oct-2017

154 155 last recession,of course,wasmuch deeper and lasted longer than anyone expected.Unfortunately for us, at the point that it struck,most of our customer base were folks that were developers and house builders, and theywere the hardest hit.If we had simplybeen dependent on newboat building,it would have been extremelydifficult for us to survive. “But our company is prettydiverse,as boating goes. We domanufacture sport fishing boats,but we’re also in the boat repair business; we service about a thousand boats a year and that has reallyhelped us get through some difficult times.In theworst of the recession,peopleweren’t doingmuchmaintenance on their boats,but theywere doing some.Our repair yard is capable of working on boats from20 feet to 140 feet in length,and our buildings allowus to put boats as large as 140 feet,inside,which gives us a veryunique capability,particularly in themid-Atlantic.That ability to feed on the others in the industrial park,towork backand forthwith customers,and to offer anynum- ber of types of repairs to their boats,certainlyhelped push us through that difficult time. “One other thing is we are also partners in a compa- JARRETT BAY BOATWORKS nycalled BlueWater Yacht Sales.We own half of that company.That company’s got nine offices across the mid-Atlantic,andwe represent about nine high-quality manufacturers,as well as brokers,andwe sell about 400 boats a year.So,between the newboat building, the boat repair work,and our sales organization,we of- fer every step in the boating industry–buying,selling, repairing,andmanufacturing.” BVM: Nowthat the good times have returned,is there anything newon your company’s agenda? Ramsey: “One thing on the front burner is we are going to launch a 90-foot boat,this fall,that we’ve beenworking on for about three years.Her name is Jaruco.She’s being built for a gentleman fromMassa- chusetts.This 90-footer is a boat that we believe is the most technologicallyadvanced sport fishing boat ever built.Almost everycomponent of the boat is closed cell foamand carbon fiber in order to reduceweight,right on down to having carbon fiber outriggers,and fishing chairs,and helmchairs,and hatches. “This boat has had significant amounts of testing done to the hull before it was built and even during the process,and it’s hadmore engineering than any customsport fishing boat ever built.We’ve had our three in-house engineers and architects working on it almost full-time; there’s been an outside propulsion engineer,an outsideweights engineer,and an outside materials engineer working on it,as well.This boat will be anABS (American Bureau of Shipping)-certified boat,one of,if not the only sport fishing boat that has gone down that route.And shewill have some tech- nology that has never been done before byanyof our competition in this particular segment of themarket. It’s reallybeen an amazing journey to tryand deliver