Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/231507
/// Market Trends /// hiccups." Lambert added that his team has been overwhelmed with the initial success of the project, namely positive reception from consumers and dealers, including MarineMax, the country's largest dealer group, signing on as a distributor. "There's no question that when you have MarineMax on board it sends a huge message of credibility, not only for Scarab, but also for us as a company and management team," he said. Personal friends outside of business, MarineMax CEO Bill McGill was immediately interested in RBH's jet line, and called Lambert back a few minutes after seeing Scarab renderings for the first time to arrange plans to get together to work out a deal. Lambert suspects Sea Ray's aborted jet plans likely assisted in encouraging MarineMax to sign on. In total, RBH has approximately 130 dealers confirmed to carry its jet products, with another 20 to 25 in the works, soon bringing its total North American dealer network to at least 150. "Every single one of them was hand-picked, and we feel that we have probably one of the, if not the strongest, distribution network in the marine industry right now," he said. "We feel like there's great potential for growth in this market and … our dealers are projecting some very good numbers that they think they can do with the jet boat product." "We feel like there's great potential for growth in this market and … our dealers are projecting some very good numbers that they think they can do with the jet boat product," he said. "I think with Sea Ray being out of the market, it only gives us a greater opportunity to market our product." — Jim Lane Yamaha's vision of family fun bowrider, which is unusual in the jet boat market because many of those products have come from the personal watercraft," Lane said. "We'll be introducing a beautiful boat with exceptional styling as we introduce our first model and we're planning on being in production with that boat by early January." The company is anticipating a total of three jet boats, 20-, 22- and 24-foot iterations, all ready for production by April. They will be named Vortex by Chaparral and, like RBH's models, will be powered by a single and twin jet powertrains licensed from BRP. "We're looking at different price points, and I believe as the boat gets larger, twin power will be the choice for most of those customers," said Lane. "What we're trying to do is match the power to the boat so the customer has the best possible performance and he is happiest with the product." Chaparral expects its jet models to be priced "just as competitively as sterndrive," and its testing has shown jet fuel economy to be similar to sterndrive in all situations, other than when running at wide-open throttle, where sterndrives carry the advantage. With a line of 12 boats ranging from 19 to 24 feet in length, all powered exclusively with jet power, Yamaha is somewhat of an outsider in the North American marine market. After starting in the 1990s building "what were effectively big personal watercraft," the company shifted its plan in 2000 and decided to focus on what it calls the family-fun segment. Comprised of three traditional segments — runabouts, towable sport boats and deck boats — Yamaha sees its products like those of other mainstream boat builders. Rather than being defined by powertrain, Yamaha feels that its products instead just happen to be powered by jets — both twin- and single-jet engines. "We could bring some previously unfound benefits in that market because of our very compact driveline, and so in 2003 we launched the first of what we call a family-fun boat, and they've been hugely successful," said Yamaha WaterCraft Group President Mark Speaks. "We found a way to deliver a better product to that customer in that category and it was pretty successful, and there's been no reason for us to change our driveline of choice." While the jet market has been flat, Yamaha recently completed a $3 million expansion of its jet boat manufacturing facility in Vonore, Tenn. Chaparral's Vortex At Marine Products Corporation, Jim Lane and his team are busy deciding the best way to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary. At the same time, the company has recently completed its distribution model for its upcoming push into the jet boat market. After electing to offer its jet models to the Chaparral dealer network, Lane said the company was "overwhelmed with the number of positive responses that we got back from our dealers indicating their interest, their wish and their desire to carry the jet boat product line … we got quite a few rounds of applause from our dealers for selecting that course of action." Chaparral introduced its first jet boat model in December during its dealer sales training event near the company's Nashville, Ga., headquarters that attracted more than 150 of the company's dealers. "We didn't pick up any of the designs that BRP had with their product and we started with our own designs and have developed a boat that I think is going to be very well accepted in the marketplace and the reason for that is that boat will carry the Chaparral DNA, it will have the same styling, the same innovations, it'll be a true 34 | Boating Industry | January 2014 P32x38-BI14JAN-MarketTrends.indd 34 www.BoatingIndustry.com 12/18/13 10:06 AM