NauticStar set to debut Down Under

Towboat giant Mastercraft is going fishing – and the brand it’s doing it with is coming Down Under. Deck, bay and offshore fishing boat manufacturer, NauticStar, will make its Australian debut at next month’s Sydney boat show.

The northeast Mississippi-based brand was purchased by Mastercraft in October 2017. It has already signed one dealer in Australia and is set to build its network as the towboat specialist refines and expands NauticStar’s model range.

At last week’s Melbourne Boat Show, Mastercraft President and CEO, Terry McNew, told boatsales.com.au his company saw great potential in the NauticStar brand in both its home market and export targets like Australia.

“NauticStar is a really good brand; it’s been in existence since 2002. Our acquisition strategy, if you will, is to find good companies that we can deploy our operational, financial, sales and marketing strengths to drive them further. And we're very happy [to have acquired NauticStar].”

NauticStar has around 20 models in its current line-up, which McNew says will grow.

“We've invested in the [NauticStar production] facility. They're [building] 18-28 feet currently. Our plans are to grow that size. But they're number one market share in bay boats [in the USA], number three in deck boats, and number five in centre console saltwater fish boats.

“We have plans; we've laid the facility out. It will have the capability one day to build product up to 39 feet,” McNew explained.

McNew says Mastercraft is leveraging its own technology and product development strengths in growing NauticStar. The brand already has new models under development under the Mastercraft management.

“Many of the [existing] models were older -- seven, eight years old. They needed to be refreshed. We'd love to be on a five-year cycle plan [with NauticStar]… We have four models in development right now and we've actually reduced cycle time and improved quality through all this with the manufacturing process.

Heading up NauticStar now is a former president of Sea-Ray and Boston Whaler, Tim Schiek.

“If you don't have world-class safety and extremely safe and clean working conditions, you cannot build a premium product. We are absolutely much cleaner, much better organised [at NauticStar],” McNew stated.

“We've only owned it nine months, but we're really thrilled. It's doing really well. And we've increased output by 20 per cent. The distribution was purely Eastern USA. They had 75 dealers at the time we purchased them, most of them east of the Mississippi within the USA with the exception of Texas. We've already added 19 dealer locations. In fact, we signed a dealer here in Australia as well. But we're looking to grow distribution [further],” he said.

McNew says the local potential for NauticStar is chiefly with the brand’s centre-console offshore boats.

“I certainly think the saltwater centre consoles are probably the biggest opportunity here [in Australia]. It's a great fish brand. Bay boats might be an opportunity; they're more saltwater but near shore. The deck boats are also really good.”

All outboard configured, NauticStar is partnered with Yamaha in the USA. The relationship will continue Down Under, McNew confirmed.