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New Captain at Hatteras

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pete
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 42
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Pete said:
Check out this article from the local New Bern news paper.

http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/new-104800-steer-cabo.html

What struck me was the background of the person taking over and why someone with such a background would become the leader of Hatteras?

Pete
Click to expand...
Because he came internally from Brunswick. They look at the prior sales success of Sea Ray, Meridian etc and look to do the same with Hatteras. Could be seeing the new Hatteray line soon. Hopefully it won't be another Ferreti/Bertram story.
 
Who would think a successful exec from a different boat company could run Hatteras. The guy has done well before and understands the business. I bet he has a better chance of saving hatt than some old school guy who has refused to change with the times.
 
If this gentleman does for Hatt what was done to Searay and Bayliner, Our older Hatts are due to double in price in the very near future. After all, wouldn't you rather have a zippo that will last a century than a $1 disposable?.
 
Arguments for both sides of the coin...

However! At least the new leader comes from the BOAT industry and isn't just some MBA in a suit with no industry experience.
 
Its a business and he has to find the balance between profit and demand. How many people are buying new Hatts today?
 
Certainly makes one wonder what will be going on. Brunswick has sold off many of their devisions the fishing rod one i am most familiar with (ZEBCO). Hu SEA RAY quality in a Hatteras hu hu. That is a sack of Siberial bull. However give him a chance just like AMF got Hatteras survived them.
I would expect him to be in touch with the cruiser market but the sport fish market is a diffrent breed all by itself, atleast the upper end ones. Just Tim
 
sure hope Hatteras does not go the way of Bayliner and Sea Ray, the world does not have enough Tupperware to make a Hatteras out of.

I am sure this guy will try to make profit not boats.
keep your old hats, they will out last the new ones!!
 
I can't make any sense of the article about this, it's so full of corporate double-talk and buzzwords. I wish they'd send out press releases in English. You can't tell whether this guy can even tell which end of a boat is the front.

We'll see how it all goes. My guess is that if they make a quality yacht at a decent price they'll be okay. If they try to make the cheapest product they can, and sell it for the most money they can, they're going to have their lunch eaten by companies that make a better boat for less money. We'll see how it all pans out. I don't know how to tell if what they build now is as good as the boats we have. I guess wait forty years and see how many of them are around. If I'm 100 years old and still boating then, I'm going to be one grateful guy, I can tell you that.
 
IMO, if Brunswick's past actions are any guide, it won't be good. Don't forget that they dumped some of the biggest and most knowledgable Hatteras dealers when they took over. Closed High Point and let most of the old braintrust go. They have no interest in anything older than 5 years. Just like Sea Ray. ...............
 
Sounds like it might be going the same direction of my company... Southern Bell was run by people who knew and CARED... BellSouth was run by people who KNEW.. AT-T is run by idiots who neither know OR care....
Hence the reason I'm trying to get "out of Dodge" while the gettings good after 42 yrs......
 
Two facts... Out on the water,

- you see more pre 90s Hatteras MY than post 90s
- you seen many more late model Lazzaras, Ferrettis, Azimuth, Sunseekeers or Fairlines than late model hatts.

Doesn't this say something?
 
Yeah, the Sea Ray connection isn't exactly a good prognostic sign, is it......I think if I'd spent years working for them, I'd edit that out of my resume....
 
Will be interesting to watch i'm sure.

In my opinion the survival and success of Hatteras will be determined by design and construction innovation and not marketing prowess. I think all you need to do is look at the brochure section on this site to track how dyslexic Hatteras management has been. They have tried to straddle a line between production and semi production and even custom for years and like any business, if you try and do too many things at once, you run the risk of doing NONE of them as well as you could or should have.

The 41 was revolutionary creating a whole industry of FRP production, leading to the sucess of the 53 which speaks for itself. The invention of the concept of a long range cruiser was equally innovative. The elite series of semi production yachts... all ground breaking ideas but the follow through was just not there. As a result you have Marlow Nordhavn Flemming etc, owning the LRC field, a whole raft of manufacturers like Lazzarra etc. in the semi customs and dont get me started on the concept of inventing the "canyon running battlewagon" and then giving it away to anyone who could lay up a hull. What has been missing in my opinion is that entrepreneurial drive that created whole new concepts in design and construction.

I was impressed however with the leap to vaccum bagged epoxy construction in the GT's and that type of innovation is where, in my opinion, they should be focusing. They need to hire next generation thinkers in naval architecture, engineering and materials development... not marketing guys. They also need to develop relationships with companies that develop systems and propulsion to take advantage of innovation. For instance, if they had partnered with a Volvo or Zuess and helped develop an innovative pod design 5-8 years ago when they were first being discussed and been "first to market" with a revolutionary sport fish that was faster, more efficient and better built than anyone else... they would still be filling orders from that introduction. instead the pod designs struggled for years to gain acceptance, delaying that new technology for years.

