November 1, 2005
Job Opening
We are happy to announce Judy Chilcot as our new book keeper. She's been hard at work for a couple of weeks now and is getting along nicely. In the meantime, Kathleen still comes in from time to time to help Judy learn new stuff. Kathleen is also coming back to help with boat shows and will also be doing a little telecommuting for us—so don't say goodbye just yet!
Customer Appreciation Day
Well, we always say "rain or shine" and that was the case last Saturday! It was rainy and cool—what a shame. We had an 18' tall moonbounce that my daughter Olivia and the Mill's son pretty much had to themselves. We also had to cancel the band but the keg stayed cold and the food was hot. We had burgers, southwestern eggrolls, chili, wings, chicken fingers, etc.—the food was awesome, many thanks to Steve for that. We did get a good turnout in spite of it all—the Occoquan Yacht Clubbers came over after their annual meeting and we had visits from new and prospective customers as well. As usual, it was a relaxed atmosphere and a lot of fun. Check out some photos:
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Other News
The piling maintenance crew has been very busy. The photo (to the right) shows you the finished product as they get done with each piling. The piling's wear point is at the waterline. Each piling is prepped by using a diesel-powered pressure washer to blast away the bad wood. A fiberglass sleeve goes over the entire area and an epoxy grout material is injected under high pressure into the sleeve to form a joint stronger than the original. It's time consuming and hard work. They're out working in this nor'easter as I speak, working as we move boats. We've got so much we want to do and so little time to do it before next season. The input we've received from the customers has been a huge help. Now if we can just do it and add some of our own ideas, it will be fabulous. |
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Dealer Meetings
The dealer meetings for both Chaparral and Cobalt featured new models in their core offerings. Cobalt introduced the 323, which is the ultimate day boat for two people. Beautiful appointments, a huge cockpit, nicely finished cabin, roomy head with vacuflush—looks like she'll be a performance oriented boat as well.
The new Cobalt 232 Bowrider is a huge boat for families that don't want to take up space with a bathroom but want as much water toy storage as possible. She sports features like a dedicated hanging locker for ski vests and bow cushions that convert for face-forward sitting.
Chaparral introduced the 276 Signature, an 8.5' wide boat with an aft sunpad, a dual helm seat that swivels aft for entertainment and an extremely well finished cabin.
The 276 SSi is a new bowrider model that features a full enclosed head with a teak and holly floor, floor storage for multiple wakeboards, a granite topped wet bar with cooler storage, and gel lined bow storage.
The 246 SSi replaces the venerable 230 SSi in Chaparral's lineup for 2006. She features a center walk through transom like the one in the 256 and 276. She weighs almost 5000 lbs but keeps that agility we all came to know and love in the 230.
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Cobalt 323 Cuddy |
Cobalt 232 Bowrider |
Chaparral 276 Signature |
Chaparral 276 SSi |
Chris Craft News
We did not attend the July Chris Craft dealer meeting. They have asked us to order more boats than we are able to sell and so on that basis, we've agreed that it would be best if we just purchased Chris Crafts on a wholesale basis from another dealer. Chris Craft was very cordial in this and offered to extend the franchise to me anyway. I declined feeling that I was doing both a disservice to them and to the dealer that stocks Roamers (Chesapeake Marine Group). We will still service and support Chris Craft but it will take a back seat to Cobalt and Chaparral for the foreseeable future. It's the end of an era for us and I'm glad Dad wasn't here to see it. I am very thankful, however, that all our boat builders are wonderful people to work with and that we have such a great product in Chaparral and Cobalt to market.
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Sam Childress Honored
Sam Childress was honored for his 27 years of service with Hoffmaster's but more specifically for the role he played in helping to design the running gear for the 330 Signature V Drive. We thank Chaparral Boats for helping us to surprise Sam at the dealer meeting and make his trip extra special. |
| (Left to right) Martha Hoffmaster; Dave Briggs, Wayzata Marine; Ann Baldree, Chaparral Boats; Buck Pegg, Chaparral Boats; Sam Childress; Dayle Childress; Joe Hoffmaster; Bill Mudgett, Chaparral Boats. |
More Achievements
At the Cobalt meeting we were honored to receive Cobalt's Customer Satisfaction Award for maintaining a Customer Satisfaction Index rating of over 97% for 4 consecutive quarters. This rating is based entirely on customer surveys and we thank our customers for being the best!
Other Thoughts
I probably won't write again until January. I leave for a 20 Group meeting and MRAA convention in November and then should be around until we close for Christmas on the 22nd.
For those of you who aren't customers currently, I should advise you to order a boat by the end of the year if you want it in April. Our suppliers seem to have roughly the same backlog they had at this time last year. The boats we ordered out of the DC show on Valentine's Day came in mid-May and the boats we ordered out of Chantilly in March arrived in June. DC is late this year (2/22-2/26) so ordering before January 1st ensures that we are ahead of all boat show sales which start with the New York show the first week of January. Don't worry, the boat show spiffs are similar from year to year so we can make sure you take advantage of any pricing incentives that come along. Hopefully I'll give you a report from NYC as I plan to be up there scouting out competitors.
Contact Information
Joe Hoffmaster—Sales Manager, General Manager, Sales Specialist new boats. M-W and F
8am-4pm, Sat 10am-4pm.
Martha Hoffmaster—Chief Financial Officer; M, T, Th and F 8:30am-11am, 12:30pm-3pm.
Judy Chilcot—Accounts Receivables, billing questions, and boat sales; M-F 8:30am-4pm.
Terry Verity, Service Writer, Jeff Atwood, Parts Manager—Parts and service questions, Cobalt sales; M-F; 8am-4pm.
Charles T. Hedrick—Sales Specialist; M, W, Th, and F 8:30am-4pm; Sat 10am-4pm; Sun Noon-4pm or by appointment.
Sam, Steve, John, and Dave are techs M-F 8am-4pm.
For Service and parts orders and follow-up, call Terry or Jeff. On the weekends leave Terry notes. Parts order forms and work order forms are located on the parts counter. Anybody in the store can assist you with this.
To put your boat up on brokerage or to get a value call Chuck.
If you have a question about your bill call Judy.
