Anchors Aweigh

Anyone who has been following the podcasts probably can tell I have a particular interest in electric boating. That's why I was so excited to connect with Mark and Tim from Templar Marine.  Templar - whose mission is to eliminate our carbon footprint on global waterways and provide affordable, year round, eco- friendly, low maintenance electric boating to the general public, for personal use and for small commercial use such as water taxis, eco lodges and sightseeing tours - has designed a very unique and innovative electric boat line. Utilizing the same hull design but offering several versions and styles, they have been able to economically build stylish electric boats for personal and commercial applications. Tim Bieber has been boating his entire adult life and when we saw the concept being rolled out he instantly knew that this was the future of boating that he hoped for.  Tim and I discussed his passion for boating, the attributes of the Templar line, and much more! 

Alexander Watson is an entrepreneur, adventurer, and lately, an author. With his wedded partner Dale Harris, Alexander rescued his family business, a furniture studio, built a portfolio of rental properties, and then sold it all to restore a vintage motor yacht and travel ‘The Rivah’. Watson’s book, River Queens – Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America tells of their escape from the urban jungle and passage through the nation’s midsection. It is full of stories from the finding of the boat, to the characters they met along the way, to the challenges presented on the river. Their boat, Betty Jane, A forty-five-foot wooden motor yacht built in the height of the Korean War is hardly an extravagance; it is an obscenity. Promoted as part of Chris Craft’s "Freedom Fleet" for 1955, it had all the conveniences of a well-appointed home at twice the cost. She had fitted carpets, polished mahogany paneling, an en-suite for the owners, and quarters for the crew. The journey starts with an over-the-road transport

Alex Caslow, with his wife KC, founded and owns Red Beard Sailing, the official US dealers for MiniCat, Xcat, Reverso, and RowOnAir brands. Alex was introduced to sailing by his grandfather at a young age and has been able to turn that passion into a career, helping others experience the same joy he gets out on the water under sail. In 2015, they did some extensive research looking for a portable sailboat option as consumers, and were so blown away by the MiniCat that they built a business around it. They then added XCat and later Reverso and RowOnAir, and Red Beard Sailing started to take off. The flagship line, Minicat, is a unique, small and light, but full-bodied sailing boat – a catamaran with inflatable floats. With excellent sailing characteristics and simple control, MiniCat appeals to young budding yachtsmen, experienced sailors, and even world explorers such as Laura Dekker. All MiniCat models fit in a car, camper, yacht, or on a plane. They can be assembled in 30 minutes or less, with no extra tool

Kelsey Albina is currently the Communications Manager for Seakeeper, Inc. Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. Seakeeper’s innovative technology changes the boating experience by eliminating up to 95% of all boat roll, the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue and anxiety. Kelsey is responsible for all internal and external communications for Seakeeper including:  Public Relations, social media, email, their ambassador program, corporate communications, and corporate responsibility. Prior to Seakeeper, Kelsey worked at Bonnier as the Marketing Manager of the Fishing Group. Kelsey grew up on and around the water and always knew she wanted to find a career that harnesses that passion. In fact, she has enjoyed boating trips with three generations of family members aboard so she never really had much of a choice! Kelsey’s mother grew up boating in the Bahamas and passed that passion right down. Kelsey was racing sailboats with her mother at a young age, became scuba certified and stil

Matt Putnam is a founding partner and Managing Director of the Leisure Property Advisors. He specializes in the sale of marina, golf and leisure properties throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to becoming a broker, he served as the financial analyst and marketing coordinator for the National Golf and Resort Properties Group for two years. Matt has held an active real estate license since 2006 and been in the Leisure Properties industry since 2009. In addition to investment sales, Matt and his team focus on building advisory relationships with clients and routinely provide market research, financial analysis and management best practices at every point through the property ownership life cycle. Matt has served a wide range of clientele from single property owner-users to $100B pension funds and everything in between. Matt has been a part of transacting more than 40 leisure properties since 2011. Matt served as the national marina director at Marcus & Millichap and was an integral part of launchin

