In late 2018, MasterCraft bought Crest Marine of Owosso, Mich., a pontoon manufacturer. In 2017, the company acquired NauticStar of Amory, Miss., a manufacturer of bay boats, deck boats and offshore center consoles. She joined MasterCraft in July, at a time when the company was digesting two major acquisitions.
Morton is a 35-year veteran of the marine industry who began her career as a boat laminator and worked her way up through materials, operations management, purchasing and strategic sourcing. The company maintains long-term contracts with preferred suppliers. The supply chain team at MasterCraft works with approximately 200 suppliers that provide components and raw materials including resins, fiberglass, vinyl, engines, electronic controls, billet aluminum and custom components. As an example, MasterCraft currently produces all upholstery in house and builds all trailers in house. “We are constantly reviewing potentials for vertical integration in efforts to better control our costs, quality and delivery,” Morton says. MasterCraft is highly vertically integrated and, where it makes sense, plans to become even more vertically integrated. In February, the company introduced a new brand called Aviara, a luxury recreational day boat with European styling and American engineering that comes in lengths of 32, 36 and 40 feet. The DockStar steering system has more precise steering while reversing, for example, making it easier to move around tight spots like docks.
Over the past five years, MasterCraft has revamped its 12 models. “The new product development process is quite intensive and thorough.” “We have an excellent group of engineers and designers,” Morton says. MasterCraft competes against them based on its name recognition, price, performance and innovative features and design. The competition is both fragmented and fierce, says Jan Morton, vice president of supply chain, with large OEM, low-volume builders and small independent producers all vying for market share. Today, MasterCraft is located in Vonore, Tenn., about one hour southwest of Knoxville, and manufactures thousands of boats each year. The company was founded in 1968 in a two-stall horse barn on a farm in Maryville, Tenn., and during its first year produced 12 boats. More than 130 dealers sell its boats around the globe. MasterCraft Boat Holdings is the largest manufacturer of inboard ski, wakeboard and luxury performance powerboats in the world. This helps a lot when picking up a downed rider.Īt the end of the day, I don't think I would pay a ton of money extra to have dockstar, but all else equal, I would not let that make or break my decision on purchasing a boat.MasterCraft Boat Holdings plans to improve its supply chain as it continues to grow.īy Mark Lawton, Senior Editor at Knighthouse Publishing I actually like dockstar because it also seems to help maneuver the boat at low speeds when going forward as well. If you hit something big, yeah, they could get damaged- but if you didn't have dockstar it would hit the prop anyways and possibly take out the strut, driveline, etc. The dockstar rudders are directly inline with the prop- so if you hit something small- maybe they will actually protect the prop from being dinged. If you hit something, that's a different story - and always a bad thing- dockstar or not.
They will probably outlast most of us under normal use. Dockstar is just two extra small rudders, not really anything special about it- the technology for that has been around for some time - I don't think you should worry about them wearing out or being one more thing to break.
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