St. Clair dealers dominate
Alabama’s biggest boat show
Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
St. Clair-based boat dealers and local dock and boat house builders accounted for about a third of the more than 20 exhibitors at the 49th annual Birmingham Boat Show, the oldest and largest in the state.
And rightly so. St. Clair is blessed with two lakes and a host of businesses to make the lake season an understandable favorite for getting out on the water and making the most of it.
Exhibiting at the boat show allows dealers to show off the newest in design and amenities in boats they sell – including fishing, pontoon, deck, ski, wakeboard, wakesurf and leisure boats – to thousands of visitors during the four-day event at the Birmingham Civic Center Jan. 23-26. The annual exhibitioon also brings “boat-show” pricing from manufacturers.
Among those showing were Poor House Branch Marina in Lincoln and Rodney’s Marine, Trident Marine Group and Woods Surfside Marina from Pell City and Cropwell. All brought their top sellers for 2020 to show off what’s new and unique, take custom orders and often sell the exhibited boats, too.
“This is not your daddy’s pontoon boat,” says Trident Marine Group co-owner Jeff Tolbert, pointing to the Trifecta 900 hp double-engine pontoon boat, Trident’s most unique offering at the boat show. “There are only three in the U.S. right now,” Tolbert said. The 30-foot fiberglass “tri-toon” with its twin 450 hp Mercury engines can push the luxury ship up to 83 miles per hour.
Armed with lighted speaker systems and matching under lights, front and rear cameras that display on a state-of-the-art touch screen and two deluxe leather captain seats, the new Trifecta combines luxury with horsepower and was boat show priced at about $254,000. Trident had already taken two custom orders for the Trifecta boat, which is being manufactured in northern Indiana.
Trident’s Cropwell business is one of three locations where they sell Trifecta, South Bay and Berkshire boats, the pontoon boat lines produced by Forest River, a Berkshire-Hathaway company associated with financier Warren Buffett.
Geared toward families, with free admission for children 12 and younger, the boat show dedicates 250,000 square feet of exhibit space to highlighting the latest in boats, motors, boathouses, piers and boat-lift design, plus fishing gear, guides and outfitters.
For local boat dealers, the investment in the boat show exhibits pays off in new and returning customers and brand recognition.
“The boat-show pricing brings in customers, and the quality of the products often drives customers to our stores,” says Eddie Rush of Poor House Branch Marina and Boat Outlet on Logan Martin Lake. They specialize in Avalon boats, which are manufactured in Michigan.
“The boat show is also a chance for us to see what customers are looking for,” he says. Most dealers bring top 2020 boats to show and share information about other offerings, including used boats, available at the dealer locations.
The newest Avalon offering – the Avalon WakeToon-Surf series that’s designed as a wakeboard surfing boat – was not on display at the boat show. The new WakeToon is in production and won a 2020 national innovation award from the National Marine Manufacturers Association, says Mark Semino of Avalon boats.
Aside from the new WakeToon, Avalon has made few changes in its design in recent years, Semino says. “We’ve been very successful with our core boat, so there are not many changes,” just new color offerings and the popular addition of a center console pontoon the company introduced in recent years, he says.
Poor House Branch Marina, located on Logan Martin at Lincoln, also offers service and repair, boat storage and boat rental.
Over at Woods Surfside Marina’s boat show exhibition, co-owner Eva Hildebrant pointed out Bennington’s new Bowrider pontoon, which has a step-down U-lounge seating area in the front of the boat. The Bennington Bowrider, available in 20- and 24-foot lengths, also placed in the 2020 national innovation awards.
The new design won an honorable mention for the industry’s first bowrider-style pontoon, with innovation judges noting that “the stadium-like seating increases driver sight lines while providing a sporty and elegant look not seen before.”
Woods Surfside Marina also brought along Xpress Aluminum fishing boats and highlighted a variety of Bennington Pontoon boats, the No. 1 brand pontoon in the U.S. The 14-acre Marina at Cropwell has more than 300 dry storage stalls and three piers of wet slips, offers full-service gas and a valet boat launch service. Woods Surfside also carries Yamaha and Mercury motors and sells pre-owned boats.
Rodney’s Marine Center in Pell City brought to the boat show Starcraft tri-toon and Silver Wave pontoon boats and Blue Wave and Carolina Skiff-Sea Chaser center-console boats.
