Speed On The Water

To borrow—and bastardize—from Mark Twain, reports of Eliminator Boats’ demise have been “greatly exaggerated.” That doesn’t mean things have been easy for the Perris Valley, Calif., builder of West Coast custom performance boats. Far from it. For the past two years, Bob Leach, the founder and owner of the company, has been working seven days a week, despite that annual production of Eliminator boats has gone from hundreds to handfuls.

I caught up with Leach a few moments ago via telephone. Here’s what he had to say.

Let’s get right to it. Is Eliminator going out of business?

No, no. Why do people start those rumors? Some idiot got on line the other day and said we were closed. Maybe he went by our other building in Mira Loma (Calif.). Everybody likes to say negative things. Nobody likes to say positive things. I don’t know why.

So how’s business?

It’s actually picking up. I just got an order from Bruce Bullock (principal of Bullock Marine) for a 34’ Eagle that’s going to the Ivory Coast of Africa. Stoker just ordered a boat. We’re building a 27’ Daytona for Boost Power. And we’re just finishing up the deck tooling for the new 27’ Daytona Speedster. I have two of those on order with deposits. We have huge interest in our 27’ Daytona Speedster, which will be less expensive and more economical than our twin-engine 28’ Daytona. The interesting thing is that our suppliers gave us the materials for the tooling of 27’ Speedster at no charge. They must think we’re going to be around.

What we need to get out there is not just that we’re picking up, but that 50 percent of the customers who walk in the door are saying that their businesses are picking up. That’s something that the media needs to get out there.

What it’s going to take to bring back the performance-boat market on the West Coast?

Consumer confidence. It will come back when consumer confidence comes back. I think the Gulf Oil Spill has wounded consumer confidence a little. It’s like, “We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t even fix this?” Then again, the stock market was up 247 points yesterday and we had four groups in the showroom. We actually needed help in the showroom.

What would you suggest to performance-boat owners who are feeling the pinch—and then some—of the economy?

Go to the river, tie up and raft off with your friends. Save a little gas money. You can go to the river and do that, and have just as much fun as you would making 15 trips up and down the lake. Tie off and just have fun with people.

Though they’re not as omnipresent at poker runs and offshore races as they were last summer promoting their then-new 42-foot-long V-bottom, Todd Werner and Nick Buis at Statement Marine in St. Petersburg, Fla., are definitely keeping busy. Their brand-new 50-foot-long catamaran, which finished first among pleasure boats at last month’s Bimini Offshore Challenge, is getting its final set-up tweaks.

Buis said that they’d hoped to campaign the cat on the poker circuit, though on a much smaller scale than they did with V-bottom last summer. However, the first Statement catamaran has a buyer, as does Statement catamaran No. 2.

Not bad, considering the 50-footer starts at $1.3 million.

“We’re working out the details with the buyer of the first cat so we can use it for giving test rides,” said Buis.

Statement has built two 42-foot-long V-bottoms to date, and a third is in production, according to Buis.

“We have someone we’re talking to about buying the second one—this weekend was a huge milestone for us,” he said. “I can’t release a name just yet, but it will be someone everyone knows.”

In the next three to four months, Buis said he expects Statement to produce its first center-console models, which like the V-bottom and the catamaran will have air-cushioned cockpits. Statement’s 34-foot-long center console will be available with twin and triple outboard engines. Its 37-footer will be offered with diesel inboards.

Without question, Statement has spent millions in the last few years—without money coming in from boat sales. But Buis explained that he and Werner, who has provided the overwhelming majority of the company’s funding, are patient and pleased with their progress so far.

“We are not looking to build a ton of boats a year, maybe eight or so,” he said. “We started in a down-turned economy, so we don’t have the problem of trying to downsize our company in a hurry. We’re not burdened with overhead. We’re still ramping up.”

Just got off the phone with Scott Porter, the chief executive officer of Formula Boats/Thunderbird Products, for a feature I’m writing about the company for Boats.com. (I’ll let you know when it publishes later this month.) Without question, times have been difficult for the Decatur, Ind.-based builder, which made its name on performance boats but expanded to offer day boats and cruisers. Three years ago, the Formula had 600 employees. Today the company has 300—and in a small town such as Decatur that hits hard. Yet Porter, whom I’ve known for 15 years and has always been candid with me, was surprisingly upbeat and optimistic—though realistic—during our interview. Here’s some of what he had to say.

The last couple of years have been tough for performance-boat companies, and particularly hard on production-builders such as Formula. How’s it going now?

You know, things have been looking up since the first of the year. I have to admit that before that, especially in 2009, it was a pretty tough sled. But in the winter boat shows this year we went from people being interesting and looking to actually ordering new boats for the season.

