 75 “Yellow Jacket,” a wood-hull boat known for its speed and durability. The boats were assembled in Texas by the Yellow Jacket Boat Company, whose one-time, part-owner was the popular cowboy and TV star, Roy Rogers. “That’s how we got in the boating business,” says Youker. “And then, a guy by the name of Bob Ham- mond ran into my father. He and three other guys were beginning to build one of the very first fiberglass boats called the ‘Glastron.’” Hammond and his partners, Bill Gaston, Bob Shoop, and Guy Woodward, founded the Glastron Boat Company in Austin, in 1956; the firm eventually became one of the largest boat manufactur- ers in the world. “We were one of the very first to have fiberglass boats back in the mid ‘50s,” says Youker. Rob joined the company and took over the San Benito store in 1972, after graduating from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in marketing. He explains how The Sportsman soon began to concentrate only on selling shallow water boats, developing a niche market ideally suited to the region’s particular aquatic charac- ter. “Well, people, at the time, were catching fish, but they had to walk quite a ways out on the shallow flats to get out to the fish,” he says. “So, a guy in Harlingen, Rem Elmore, a cabinet maker and fisherman, got his buddies together and, in his shop, they built one of the first ‘scooters.’ “A scooter was a 12-foot piece of plywood that had sides on it and was turned up in the front. They put a small console on the middle of it, installed a little 25-horsepower engine on the back and they would lean the boat to turn it – they didn’t even use the mo- tor’s tiller. And that was the first boat to get these guys back on the flats, and that’s how we started in shallow water boats in the area. A few years later, a local boat manufacturer built the first fiberglass one. “Today, we’ve evolved from that little homemade ply- wood scooter into what we have now: a specially de- signed technical boat that skims across eight to ten inches of water. Our top of the line 25-foot boat with nine-foot beam sells anywhere from $75,000, all the way to $120,000, depending on how you equip it. It rides like a dream; it goes shallow; it’s dry; it has all the bells and whistles you could ever want on a boat. So, we’ve gone from the scooter to this sophisticated fishing machine and everything in between. We sell shallow water flats boats, specifically made for the Texas Gulf Coast. The majority of our market is sports fishermen.” Today, The Sportsman sells three different lines of shallow water boats, all of which are manufactured regionally on the Gulf Coast. A fully equipped 18’ flats rig starts at under $35,000 and can fish up to four fishermen. The dealership’s main supplier is Shal- low Sport Boats, a 32 year old boat manufacturer run by another 3rd generation owner, Wes Hudson, and located a mere 35 miles from San Benito. Shallow Sports unique “quadrahedral” hull displaces water un- der the boat rather than outward. Because of its dis- tinctive hull design the Shallow Sport far outperforms other boats in terms of shallow water hole shots, sta- bility, and smooth and dry ride. The two 3rd genera- tion owners joined forces in early 2000, with shared philosophies that have served them well. “That’s key – to bring two highly respected companies together though branding,” says Youker. “It’s a very powerful market tool that brings significance and exposure to both companies.”