In short, a groundbreaking design that is well built can be sold by any half-assed marketing crew... but PT Barnum himself couldnt sell the latest round of motor yachts Hatteras has been producing... recession or not. There are so many opportunities to innovate, not just in making prettier and more apealing designs but system design and hull construction starting with issues dealing with $5.00 diesel like ... pre-preg lightweight contructiuon, hybrid propulsion, composite sandwich panel production... I could go on all day.

Sorry this got a lot longer than i intended... just passionate about this brand is all :)
 
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Bring back a stripped down version of the 53/56/58 line with pods. Make it a 4 stateroom boat, 20 knot cruise, for under $1.0m. Just sayin'...
 
I think Shawn's points are priceless and I hope someone at Brunswick/Hatteras is reading this. The advantages of pod drives are amazing. You get an entire extra stateroom on a 60 foot sportfishing boat!!! Plus you carry less fuel, go further, use less, and if a drive packs up or an engine does they can be changed out in a day, not in a week or two. The superiority is very clear for new construction.

They have made some advances, like the one you pointed out in vacuum-bagging, but considering that Hatteras was one of the first to build large powerboats in FRP, they have definitely ceded their position as an industry innovator to others. Coming out with a line of new designs which are fuel-efficient, easily serviceable, and competitively priced could reestablish Hatteras as the forward-thinking company in the pleasure yacht industry. Interestingly, Cabo have pod-driven models now, although Hatteras does not.

As to what they build now, everyone else builds the same thing, pretty much, and several do it for less money. That's not a recipe for long life in this business.
 
jim rosenthal said:
I think Shawn's points are priceless and I hope someone at Brunswick/Hatteras is reading this. The advantages of pod drives are amazing. You get an entire extra stateroom on a 60 foot sportfishing boat!!! Plus you carry less fuel, go further, use less, and if a drive packs up or an engine does they can be changed out in a day, not in a week or two. The superiority is very clear for new construction.

They have made some advances, like the one you pointed out in vacuum-bagging, but considering that Hatteras was one of the first to build large powerboats in FRP, they have definitely ceded their position as an industry innovator to others. Coming out with a line of new designs which are fuel-efficient, easily serviceable, and competitively priced could reestablish Hatteras as the forward-thinking company in the pleasure yacht industry. Interestingly, Cabo have pod-driven models now, although Hatteras does not.

As to what they build now, everyone else builds the same thing, pretty much, and several do it for less money. That's not a recipe for long life in this business.
Click to expand...

So no one saw the 60 with PODS? I saw the video and it is pretty slick.

Now one issue with the pods is the weight is shifted aft. It also needs to be a boat that is structurally ready to accept the drives or it needs to be heavily reinforced in specific areas.

Another issue that may be a limiting factor is the HP of the pod drives limits the size of boat it can be used on.

As to getting an extra stateroom I think the shift aft of the engines will move the stateroom in some vessels but overall they only save so much space. Depending on how much room you need for access the designer may not leave enough room to service the engines.
 
I did see the 60 and frankly it seemed like it was done as an afterthought.

What I was referring to was true partnerships with technolgy providers , while still in the development stages of new concepts, then being first to the marketplace and thus earning the reputation of innovator, not an "also-ran."

I used the pod example as just that, an example of a missed opportunity. If they had developed the GT design three years sooner and done it so they were completely engineered around pod propulsion, the press and subsequent market response could have been terrific.

Instead they cobbled together one boat with pods and gave it an absurd paint job just to make sure no one would take it seriously.

If I were the new guy I would be developing (along the lines of the Chris Craft launches, Ford Mustangs, VW beetles and Mini coopers) a retrospective but modern design homage to the 53.

Use a traditional sheer line in the design so it is easily identified as a modern version of the classic everyone loved, yet with all modern or even next generation materials, pod drives, tender garage with those cool lazarra porch platforms that work hydraulically, gyro stabilizer, fully networked systems and electronics, Lithium battery systems and inverters with one small charging generator etc... just blow the doors off everyone and re-set the reputation as the best.
 
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The 60 with 3 pods by the way is a test platform built to test the theory of the pod drive in a larger SF. It's not one for serious consideration since the pods will not be able to handle the higher HP that are needed in the market. At least not yet. ZF is working on it and Hatt supplied a stripped down platform.

To compete with the big guys they need to focus on the market that is buying today. Is that the 60 - 75 MY or the large SF market. The hulls require very different designs.

True there are no other manufacturers in their class making a 50-60 MY with classic lines but is there really a large enough market for one?
 
First off, if we're talking about the same boat it wasn't a Hatteras project, it was Cummins Mercruiser that built a demonstrator on a Hatteras hull. Although it looks like Hatteras changed the window on the convertibles based on that. Also, I thought the Quad Zeus was four pods, and that's exactly the problem. I'm not aware of a practical pod package in a boat over 50 ft. To me practical means twin engines, not three or four. As boatsb said, pods aren't there yet, and that's probably a major reason why Hatteras hasn't done them yet, since their smallest offering is 54 ft.

High tech all sounds good, but one thing I've liked about Hatteras is a conservative approach to innovation. I'll take proven reliable over gee-whiz bang any day, and that's where Hatt's reputation lies.
 
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