But the star of Rodney’s boat show offerings was the new 300 hp Silver Wave fiberglass tri-toon boat equipped with RGB lights, Bluetooth control and a touch-screen system with forward and back camera. RGB lights are red, blue and green LED lights that combine the three colors to produce more than 16 million hues of light.
“It ain’t your grandfather’s pontoon,” says co-owner Rodney Humphries. An innovative design allows for expanded passenger seating or playpen room with more space per square foot. The new 24-foot Silver Wave is a top seller and can be customized. “It’s a $100,000 look for $50,000.”
Rodney’s, which is a full-service marine stop with service, sales and storage with valet services, also sells fishing boats, Alweld duck boats and Suzuki engines.
Personal watercraft remain popular at the boat show, with attendees lining up to register to win the show’s grand prize, a 2020 Yamaha Waverunner EX, being given away by Big #1 Motor Sports of Birmingham.
At the Big #1 exhibit, the newest and fastest-selling option in personal watercraft was the SeaDoo Fish Pro, a three-seater designed for sport fishing. Equipped with a Rotax 1630 ACE 170 hp engine and 70-liter fuel tank, the SeaDoo Fish Pro comes with a 51-liter LinQ Fishing cooler with rod holders, a fishing bench seat, watertight phone box, trolling mode, Garmin ECHOMAP Plus 62 cv fish finder, direct access front storage, a boarding ladder, extended rear platform, LinQ attachment points, angled gunwale footrests with a stable and predictable hull. The boat show price for the SeaDoo Fish Pro was $16,000, including a four-year warranty and a SeaDoo trailer.
“We’ve sold some,” Hairston says, noting that by Saturday of the boat show, Big #1 had sold more than 20 personal watercraft – both SeaDoo and Yamaha – to boat show attendees.
Three St. Clair County-based dock and boathouse building companies – Tradesman, Mackey and Lakeside Boathouse – exhibited at the event, showing off their latest designs and meeting new customers.
Specializing in custom boathouses, sun decks, boat lifts, docks and seawalls, Tradesman Company’s exhibit at the boat show highlighted Tradesman’s attention to detail and long-lasting structures. Sales manager Ryan Wooten says Tradesman owner and founder Fred Casey’s original innovative designs for boathouses remain the standard at Tradesman.
“The hipped metal roof, 8-by-8 support beams and braces made of pressure-treated pine” are unique to Tradesman boathouses, he says. He adds that Tradesman is the “only boathouse builder statewide using hand-picked No. 1, 34MCQ pressure-treated lumber from the water level up to the roof.”
Being at the boat show helps in Tradesman’s expanding market, Wooten says. In addition to custom boathouses with single or double slips, boat lifts and sundecks, Tradesman’s offerings include floating piers, seawalls and docks. They also build aluminum boathouses and commercial and residential floating piers.
Today’s boathouses can include all the bells and whistles owners want, including entertainment decks plus boat lifts and storage for personal watercraft, kayaks and paddle boats, says Eric Mackey of Mackey Docks and Boat Houses, a third-generation dock builder.
He says Mackey builds docks and boathouses that last a lifetime. Located in Ragland and in business since 1983, Mackey specializes in high-end boathouses at an economical price. The goal is to build durable structures with low maintenance that meet the needs of folks who live on and enjoy lake and waterfront living.
With standard and custom designs in piers, docks and boathouses, Mackey’s promotional material states, “Even our competition loves our work.”
Serving Logan Martin with dock and boathouse work on most Alabama lakes down to the Florida Panhandle, Mackey’s work includes pile driving, dock and boathouse construction, boat lift installation, seawall construction, and repair of existing shore structures.
Lakeside Boathouses in Cropwell exhibits at the boat show most years, says Lakeside partner Chris Hoover. “We see existing customers and meet new ones,” Hoover says. He notes that Lakeside sees repeat customers and enjoys strong referrals. “That lets us know that we are doing a good job.” Lakeside builds boathouses, decks, boat lifts, piers and seawalls.
“Our philosophy is to do a good job for a fair price and exceed expectations,” Hoover says, noting that word of mouth and outreach at events including the Birmingham Boat Show have helped Lakeside grow its market.
It is expanding services and has completed building projects on lakes and rivers from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf.
Lakeside also provides staining and pressure washer services, sells Wet Steps and, most recently, introduced a new travel service business. Lakeside also plans to open a new Lakeside Grill at Coosa Island in May 2020.