Matt Sellhorst is the founder and CEO of Boat Dealer Profits and the creator of the SPLASH System guaranteed to help select dealers sell more boats, make more money and have more fun. Matt is the sales and marketing columnist for Boating Industry Magazine, host of the Boat Dealer Profits podcast and Boat Dealer Profits TV where he shares tips, tricks and tactics to boost profitability in any dealership willing to implement the ideas. Sellhorst has also been featured in the Movers and Shakers edition of Boating Industry and has spoken multiple times at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo, Marine Retail University, dealer and manufacturer events and other industry conferences. His journey from a 'no-boat-selling-son-of-a-gun' to a top producer at a 6 location dealership to sought after coach and consultant to dealers around the world mean all of his strategies are based on real world, nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes experience that have been proven to work in today's changing boat sales environment. Matt grew up b

Claude Beaulac is the VP of Sales and Marketing for the Canadian Electric Boat Company. I spoke with Claude just before it was announced that the CEBC was awarded the ‘Future of the Industry’ award at Quebec’s annual Marina Industry Gala. The Canadian Electric Boat Company manufactures a line of 100% electric boats that do not produce any pollution or emissions. Powered by a lithium battery, CEBC boats can provide eight to twelve hours of use on a single charge. They are completely noiseless, handcrafted with high quality materials, and they even boast in their line the fastest electric boat in the world, the Bruce.   Claude has boated around the world throughout his career and currently enjoys his personal boating on a beautiful lake in Canada in a private preserve. We spoke about the boat building process, upcoming shows, how he got involved with the CEBC and more. Enjoy! On boat show strategies.....We want to show the world we can build something different than what is already out there so we bring out the

Niels Kisling is in charge of Marine Sales and Marketing at Davis Instruments, a company with a huge range of products for sailors and powerboaters. Many of you boaters and especially sailors are probably using or have used Davis products and may not even know it. In 2017, Neils accepted the Miami International Boat Show Innovation Award in the Category of Boat Care and Maintenance for their Snap Tool Multi-Key. Niels has spent his entire life boating and sailing, on boats his father hand made! From a rowboat to a 20’ catamaran, Captain Kisling provided Niels a variety of ways to enjoy the water from a young age. Niels grew up boating on Long Island but moved to the West Coast in elementary school and continued pursuing his love of boating off of Capitola, California. It is here that one of the most harrowing events one can imagine occurred in Niels life. Sailing in a race from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, Niels and his two boatmates got caught in bad weather, hit by a freak wave, and capsized. Sadly, both of

Rok Babarovic is part of a team that is redfining a genre of yacht. As Business Development Manager, Rok has helped launch the Overblue series of yachts – part power cat, part houseboat. Sensing that people today are seeking comfort, safety, innovation, efficiency as well as adventure all combined in one product, Overblue designed a yacht that offers all the comfort of modern home, is able to cruise in all conditions, is full of innovative solutions, is easy to maintain, is ecological and competitively priced. Prior to joining Overblue in 2015, Rok worked for Seaway Yachts with a focus on sales and marketing and as a Senior Project Manager on carbon high performance blue water sailing yachts. Rok grew up boating around the islands of Croatia and has had many amazing experiences boating around the world in places like Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. We discussed what it was like growing up in one of the most beautiful boating destinations in the world, how he transitioned from Computer Science to

Paul Fenn’s career in the boating industry led him to Jeanneau where he eventually took the helm as President of Jeanneau America. Paul ‘passed the baton’ in 2014 but is still on board in a consulting and marketing role with a major focus on brand and lifestyle videos. Paul’s video production extends to his Take a Shot Media company as well as his personal boating life which you can see on his great blog at www.pfenn.com. Paul grew up boating in Connecticut and although it was a major part of his life and a passion of his through school, he graduated without a clear plan for turning his passion into a living. From working charter boats and helping with a transit from New England to the Caribbean, to moving to Annapolis to sell boats, Paul got a taste of how fun working in the business could be and he ultimately ended up at Jeanneau, and hasn’t left! Paul and his wife have raised three kids in the boating lifestyle and have gotten to experience family fun on the water in places like Thailand, the Seychelles, a

