Philster
Active member
I got my boat from Bob @ PBS... well, if someone would just haul it outta Bacyrus already!
Between what Randy has said and what I've heard... the 26 is all new, and I think there is confusion about Baja molds because it's set to compete with Baja and get some bragging rights, especially on looks. Baja comes up so much in convos because of Doug Smith. By the time the story gets down the line, it's a Baja boat.
The Apache mold/story: Ironically, a builder like Checkmate might be best suited to producing a boat like this long-term. These boats cannot be your bread and butter. Now contrast this point with the hatred of some Checkmate models (ya know, the ones purists don't like but keep the factory with some consistent level of production/profit).
So, if Checkmate has a baseline and consistent product line, it can dabble in some boats like a 42'-er. These types of boats are not going to sustain a company (I think we've learned this 20 times over). These boats fill in factory time and boost overall utilization of resources... plus they are literally and figuratively huge billboards for a company.
So, while some postulate that Checkmate needs to up the ante from a balsa-core-production-boat company into a specialist builder, I think the answer is to become a specialist builder as a side job only (again, viability of the business).
I've mentioned this somewhere else before, but think of the Corvette. GM is a production car company that builds a Super Car. The Super Car companies are volatile year in and year out. While GM has had rough patches, historically they are rock solid -- a blue chip company.
I hope Checkmate can turn out niche products, such as 42' offshore pounders that expand their technological horizons (think Corvette), but continue to produce and rig the other cool production boats -- the ones that make business more consistent and the ones that will sustain it long term.
PEACE!
Between what Randy has said and what I've heard... the 26 is all new, and I think there is confusion about Baja molds because it's set to compete with Baja and get some bragging rights, especially on looks. Baja comes up so much in convos because of Doug Smith. By the time the story gets down the line, it's a Baja boat.
The Apache mold/story: Ironically, a builder like Checkmate might be best suited to producing a boat like this long-term. These boats cannot be your bread and butter. Now contrast this point with the hatred of some Checkmate models (ya know, the ones purists don't like but keep the factory with some consistent level of production/profit).
So, if Checkmate has a baseline and consistent product line, it can dabble in some boats like a 42'-er. These types of boats are not going to sustain a company (I think we've learned this 20 times over). These boats fill in factory time and boost overall utilization of resources... plus they are literally and figuratively huge billboards for a company.
So, while some postulate that Checkmate needs to up the ante from a balsa-core-production-boat company into a specialist builder, I think the answer is to become a specialist builder as a side job only (again, viability of the business).
I've mentioned this somewhere else before, but think of the Corvette. GM is a production car company that builds a Super Car. The Super Car companies are volatile year in and year out. While GM has had rough patches, historically they are rock solid -- a blue chip company.
I hope Checkmate can turn out niche products, such as 42' offshore pounders that expand their technological horizons (think Corvette), but continue to produce and rig the other cool production boats -- the ones that make business more consistent and the ones that will sustain it long term.
PEACE!
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. The mold is true and straight and bad to the bone
. It's a BIG boat and based upon the original 41' Apache race boat of Ben Kramer. No boats were pulled from the mold as a law suit was filed over the rights to the name "Apache". Ultimately Bob McManus won the suit which halted production of the defunct Apache (which involved the talants of Bob Sacente, Steve Wilson, Steve Koss, etc.). 
Had the owner of this company dropped the lawsuit and built a boat (instead of focusing on the lawsuit) he'd probably be in business today
. As stated above, the mold was incredible. Along with the mold, a one off 41' step bottom boat was also being built by Steve Koss. From what I've been told, it was cut up and destroyed....If Checkmate now has this mold, it will stir up alot of good controversy and likely take sales away from Hustler, Outerlimits, Sunsation, Cigarette, Velocity, etc. So the mistery continues........
