Let’s
look at some numbers. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission, there are approximately a million registered boats in the state of
Florida. Roughly 100,000 of those roam Tampa Bay and its nearby waters.
Anyone
who has enjoyed the pleasures of a day on the Bay knows the responsibility of
boat ownership. There’s everything from storage to repair. And even if the
basics are covered, there is always a need to make your craft ship shape each
season. Tampa Bay has scads of companies to serve your nautical needs. Here are
three local entrepreneurs, who have made their mark.
All
three are fishermen. All three saw a need to make their sport better, so they
did. Below are their stories.
JL
Marine/Power-Pole
John
Oliverio had a problem. He could find the fish. He just could not make a cast
without spooking them, because he could not stop the boat quickly or quietly
enough. A conventional anchor just didn’t work.
If
you’re a weekend fishermen, a noisy anchor is a mere annoyance. If you’re a
tournament angler, it’s the difference between winning and losing.
A
competitive fisherman, Oliverio put his engineering skills to work. After
tinkering with connectors that resemble Legos, the Brandon resident came up
with the first Power-Pole, a shallow-water anchoring system that uses a
hydraulic lever and rod to penetrate the ground quietly and stop the boat with
the flip of a switch. There is no heavy metal to lift, no splash to scare the
fish. Safe, secure and speedy, Power-Pole ultimately changed the complexion of
shallow water fishing.
The
impact was not immediate. When the first Power-Poles entered the market in
2000, there were skeptics. Now most of the doubters are believers.
At
first, Oliverio sold Power-Poles out of the trunk of his car; the device is now
available via 2,000 dealers nationwide.
Power-Pole,
which is produced by JL Marine Systems in east Tampa, is one of the
heavyweights in the fishing industry. A company that started out with two
friends side by side is now home to 60 employees at a 40,000 square foot
facility.
Carbon
Marine
Joe
Welbourn wants to get one thing straight as we took a walk around his Tampa
warehouse on a warm afternoon.
“I don’t give up. I’m not wired that way,” he
said.
A
former manager of headhunters, the former job finder left the comfort of a
six-figure career to create his own line of work. It just took a few years.
Back
in 2007, Welbourn was sitting in his South Tampa garage trying to find a way to
fix the tiller extension on his skiff. A
bit of research revealed that there was no easy way to buy a replacement.
That’s when Welbourn’s intellectual tenacity took over. He made his own
replacement part and his invention --- known as the tiller pillar --- formed
the foundation for his business, Carbon Marine, which makes more than just
tillers. You can buy push poles, casting platforms and poling platforms. All
are made out of carbon fiber, a substance traditionally known as graphite.
Historically, boating accessories have been made of metal, but carbon fiber is
much lighter and more durable. In fact, Welbourn’s motto is “Float Shallower.”
Stealth
is the name of the game in saltwater flats fishing, and Welbourn has done quite
well serving those who prefer precision over power. After more than six years
in his latest venture, he expects to generate more than $400,000 in 2013, not
bad for a guy that barely grossed $4,000 after his first year in business.
“I’m
an engineer at heart,” Welbourn said. “I love to build stuff. I love to solve
problems.”
Pelican
Custom Flats Boats
They’re
friends, former prep baseball players and life-long Tampa Bay fishermen who
talked of owning their own boating company back in high school. Sounds cliché,
right? In the real world, such talk usually never amounts to much. The reality
of marriage and money gets in the way. But T.J. Strahan and his two buddies,
Chis and John Rosende, made good on their promise, turning a plan into profit
with Pelican Custom Flats Boats.
Their
mission is simple: Build an affordable, quality flats boat, which is not easy,
considering that a high-end technical poling skiff can run $70,000.
Pelican,
which is still in its infancy as a company after two plus years, tries to produce
a boat that costs around 35 grand. The main models are the FLY17 and PELICAN17.
Both provide comfort and a dry ride.
Bigger
boating companies rely on their brand for business, but generally carry more
overhead, which is then passed on to the consumer. Pelican relies on low
overhead, quality and customer service to create its niche.
“We
spent time early, so you don’t have to spend the time later,” Strahan said,
referring to the boats’ design process. “It’s one of those things. Sometimes
you get lucky. But then sometimes you’d
like to think you know what you’re doing. I think it was a combination of both
in our case.”
For
those who want to fish super skinny water, Pelican created the AMBUSH, a
13-footer that was originally designed as a luxury paddle board, but morphed
into a cross between a kayak and boat. The AMBUSH, which floats in less than 3
inches, can be powered by motor or paddle and has the many of the amenities of
a traditional skiff.
The
latest AMBUSH is a carbon fiber version, which promises to be significantly lighter,
ideal for one angler to portage and pole.
“To
be honest, we’ve never been able to keep a demo,” Strahan said. “Our demo boats
sell fast, like that. It’s a good problem to have.”
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