Jarrett Bay’s 90 is its biggest build yet, and Hatteras has sold four of its 100-foot raised pilothouse motor yachts — two have been delivered and two are under construction. Pacific Seacraft’s 61 marks a 17-foot leap from its previous offerings, and Gunboat plans to add a 72 and a 77 to the 55-foot model built in Wanchese. “When I was charter boating back in the ’80s, people used to say the ideal sized boat … was a 37-footer,” Ramsey says. “You could get around it, fish better, handle better, and anything larger than that was difficult. And at that point that probably was the case. But now we’re seeing boats that, with the advent of additional horsepower, are very efficient, and handle really well. At that point there were 250-horsepower gasoline motors in the boats, and now we’re seeing boats with 2,600 horsepower per side. So that, along with the bow thrusters, make the boats very nimble in larger sizes. Having boats in those larger sizes makes the world smaller and allows us to go and do really cool stuff.” During and following the recession, Brodie adds, the larger boats have been the market segment that still showed growth, Yachts at Port de Cannes, French Riveria, France. which led Pacific Seacraft to expand its size range upward. With longer hulls, better navigation technology and weather forecasting, and more reliable propulsion systems, yachts are traveling farther, and customers from around the globe are seek-ing out those built in North Carolina. Angel says Hatteras recently delivered a boat to Singapore, and had several models in a boat show in Dubai. “When you go to marinas, you just see numerous examples of the past,” Angel says. “You see 53 motor yachts, you see the 90 convertible. I got to see the 125-foot triple screw boat that we built. Our exposure is worldwide — we’ve got lots of boats in Australia, Japan and the Mediterranean. It’s a humbling experi-ence, and it makes you very proud to see these products that are out there and still floating.” Pacific Seacraft yachts have a reputation as global voyagers, and many have crossed oceans and circumnavigated. Some have remained in far-flung locales, or been sold to customers there in the first place. The company offers refit services as well as new builds at its Washington factory, and owners from as far away as Venezuela and Hong Kong have sent their boats in for restora-tion, Brodie says. Gunboat’s catamarans, too, are built with circumnavigation in mind. Johnstone reports about 35 percent of his customers are from Europe, and 55 percent from the northeast United States. Most migrate toward the Caribbean in the winter, and closer to home in the summer. With yachts built in North Carolina floating in ports around the world, the state’s boat builders have a strong legacy to build upon, and a high bar for which to strive. To continue to survive, they will have to continue to adapt and innovate; seeking ever more efficient designs, systems and construction techniques, as the level of competition constantly rises. Above all else, they must build boats that can withstand the whims of the cruelest mistress, the sea. 46 WBM may 2015 The Gunboat 55-03, Tocatta, under sail in St. Maarten during the Heineken Regatta 2015. PHOTO COURTESY OF GUNBOAT
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2015
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