The Welsh's Are Out of the Office

Tom and Brenda were out of the marina on the weekend. Yes it is true that sometimes we are not there. With our son Shayne we headed south to Columbus Ohio. We delivered a brand new 180 Stingray to Windsor on the way and helped with the launch for a great summer of fun in the Detroit and St. Clair River. This is close to home for me as I was born in Sarnia and spend lots of time on the St. Clair and Lake Huron.

Crossing the border at Windsor and using the tunnel was very time consumming as the Us customs seamed to be on high alert. Once into Michigan and then into Ohio the terrain looked just like southern Ontario but alot greener and way more flowers were blooming. Columbus is a city of 1.2 million people and 500,000 places to eat. Man this place puts Toronto to shame. The city was very clean, mostly new and filled with an unbelieveable amount of shopping.

We took a side trip to Canton to visit the NFL Hall of Fame. Very well done and a place all football lovers got to visit at least once. Lots of Steelers in the hall...Green, Ham, Lambert, Bradshaw, Rooney plus many more.

Apparently Taylor and Dave with the help of Jeremy and Hazel thought they were busy on Saturday. Four boats, two motors and a trailer plus deliveries on new boats and some service...just another weekend. Alright they did a great job.

Steeler Draft 2010

Steeler Draft 2010

Meet Steeley Bear 00

Brenda was awarded the honour of helping with the selection on the next Steeler Star.

Huntsville Marine was called in to right the Steeler ship after the team under performed in 2009. It was known by team management that when the Welsh family attends a Steeler game, the Steelers are undefeated. Looking for an exceptional draft to fill some rather large holes in the offensive line....Mr. Rooney called Brenda directly to provide needed guidance. Here Brenda carefully examines the possible contenders.

After careful consideration Brenda watches to make sure the selection has the right stuff.

Continuing the on hand approach, the uniform and player number is selected.

Steeley Bear will continue his preparation for the upcoming season at the marina under Brenda's guidance. Come say hello!

New Business and Adventures

This picture is provided by Mr. Hill of a Triumph 150 CC that he purchased recently from Huntsville Marine. A near perfectr early spring day with the family on Lake Superior doing some exploring. Huntsville Marine with our extensive web site combined our very competitive pricing and high demand high quaityboat lines delivers boating experiences throughout Ontario.






The family dog got to go too!
















I will be out of the office from Friday till tuesday next week. Going on an adventure with Brenda and my son Shayne to Ohio. The NFL Football Hall of Fame is on the agenda and perhaps a side trip to Pittsburgh for Steeler fan day. #7 got a six game suspension for very bad behaviour and I think he may be gone! Can't say he has not let alot of people down including his team.

Waterfront Work

Out staff has been working on our waterfront renovations including installation of our docks. Taylor is moving one of the docks into postion for pinning to the shore near battleship row. Behind you can see some of our inventory waiting to be displayed. The boat Taylor is driving is a Triumph 190 Bay.

This picture is facing east along battleship row with Taylor and Dave in the background. You can also see our new totem pole. This is accually a cedar pole that we are recycling for some new lighting. I think although this pole has a few marks in it it has more character. In keeping with the Muskoka theme we are going to invite our dockage customers to add signage marking direction to their cottage or other points of interests. Just give us the sign and we will install.

Section C dockage showing the shorline work and new curbs being installed facing south showing the opening to Fairy Lake. All of section "C" has been renovated...section "D" hopefully later this year or next spring.

Dave to the right and Taylor in the boat smiling for the camera working on battleship row. It was a great day...lots of sunshine with the lake like glass. The house in the background is for sale i believe buts needs a little TLC.

Monday April 19th-Still Getting Ready

A near perfect weather day here in Huntsville today...almost 20 degrees....more like June than April. Our staff was able to accomplish substantially more of our waterfront renovations today and in a couple of more days we should be done. The docks will then be open for business and we can get serious almost three weeks ahead of normal starting boat storage. The next phase is arranging the new inventory in proper display fashion which then opens up yard space for storage boats and customer parking.

I have taken a number of calls regarding our wake board tower special on for the month of April. This is a manufactures special and will not be extended into May. A number of our April inventory specials have been purchased...great early season deals. In talking with Crestliner today best possible delivery date is mid June on an ordered boat.

Service has started preparing some boats out of storage for this weekend. Congratulations to Paul and Jeremy in service as they have completed their Mercury and Mercruiser certification.

