Three may definitely be a crowd

IMAGINE the pressure, the foreboding sense of doom and trepidation, the constant, nerve-tingling apprehension and panic-induced tremors experienced by the surgeons who carried out the first heart (or face) transplants, or by the people currently trying to stick a giant prophylactic over the prematurely ejaculating geyser of bubbling spew that may end up sending all piscine species in the Gulf of Mexico the way of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Well, multiply those feelings by at least three and it will just about capture the quagmire which has to be navigated by someone running a company that manufactures boats – especially a company that manufactures large boats. More specifically, an export-oriented Australian company building large boats which have to be sold abroad in a currency that is currently making the USD and the Euro look like a recurrence of 1930s Germany, where it needed a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread.

In terms of top-end, Aussie-built brands, there have really only been three major players making the running export-wise - Maritimo, Riviera and, at the lower end but creeping inexorably upmarket, Mustang. The remarkable overlapping factor here is that one man - recently interviewed in this publication – has been involved with two of them. The Skipper never drafts fawning, obsequious, sycophantic biographical hagiographies (it’s not my style, plus I have never even met the party concerned), but it is a fact that those two brands – Riviera and latterly Maritimo – rose to dazzling heights under this man’s stewardship. However, as of now, in a unique, precedent-setting trifecta, the man in question, Bill Barry-Cotter, will now add Mustang to his list. Incredibly, he will now have had a hand in the destiny of all three brands - what’s the betting that he won’t make a decent fist of Mustang?

Funny thing about Mustang but, if you had seen one of their later flybridge models tied up in a marina outside a Riviera, and if you couldn’t see the hull, you’d almost swear that both boats were from the same yard! Those topside mouldings were virtually a dead ringer for Riviera’s. This could be a trump card for Bill Barry-Cotter – Riviera-type styling in a “feeder” brand for those who aren’t yet at the Maritimo stage. The Skipper – someone who normally raises cynicism to a fine art - thinks this is a veritable master stroke. However, as per my intro, don’t forget that the US$0.90 Aussie dollar is still hovering in the background, which will mean survival of the fittest, strongest (and most experienced). In the current onerous trading circumstances, can these three top-end brands survive? Your writer says no; that this rarefied environment is too crowded, and that one of them will bite the dust.

Who will it be? The Skipper is never less than 100% impartial or objective, so you won’t see any partisan leanings here. But I can assure you of one thing: this will be a battle royal. On one side we have a seasoned marine operator who can walk around a boat factory and spot an imperfection on a mould at 100 paces, and on the other we have a concern full of world-class marine tradesmen, run by a bank. Banks don’t know how to make boats (plus they can’t store them all neatly stacked up in a vault!), but they do understand what has to be done to make money. Both players will have to raise their games, sharply tone and hone every instinct and skill and joust to the death. This will make “Barbarians at the Gate” look like the takeover of a corner milk bar!