boatme

I posted this on another thread but thought i would spur discussion with a new thread

I loved my Black Thunder, It is too bad they have only built very few boats in the past few years
The boat needs an update and a lot more thought to compete in the year 2011
I used to own a BT (new 1999 delivered end of summer 1998) and I sold BT's for a few years for the factory
Unfortunately the worst thing they ever did was to let Terry Sobo go to Nor Tech (Was one of the best things for Nor Tech)
There is no leadership and no forward thought process at BT any more. The styling has not been updated in many years and management does not have the ability to look outside the box
Do not get me wrong I love the boats but resting your entire business on two boat styles is not a good idea. We tried for years to get BT to redesign the 32 and put it out as a somewhat entry level boat and could not convince them to do it (sadly that time has probably passed now) Black Thunder had separated itself from the Miami to Key west Poker run many years ago and did their own run on that same week. I think that was the beginning of the end of their ability to market their boats. Segregating yourself from your largest potential customer base is just plain stupid. And having the ownership of BT make comment to me while standing on the docks in a negative fashion as they watched other boat manufactures taking out potential customers at 8 AM. He was making a derogatory remark about how early and stupid it was to see competitors doing demos at 8 am. This showed me how they did not understand the marketing process of the product.
I would love to see BT come back, it has a great nitch in the market place but they have to change their entire program in order to ever really see the light of day in the industry. In a time when sales are difficult and innovation and customer service is the only way to get the attention of a buyer for hundreds of thousands of dollars. BT is sadly lacking
This is a video I have posted before with some pictures and video of my past boats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSCquwf3SeY
Starting at 2:25 is my BT pictures at the shop, then painted, then running Miami to Key West in 1998. Man i loved that boat!!!

kreed

iTrader: (2)

Very cool vid Marc. The Miami Vice boat is really cool and timeless. Looks to hand the rough very well. The BT is a luxurious condo on the water! I love the size, great party boat! And the Gun ? Well, its a Cig. Nuff said. The Gun seems to be the fastest boat of the group, but which one of the 3 do you like the best??? I know they are all unique in their own way, but over all, which one did you most enjoy running?

boatme

All were great boats all for different reasons
Miami Vice was a cool boat and a tank on the water I would love to have that boat back just because it is timeless and nostalgic This boat really elevated my boating fun Since I had a 21 scarab and a number of other boats prior to this

BT was great for weekend trips and in BIG water it was amazingly stable we traveled a lot with this boat to Chicago and Milwaukee and made trips north and well as taking it to Florida for the KW poker run (thanks to Terry Sobo) and had a great time doing it. I enjoyed selling the boats and the demos were fun. The boat turned amazing for as big as it was.

The Cig, well what can I say, it ate up the rough water at a fast clip and was just a ton of fun to run in rough water just pure raw offshore fun this boat has it hands down

FuelinAround

Seems you have two identical links rolling

endeavor1

iTrader: (3)

Extremely well put Marc. As my involvement has been over the years off and on with the factory, i believe that you hit the nail on the head. I was actually on my way to Ft. Worth today thinking to myself how they could improve areas of the dash and the deck mold to become modern. Maybe round the deck and get rid of the indents as you work up from the rubrail. Who knows, but i do agree, they are nice machines and have their place.

offshorexcursion

iTrader: (5)

You have some great points. Since we have never owned a boat company we dont know everything. But I think our ideas will help black thunder a lot! Lets keep up the positive encouragement so we can enjoy more black thunders in the future!

Redesign the 32 as a entry level! Great idea.

Redo the dash at least on the 46. Top deck would be nice also.

Redo the 43 flat deck to a staggered 700 poker run style boat to compete with everyone else!

I love black thunders and want one. Almost bought shanes 02 but fell in love with his 07 so saving up. My friend bought his 02 and I love boating with him.

endeavor1

iTrader: (3)

ADD SSM drives to all new BTs would be a big advantage too!!!!

OL40SVX

I will say I have always like the 43 Flat Deck!! It would be cool to see a modern updated one of those running a respectable number with 700's!

boatme

At one time I had talked about having a flat deck built to race We discussed sending the mold over to Skater to have Peter lay it up strong and light and modified a bit I think the hull would have been a fun one to run in the snotty Big water I knew BT could not handle building this kind of boat but i wanted to have something on the race course that was different than anything else. Sadly I never got past the discussion state, and then the racing organizations got worse again so I dropped the idea.
I loved the dash. When I bought my boat the dash had been recently modified a year or two before i got mine. I agree it is time for a change again. Ad this boat to the slowly decaying market that used to be great in the big boat marketplace
Good by BT, good by Apache, Good buy Saber, Good buy (seen one you seen em all) Chief. We need to start a thread to list all the deceased boat companies. It would be interesting to see how many have gone by the wayside and who is still working in this difficult economy.

LAriverratt

there is a thread some where about the bottom mods that have been done to help the tall decks and I'm sure that with a little updating inside and out that good #'s with 700's wouldn't be problem at all...back when the BT 43 flat deck cam out wasn't it a pretty fast hull for its size anyway???