What is the difference between speedonthewater.com and almost every other noteworthy business in the high-performance marine industry right now?

We’re not hiring.

Performance Boat Center is one of the many high-performance marine industry companies in full-throttle hiring mode. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Between Jason Johnson and I, we have the heavy daily writing load mostly covered. Though we work with several photographers, Pete Boden—our chief shooter—delivers 95 percent of the high-quality images we need. For our digital magazine and Year In Review print edition, we use two freelance art directors, Ricky Damien and Jane Anderson. We stay lean because we can and because we’re no strangers to the cyclical economic highs and lows of the go-fast powerboat market.

But take a quick look around the high-performance powerboat industry and you’ll find that almost every company, from Cigarette Racing Team in South Florida and Fountain Powerboats in Washington, N.C., to Performance Boat Center in Central Missouri and DCB Performance Boats in Southern California, is in full-throttle in hiring mode.

And they won’t be lifting anytime soon.

So if you’ve ever entertained the notion of working in the go-fast boating world, now is the time. The key word, of course, is working. Expect it to be your cushy dream job with short hours and most weekends off and you won’t last long.

“We are always hiring the right people,” said Brett Manire of Performance Center. “Finding people to work on the high-level boats we work on requires a high-level person.

“We are expanding in our Florida store and looking for techs and paint staff in Missouri,” he added.

“We’ve hired seven people in the last two weeks,” said John Cosker of Mystic Powerboats in DeLand, Fla. “And we’re looking to hire about 10 more.”

Most companies, such as DCB and Fountain, are looking for workers with experience—Fountain in its paint department, DCB in all departments from lamination to service. Still, entry-level positions in the go-fast powerboat business do exist.

OK, not at speedonthewater.com. But we’re not hiring, anyway.

Editor’s Note: John Cosker’s quotes were added two hours after this story went live.

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