Former Baja President buys Checkmate
 

Doug Smith,one of the early principles of Baja,and president when Baja was bought by Brunswick, has apparently bought Checkmate. Kind of ironic,as Baja got their start years ago by buying old Checkmate molds that were no longer used:p , outgrew Checkmate in later years (in the same town) and now has kind of come full circle. Has to be a good thing for Checkmate,and the Combs family is staying on:drink: More info on the Checkmate owners site,www.checkmate-boats.com

Sounds like a ++ there...

This is where Doug Smith started his boat building career in the 70"s with Checkmate Boats.This was in his future for sometime regaining ownership of a boat company.
All the years of development of Baja Boats by Doug will carry over to Checkmates and still be family owned by him. Expect to see alot of changes and up grades with Doug taking over at the helm. I know! Doug and I worked together and he has my respect.

It is now officially a done deal. Both Doug and Bill just walked out of my office smiling. God Bless both of them! :cool:

So that is the deal you were working on from chips and boats this morning? Congrats. lots of memories here,we were one of Checkmate's top dealers in the early to late 70's. Still have a soft spot for them tho I haven't sold them for years. This deal has to be good for all involved.:drink:

It was. Bill was ready to retire and Doug is tired of being retired (lol) Its been fun working on this deal ... for the last 6months!:eek: Glad this part is over ..... and everyones happy. :cool:

Awesome, I loved my Checkmate

Good news. And even our very own RG3 was involved somewhere in the deal.:D
Always liked Checkmates.
At the time I bought my Baja, had there been a similar deal on a Checkmate, I would have bought the Checkmate.

In the late 70's banana boat co built 24's from the molds we bought from Cigarette and 38's and 34's from the mold we had JC Simon design for us.....but we also sold 18 and 20 footers that we bought from Doug Smith at Baja and put our decals on them.

He was a class act then and always built a good boat....should be some great boats coming down the line in the future.

Charlie McCarthy

www.bananaboatco.com

Hmm, I wonder if this means I'll have to start sharing the reservoir with them? :)