Is one of Formula’s model lines—FASTech, Sun Sport, Super Sport and Performance Cruiser—driving the increase in orders?

We’re seeing activity across the board. It pretty much fits with our model offerings. The cruiser business has started to come back to life, and we’re actually even seeing some life come back in the performance-boat area. It had gone pretty quiet there for a while. We’re definitely encouraged with what has gone on this spring and summer.

What’s the key to reviving the overall high-performance boat market?

Better times. I think we’re headed there. I think it will come back some. To what point? I don’t know, to tell the truth. I do think we’re serving some of that market with our Sun Sports. They may not run as fast as a FASTech, but we’ve continued to work on their styling.

Formula has a loyal customer base, but what about first-time buyers. How does Formula attract them? Is that still a major challenge for high-performance builders in general?

You know, we’ve always relied on other builders to do that and, unfortunately, some of those manufacturers have had major challenges. We’ve always catered to buyers who already owned a performance boat and wanted to move up to a better product. I am not sure who is catering to the entry-level market right now.

Since Phenomenon, the 55-foot-long turbine-powered catamaran that was to attempt to break the propeller-driven-water-speed record of 220 mph today, made its debut in November 2009 I have written 11 stories about it for speedonthewater.com/Boatermouth.com. That does not count one I wrote for Boats.com/Yachworld.com and another I wrote for the site’s print publication, Yachtworld magazine.

My coverage plan was simple: I would check in at least once a month with the Phenomenon crew and report whatever news there was. No news, no report. In the two weeks leading up to the July 2 Super Boat International Kilo Runs in which the Phenomenon team hoped to break the record, I would check in frequently. That was my plan, and I stuck to it.

But I have to admit that as the Kilo Runs drew closer, I saw Phenomenon’s chances of actually setting a new record getting farther away. With a combined 12,000 hp behind them, the boat’s drives moved enough to crack the stern bustle, break propeller shafts and allow the props to destroy one another. If that weren’t enough, as the Phenomenon crew worked to solve those problems new headaches—in the form of issues with one of the boat’s turbine engines—emerged.

As anyone involved in any water speed-record attempt can tell you, that’s how it works. When it comes to preparing to set an on-water speed mark, stuff happens. You fix it. Then more stuff happens. You fix it, and the cycle continues. And if you’re diligent and very lucky, it all comes together on the day you go after the record. All that’s left is having the stones to take on one of the most deadly pursuits in all of motorsports.

Yesterday, they called it quits. That was a smart move. A very smart move.

Did the Phenomenon team make mistakes? Undoubtedly. But from where I sit, the biggest one was setting out a sign in front of their display at the 2010 Miami International Boat Show in February that read, “World’s Fastest Powerboat.” That was a little over the top but, more important, it implied more than a little overconfidence given the task at hand.

So maybe they were a little cocky, or maybe—and this what I believe—they were doing a little internal cheer-leading, a form of self-motivation as in, “We put it out there. Now we have to back it up.”

Regardless, the entire Phenomenon story has been, well, fun to follow. Without question, the effort was completely homegrown. There was big Louisiana money—meaning Copeland—behind the project. Most of the team hailed from the state, and the team was based in Metairie, not far from New Orleans.

With their financial resources, they easily could have hired John Cosker of Mystic to build and throttle the cat. After all, Cosker has more seat time at 200 mph than just about anyone alive. And he’s just one example of the available talent, from Jerry Gilbreath to John Tomlinson, that could have helped with the project.

But that’s not what they wanted and that’s not what they did. They stuck with homegrown, as in Scott Barnhart, who managed the project and throttled the boat and Al Copeland, Jr., who drove and, without flinching, wrote one huge check after the next.

In the end, they failed—at least when it came to today’s Kilo Runs. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. They talked big in the beginning, toned it down in the middle and displayed sincere humility in the end.

My response to the final chapter—at least for the time being—of this story? Cheers and applause to the entire Phenomenon team. It was fun. It was intriguing. It was something to look forward to.

It was Phenomenal.

Related Stories

Kilo Runs out for Phenomenon

Phenomenon Testing Today

Phenomenon on the Road for Sarasota Kilo Runs

Phenomenon Update: Waiting on Propellers

Crunch Time for Phenomenon

Inside Phenomenon: First Look

Speed Record Attempt Boat Waiting for New Props

Boats.com Gets Turbine-Boat Interior Images

First Look: Inside Copeland’s Speed-Record Rocket

Copeland Group Shooting to Set Speed Record Before Miami Show

Record-Attempt Catamaran Unveiled at Key West Worlds