All is quiet on the Steelers front with the game schedule for 2010 posted tomorrow...we will be having a close look at the Buffalo game timing. Blue Jays going backwards...pitching but no hitting. Penguins and Crosby look strong! In just two months we will know who wins the cup.

CBC called today and are doing a piece on the G8 and how it is affecting business. I was on the list with my interview before with the Globe. For the marina it is at best a wash with a lost week. They wanted to know if I was planning something on Hwy 60 to attract the presidential masses into the marina to buy something. I said no...don't think the president of France is going to stop and buy a boat.

By the way lunch with the Prime Minister at Deerhurst...security 127 million...priceless!

Docks and Operators Card

Our staff will have a large portion of our dock basin renovation completed by the end of Tuesday next week. Most of our docks will then be ready for the season for our customers and we can officially launch the start of the 2010 boating season. This is a picture facing south west across what we call battleship row and looking at section "c". We have removed the old boardwalk which mother nature was kind enough to finish off this spring. Our staff has placed new securing stations for the docks with some gabian rock in between. Curbs and additional garden bases are also be added. We will be reworking the parking sections in this area and immediately north to improve overall dockage parking. An additional security station for dockage customers will also be installed. Huntsville Marine was very careful to protect the existing shoreline during this work. This was not altered in any form to protect the environment and the overall look.

An important reminder for all our boaters that you will require a Operators Card to drive your boat this year. The OPP will be enforcing this requirement and the fine is some $250.00. Courses are available at various locations including malls and some chain stores. You can go onto BoatExam.com via our web site and take the test on line.

Saturday here at the marina has been quite busy in spite of the intermittent rain and snow. Out on Fairy Lake doing water tests...nice to have the full high windshield on Four Winns and Stingray. It has been an interesting month so far here for weather. Some days are like June other days are more the traditional cold wet April weather. This coming week would be the normal time period for the ice to leave us...we are way ahead of that this year.

On the sale side Crestliner rebates are over on the 20th and the 5 year warranty protection on Mercury Outboards ends April 30th.

My Steelers at least Rooney is not happy with Big Ben. He may be mad enough to sentence him to death...trade to the Lions. Minnesota is also in need for a QB as Farve has yet to announce his intentions and the Farve watch continues.

Just Another Day at the Beach

With the warm sunny weather the last couple of days things around here have hit a new gear. Some of our docks were splashed today and tomorrow we start a major waterfront dock project in sections "c" and "battleship row". This will definitely keep us going for several days. The docks are one of the keys as every boat flows through the shop and yard and is water tested before release. With the docks in this allows us some additional yard space s we more the dockage customers to their slips. It is really great for the staff when they can work in great weather putting the docks in instead of the cold and wet normal spring weather. Mosquito's have disappeared again that's nice. Lots of boat shoppers, emails and phone calls from our customers and people looking for a new ride...some really nice comments on our new Stingray Boat line. First new Stingray gets delivered Saturday am....everyone is excited...a special day. After that boat goes in about 100 more new and used boats to delivery over the next 6 to seven weeks. Add to that some 250 storage boats and motors...man are we busy in May.

As I mentioned before and those who have seen my desk know that I am a huge Pittsburgh Steeler fan. Big Ben #7 was on the news telling everyone that he needs to do better and try to be a role model for kids...got some work to do there. Art Rooney the teams President is an old school guy and was not impressed. Holmes #10 also got himself in trouble with controlled substances and received a 4 game suspension. ( his second suspension) The team ownership looking to make a statement shipped Holmes off to the Jets to get rid of the problem. I am not sure that was punishment as the Jets are a contender in 2010 but I guess he will have to move to a new city and new faces. It was either Ben or Holmes which had to go...lower man on the pay scale gets moved to make a statement. I wonder if the Steelers will be drafting a QB this year?

Jays are off to a good start...we will see how long that lasts....nice energy on the team. Watched a good portion of the Masters. Nickelson won...Tiger lost but did well...swearing and bad body language not wise for a national audience for a guy looking for a comeback. Tiger should have thanked all the fans for their support during the event instead of just complaining about his game.

