Goliath: A Shift In The Sands

A LOOK AT THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST BOATBUILDER

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My introduction to Sea Ray came through Gene Whipp, who was one of its largest dealers at the time. Gene sat on the dealer advisory board for Sea Ray and had recommended me for some design work. Brunswick had bought Sea Ray a couple of years before, and by this time, was the largest production boatbuilder in the world. Jerry Michlack had been there from the beginning of the company with its founder C.N. Ray and had been V.P. of product development and engineering (PD&E) for many years when I first met him. Jerry was a super nice guy and was responsible for the look and feel of all the Sea Ray boats; he also spoke in a severe monotone.

I am a type A personality, so I had a bit of a problem with Jerry’s monotone—not with him personally. It just seemed to suck the enthusiasm out of our discussions. It also seemed to flow downhill from him to the rest of the PD&E staff. As a group, they all loved Sea Ray, but I never met a bunch of guys