Last year, Warner University announced a partnership with the Institute of Marine Technology to start the Marine Technology program on campus in Lake Wales, Florida. The intent of IMT’s Marine Technology program is to prepare individuals for entry-level technician opportunities in the watercraft industry. Attendees not only learn how to work on watercraft and gather hands-on experience, they work in a real-life marina environment and understand the inner workings of marinas and boat dealerships around the world. Industry experts have already made guest appearances and been signed to the program’s advisory council. The U.S. Department of Labor reports there will be more than 1.2 million jobs in the diesel, automotive, motorcycle and marine industries in the United States by the year 2024. To reach that total, the transportation industry will have to fill more than 37,000 technician job openings on average every year.  Justin Maley, the Director of Industry Relations for the IMT Program at Warner, has dedicated

I really enjoyed recording this episode, as the guest is a friend who I have been fortunate to have a lot of fun on the water with. Chris Hefferen currently helps manage Subsea Fleet Support for Noble, a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Chris has been with Noble since 2011 and has traveled the world maintaining their fleet, doing rotations of up to 90 days living aboard the ships. Chris grew up sailing with his father off the coast of Massachusetts and attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he concentrated in Marine Engineer

Randall Lyons' career in the marine industry spans more than 20 years and he is currently the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association. Prior to his role with the Trades Association, Randall had extensive experience in the marina world managing the Newburyport Marina on the North shore of Massachusetts, and as Director of Communications for the Nantucket Boat Basin. Randall also got a taste of the dealership side of the business working for Russo Marine. Randall’s success is exhibit A of how getting a foot in the door in the marina industry can lead to a long and fulfilling career – Randall’s first boating job was cleaning toilets at the Boat Basin, where he would later rise to the Director level!   Randall didn’t grow up boating but quickly found that it was a passion of his and he decided to turn it into a career. And now he has the opportunity to raise his two children in the boating lifestyle. We discussed some of the great initiatives Randall’s organization is working on to addre

As climate change becomes a bigger issue for boaters every year (see boat damage from this year's storms as exhibit A), there are many companies looking for solutions that will help slow down this process while also enabling boaters to continue using the waterways in powered vessels. Electric mobility is one of the top solutions and I was fortunate to speak with Steve Trkla, President of Torqeedo Inc. Torqeedo is the market leader for electric mobility on the water. Founded in 2005 in Starnberg, the company develops and manufactures outboards and inboards, electric motors and hybrid drive systems ranging from 1 to 80 hp. There are also all sorts of functional and innovative accessories – from lithium batteries and solar charging equipment to smartphone apps.  Steve has been with Torqeedo for a decade and has been responsible for launching Torqeedo products in the North American market, from Travel to Deep Blue. His wide-ranging experience in sales and marketing in the high-tech sector and his excellent feel f

I caught up with Scott Croft, Vice President Public Affairs at BoatUS, after he spent some time on the road assisting with BoatUS teams in Hurricane damaged Florida. When he is not out in the field, Scott is Responsible for all external publicity and media relations for the half-million member boating services, advocacy and safety organization. Duties cover all BoatUS departments, including Government Affairs, Consumer Affairs, Towing Services, Insurance as well as the BoatUS Foundation for Safety and Clean water. Scott learned to boat and ski on the great lakes as a youth and later in life spent 10 years in the US Air Force, which is where his love of boating was resurrected on the coast of Japan. After that Scott worked with some exciting travel and tourism clients like New York City, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica before his passion for boating delivered him to his current role at BoatUS.   Scott and I discussed how he got into and re-entered the boating lifestyle, the variety of benefits BoatUS provides boaters