If any of you have not been by our old area...you are in for a huge surprise. Now it looks like Deerhurst and with the University of Waterloo building behind...massive...wow. I will put some pictures up later in the week when I get a chance to get back over there. By the way the waterway restrictions on Fairy, Mary and Vernon have been lifted for the G8. Those of you on the canal or near the canal on Fairy and Penn are not so lucky. We will be looking for the first sighting of the two man subs this spring...last sighting off Anther Island in Fairy Lake. Was that a log or a periscope? Perhaps we should have a contest winner for the first picture that does not get censored by the RCMP or CSIS. Shortly we will be able to see the iron curtain being built around Grandview and Deerhurst. Ten feet high concrete and wire...over 1 million dollars of concrete which has to be removed within 6 days of the close of the G8. At least the fencing will be recycled to a dog walking area at the ball diamonds.

The Boating Business Early April 2010

This is my 23rd spring in the boat business as the General Manager of Huntsville Marine. The economic downturn in the United States was much more severe there than our own economic problems. A high majority of US boat builders lost significant production as the US buyer stayed on the sidelines. Many of the major boat builders were forced into Chapter 11 protection forcing the closure of plants and layoffs of skilled workers while they reorganized their business to meet the new reality. This resulted in further problems for the marine parts manufacturer's as they did not have the volume of orders to keep their plants in production.

As an example the largest boating group of Companies Genmar with its 11 boat companies filed for Chapter 11 protection in early May 2009. I have been told that Yamaha USA lost in excess of one billion dollars in 2009. Mercury only lost in the area of 350 million. Regal, Chapparel, Rinker to name a few shut down for long periods or reduced production to numbers not seen in many many years. Crownline was shutdown to look for a new owner with deep pockets. Companies such as Stingray and Monterey fared significantly better as they are privately owned companies and operated boat builders with little of no debt leverage.

What does this mean for this seasons boat business in Ontario. Four Winns has a new owner in Platinum Equity and is now one of the best financed boat companies. Unfortunately with Four Winns there is severe product shortages and long delivery periods. Brunswick, owner of Mercury Marine decided to close Maxumm Boats altogether and focus their attention on Searay and Bayliner. Some companies have had to push through very high price increases to cover their fixed costs. Glasstron is now part of the Platinum Equity Group and now a separate boat line from Larson with production being moved to Cadillac Michigan. Glasstron a middle tier boat company,is going to be repositioned in the market in 2011 to complete against Bayliner and Tahoe as another low priced reduced build quality entry level boat. Owners of Glasstron Boats will most likely see increased depreciation of your boat and those buying this product this year may be in for a major surprise. The Triumph plant in North Carolina is closed and the plant is being moved to Minnesota. I could go on but I think you see the picture.

Of particular note is that as of today if you are ordering a new boat you are most likely looking at a minimum of June delivery and in some cases July. There is very large shortage of marine engines particularly Volvo, boat windshields as there is only one remaining manufacturer and some upholstery components. Companies such as Stingray are in a good position here as they manufacturer all of their own interior components.

In the middle of this economic restructuring the EPA in the United States decided to make it mandatory that as of Dec.1, 2009 all 3.0L marine engines will have catalytic converters to meet new emission standards. Canada is exempt for the moment but we will get caught up in this as all the sterndrive engines are manufactured in the USA. The next on the list is the 4.3L V6, one of our most popular engines which is due to have mandatory catalytic converters added in the fall of 2010 and them followed by the 5.0L engines shortly there after. Fuel injected engine will be standard. All of this means our boats will be more environmentally clean but this will come at a high price increase. Right now the price increase on the 3.0 after installation of the converter and fuel injection to meet the new standards is in excess of $2000.00.

I will expand on the situation more in the coming weeks.

WINTER RETURNS TO MUSKOKA

It is with great sadness I must report that winter has returned here at the marina and to Huntsville. When I looked out the window...surprise 1" of white stuff and no sun and no warmth. Could be worse as North Bay and Sudbury apparently both recieved some 3" of the white stuff. Fortunately better weather is coming on the weekend or so the weather people say. Are they ever wrong?

I saw that the Leaf's are having trouble scoring goals again and the defence where they have most of the salary cap money set, still at times does not look like playoff calibur. The Blue Jays have a winning record in their first seek with the pitching looking okay. It was jsut Texas but they have a really good offensive team or so the insiders say. Vernon Wells is tearing the cover off the ball. Vernon is usually stone cold block of ice cold in April.

