What's happening around the Marina

The Clevengers and Balls are proceeding with grille and deck plans. We're having the barbeque June 9th. You must RSVP as there is a charge which includes a raffle! Our open house is that same weekend.


U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
Vessel Safety Checks

Will be offered here
Saturday, 9 June 2001
10AM until 2PM

Make sure your boat is safe for you and your family and friends

My SPADER 20 Group has me conducting interviews and reading lots of books to study dealership management. As a byproduct of that I've been asked to develop a USP (unique selling position) for Hoffmaster's

We're thinking about basing the USP on our mission statement which is:

"Hoffmaster's is a family business. The family includes employees, owners, customers past and present, subcontractors we use, and suppliers we deal with.

To be a member of this family means you will allow everyone involved to make an honest living, that you will help and look out for other family members, that you will be kind to them, instruct them, warn them, and do your part to make the boating experience all it can be."

One idea is "Join the Hoffmaster family-striving to give you the best boating experience"

Another is simply "Welcome to the Family"

We would love input. The point is, we're not perfect, nobody is, but we look out for you. In a sea of dealers that throw you the keys and try to screw customers we want not only to stand out from this but stand out to the customer.

Update 6/2/01 Dredging approved for Occoquan-Email from Jim Ball
Hello All.

We are very pleased to inform all of our ORMA supporters that, in a
face-to-face meeting last week (before the Memorial Day weekend),
representatives of the Corps of Engineers told Congressman Tom Davis that
maintenance dredging of problem areas on the Occoquan will begin this
October. The existence of problem areas is not in question and the Corps
has finally acknowledged their existence on the river. Specific dredging
locations, timing, disposal sites, scope of work and other details still
need to be worked out, with the expectation and hope that local input will
be involved.

ORMA was advised of the foregoing today (May 31) at a meeting at Mr.
Davis' Woodbridge office attended by Occoquan Mayor Pat Conway, Town
Councilman Leo Smith, Treasurer Winn Frank, Prince William Supervisors
Ruth Griggs and Hilda Barg, ORMA representative Tom Coldwell, Mr. Davis's
staff assistants Mike May and (by telephone) Barnaby Harkins. It was
Harkins who relayed the good news about the Corps' decisions and has been
the principal staff member who worked the appropriation of funding for the
effort.

Meeting attendees greeted the news with much enthusiasm and agreed to keep
watch on the progress of this project. The group will meet again in
approximately thirty days.

Jim

James A. Ball
Occoquan River Maritime Association
P.O. Box 469
Occoquan, VA 22125
703-405-7247

Please visit our web site at www.ormaweb.org

Supporting Organizations

Town of Occoquan
Chesapeake Bay Yacht Clubs Association
Potomac River Yacht Clubs Association
Occoquan Yacht Club
Fairfax Yacht Club
Prince William Yacht Club
Prince William Marina
Hoffmasters Marina
Salisbury Towing
Virginia Concrete
Maryland Rock Industries
Belmont Town Associates
Vulcan Materials Co.
Potomac Marine, Inc.
West Marine Woodbridge

Is it OK if we gather all the email addresses for mail outs to all customers?

Chaparral News

Looks like we're finally getting a 350 this fall. I ordered one with 8.1L Volvo Penta Inboards. She goes 26.7 MPH @ 3200, 31.2 MPH @ 3600, 39 MPH @ Wide Open Throttle with 190 gallons of gas and 6 people. This is what I wanted for our family.

Look for a larger boat from Chaparral in roughly 18 months

Chris Craft Update-5/30/01

The following article best sums up Chris Craft's status at this point (from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

WALTER PERMUTTER: Power boating
Chris Craft is beginning to make waves again in boating industry posted 05/26/01
Things are finally starting to buzz at Chris Craft.

The 127-year-old company is once more beginning to make waves in the boating industry.

I stopped by the plant recently to meet with president Steven Heese and the vice president for sales and service, Andy Lindstrom. I learned, among other things, that they were not only restarting operations but were in the early stages of planning a fleet of larger luxury yachts in the 60-foot-and-up range that should come to pass in late 2002 or in 2003.

Nothing is cut in stone but the planning is in full swing and will be finalized by mid-summer. These plans will in no way affect Chris Craft's traditional core line of boats, which run from 20 to 40 feet.

The last visit I had with Chris Craft was last June, just before then general manager Kim Bors was to unveil the company's new line of retro boats at the Vinoy Hotel in St. Petersberg. The event took place in July and was very successful. The company did business and, for the first time in years, had a profitable quarter.

Since then, here's what has happened: The new line was extremely well received but the economy slowed down.

By October, Chris Craft's parent company, Outboard Marine Co., had announced it was in trouble. In mid-December, Bors and her executive team were replaced by John Anderson and Rick Fullmer, who assumed the positions of president and vice president while keeping their same positions at sister company Four Winns of Cadillac, Mich.

This lasted about two weeks. Nothing was happening at Chris Craft.

On Dec. 22, OMC declared bankruptcy under Chapter XI. At the Chris Craft plant, the gates were locked and their vacationing work force was notified, by mail, not to return.

OMC's assets were sold at auction in early February to Bombardier of Quebec and Genmar of Minneapolis with a joint bid of $95 million. Bombardier makes Sea Doo's as well as Learjets, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Genmar is parent to more than a dozen boat builders, including Wellcraft, Carver, Hatteras and Larson. Bombardier was to take over the motor division (Johnson and Evinrude) and Genmar the boats.

Two weeks after the sale, Genmar resold Chris Craft to Stellican, a British investment company co-headed by Stephan Julius as primary investor and Steven Heese of Tampa as minority investor.

Genmar sold Chris Craft primarily because the Genmar boat stable consisted primarily of fishing craft and CEO Irwin Jacobs felt that Chris Craft's products did not fit.

Stellican previously owned a very high-end Italian luxury boat company called Riva that was similar to Chris Craft's new line of launches and that built yachts up to 81 feet. Stellican sold Riva to the Ferritti Group after taking the company out of bankruptcy and turning it into a profitable company within three years.

Chris Craft then put its new team in place: Heese, a 40-year-old Harvard MBA classmate of Julius', came from the McNeil International Group of Tampa to become the new president; Lindstrom was elevated to vice president for sales and service. The rest of the team is being recruited and should be on board in the near future.

As of this writing, Chris Craft is planning to ship its 2002 boats starting in August. Meetings are in full swing regarding the model mix, pricing and warranty programs. Marketing numbers are being crunched; financing was signed off on May 14 with Trans-America. It also has a pending agreement wth Deutche Financial Services.

The parts department, idle for the past four months, is now back on line and is filling back orders from its dealer network.

Chris Craft has been on an economic roller-coaster ride for much of its history. It has managed to survive because it is a legend in the boating industry. The brand is to the boat industry what Coca-Cola is to soda pop.

The company just might resurface at the top of the heap one more time.


Upcoming Events
Keep in mind some of these early things to do:

1214 Swan Point Rd. * Woodbridge, Va. 22192
Phone 703.494.7161 Fax 703.494.8786
Open 8-4 M-F, 10-4 Sat, 12-4 Sun