I was able to catch up with Reagan Haynes, Senior reporter and social media manager for Soundings Trade Only, between her travel for stories. Reagan has been writing in-depth business analysis and news for the boating industry, specializing in banking and finance regarding the marine industry, as well as EPA and environmental standards in boating, for over 15 years. One of my favorite features each issue is Reagan’s Q&A with industry leaders. Reagan’s reporting has taken her across the country, and around the globe. Recent assignments include hurricane coverage in the Keys, political reporting in Alaska, boat shows in places like Newport, RI and more! The boating industry continues to keep Reagan interested with a vast array of topics she has had the fortune of covering over the last decade-plus. In that time, she has come to not only feel personally attached to the experience of boating with her family, she has also become connected with boats themselves, people who love them, as well as those who make t

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and in-demand coach. He is the founder of the Dream Business Academy and Dream Business Coaching and Mastermind Program. He is the host of Dream Business Coach TV, the hit weekly Web TV show watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners, and he is also the host of Dream Business Radio, a weekly podcast based on Jim's unique brand of Smart Marketing and Business Building Strategies. Jim is best known internationally as 'The Dream Business Coach' and creator of No Hassle Newsletters, the ultimate 'done-for-you' newsletter marketing program used by hundreds of clients in nine countries. Jim has authored seven books and speaks and gives interviews on such topics as entrepreneurial success, newsletter marketing, client retention, how to build a profitable business and how to create your own Dream Business. Jim is a cancer survivor, has been married for over thirty-five years, has four grown children and two great children. Recently, Jim and h

One of the things I have come to realize in talking to so many boaters over the last few years is that boating in and of itself is great, but often times it is the means to another end. It is a gateway to a wide variety of activities and experiences that bring happiness into so many lives. Just think of all the things boating can give you access to: fishing, diving, cruising, skiing, wake boarding and wake surfing, time with family and friends, camping and hiking in remote places, boating up to restaurants...the list goes on and on! My last two guests in particular were great reminders of the fact that it isn't just boating, there are many other ways to enjoy the water. Nathan Heber talked about his love of kite-surfing that spawned from his days of sailing, and Rachel Johnson is now an avid stand-up paddle-boarder after growing up on powerboats. The things they all have in common are the love of the outdoors, the appreciation of nature, and of course - the water. Put all these people on or near water and you

Nathan Heber is the Founder and CEO of Boatyard, the world's first on-demand marketplace for recreational boating. The Boatyard app makes it easy for boaters to find and book qualified marine professionals for services ranging from fuel delivery to cleaning to captaining a boat. Boatyard also has a B2B application. Boatyard for Business provides marine professionals with an easy-to-use platform for automating their admin tasks, while helping them to deliver remarkable customer service experiences to their boat owners.  Nathan grew up in Miami Beach and has been boating since he was a child. Later in life, he took up sailing and has been hooked ever since. An avid kite surfer, Nathan has found that being on and around the water is an invaluable component of a happy life for him and his family. We discussed his sailing adventures, the founding of boatyard and how it helps both boaters and marine professionals, ways to make the boating lifestyle accessible, and much more. Enjoy! On growing up in Miami Beach…..Yo

It was a real pleasure speaking with Barry Berhoff, CEO of Shurhold Industries. Barry is an avid boater who lives and breathes Shurhold everyday not only as a job, but as a lifestyle. Under his direction Shurhold has become the global leader in high quality detailing products. Shurhold was started in 1973 in the garage of William E. Peach. Over the next two decades Shurhold continued to grow and migrated into a 10,000-square-foot facility in City. Barry purchased the company in 1998 and expanded the company into a 20,000 square-foot state of the art manufacturing facility. He’s helped continue to expand the product line and grow it into the international company it is today. Barry and I discussed growing up boating on Lake Michigan, family vacations living aboard their boat in the Bahamas, tips for keeping the boat clean and misconceptions about boat maintenance. I learned a lot and hope you do too, enjoy! On getting started in boating…..I started as a child. My dad got into boating. We started boating on Lak