We are continuing to expand our web site www.huntsvillemarine.com at a rapid pace. In the next few days the Facebook addition is next. My daughter Jaclyn is in charge of this for me. We are also working on a data stream of boat tests from boattest.ca into our site on the HM Boat Reviews page. This is very cutting edge stuff as no one is doing this in Canada of USA. Our goal is high, we want the very best maina web site avialable here in Ontario and perhaps in Canada. As a side note on the site...anyone looking or a deal on a new baot should look at our HM April Boat Specials and Clearance. There is also a very good deal on a new wakeboard tower.

Watch the Master's for a awhile last night...I hate to think how much fertilizer they put done to get that golf course that green. This is the only golf tournament that I normally watch all summer. I am not a big golfer...usually once or twice a season...major scheduling problems with the very busy schedule at the marina. Tiger looked good...playing...man did he mess up...I don't get it...Michael Vick the Atlanta QB imploded with dog fighting and other dum stuff not that long ago...had it all...gave it all away! What is the deal with that commercial with Tiger and his now deceased father? I thought the Nike people and Tiger's new spin team would be better than that.

Huntsville Marine Goes to the Leafs.

Yesterday I had the opportunity with my son Taylor to go to the Leaf game versus the Flyers. The Air Canada Center was certainly rocking and very loud...too bad the Leafs lost 2 to 0. Good game but the Leafs were playing too much of a perimeter game and not crashing the net. They seem to be getting better with the recent trades...maybe next season they can get to the playoffs. My other favourite team the Pittsburgh Steelers are also having their porblems. Big Ben and Holmes are not being role models right now. Number 7 seems to have a real problem and not a good one at that. If it is true he is toast. 120 plus million dollar contract with a morality clause...whats up!

The phone is definitely ringing here at the marina...our storage customers are ready to go boating again. The weather is going to cool here this week and into next and already this week has not been as warm or sunny as last week...closer to April normal. Bye the way I have my first bug bites. We will be starting most of our out of storage on the week of the 26th when we are past the normal time of late night or evening temperatures below zero. Remember that 3 weeks notice is required to take your boat out of storage during the month of May and June.

Met a very nice couple from Sudbury who made the journey to Huntsville Marine and purchased a new 2010 185LX Stingray in platinum grey. They looked at a number of boats...we had the right boat at the right price with the right information. Thanks against Sudbury we appreciate the business.

What a great Weekend Here In Muskoka

Absolutely wow! Best weather on this weekend in the 24 years I have lived in Huntsville. Saw a couple of boats out on the water...hope they were carefull as I almost hit an iceburg and a log on Thursday. Lots of people in looking for new boats especially pontoons and 18' and 19' bowriders. Some families looking for the elusive two to three year old new boat. Wish I had a bunch of them. By the way the number of distressed sales in the US is very low and that seems to have run its coarse. As the one gentleman told me as he was looking in Michigan..." still some small bowriders out there but the problem is that the US Brokers do not make him comfortable and the Americans tend to do less maintneance." Delivered our first Crestliner fishing boat this spring today...a 1700 Super Hawk to a family in the Sudbury area. Best pricing and a good reference to deal here why they make the journey. Very busy week here at the marina coming up. Dock work to do, yard prep and the start of the out of storage spring season.

Its Summer in April

Wednesday here was such a great day absolutly beautiful. I decided to go for that boat ride as I had never had the opportunity to get out on the water this early. Normally the first boat ride of the year is close to May or May and is very cold and wet. We put a new 2010 Stingray 185LX with a 3.oL 150 Hp volvo in the water and I got to buzz the lake around the pack ice at 50MPH. The water was like a sheet of glass and eith the full high widshield a spring jacket was just fine. Definitely a special moment. I stayed long enough out there to complete a boat review which will be published in the next few days on our site under HM Boat Reviews.

Yesterday we took the afternoon off and went to Toronto to see the 2011 snowmobile show at Downsview. Man is that place ever old...it is like standing in a bunker. We are looking for a new sled for Brenda and I think she found whats she needs in a 2011Skidoo TNT with the new 600 Four Stroke....30 MPG wow. Taylor is also looking for a new sled and he is looking at Skidoo as well most likely a 800cc...it has got to be fast and he rides hard. I have a Sno Pro 8 Artic Cat and don't see a new one for me this year although I found one I like.

Lots of action on our Crestliner fishing boats...going out to do a watertest with a new customer form London on a Stingray 180RX later this afternoon. Great day here again.