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at a record high in government orders and now we’re struggling along at record lows. All this has happened in the past two years.” McFalls said SeaArk watched compe- tition for U.S. government contracts go from six bidders on a project to 26 bidders. “Over the past 10 years, 70 to 75% of our business has been combat craft related for the

U.S. federal government. Nowadays we’d be fortunate for that to be 30%.” However, McFalls said, “the internation- al market has been one of our strongholds. We’ve been able to maintain our international contracts.” And, he said, “we’re hopeful that things are going to turn around.

Now that we have a budget passed we’re hoping money will be distributed to agencies for boat purchases.”

Beyond budget restraints, McFalls said he has seen a lot of changes in the federal government’s acquisitions process over the years. “At one time the focus was on best value and now it’s about the cheapest price.” Other changes have made it difficult to even respond to federal procure- ment announcements, he said. Being on GSA contract is the “lifeblood of the industry” and he believes SeaArk has been a GSA approved vendor since the GSA contract process began. “We’ve always been able to submit a bid with an ‘open market’ item [a comparable item to what was specified].” But those times are gone, McFalls said, no

RIBS & Combat Craft

SeaArk

Ken McFalls “Boats have to be much more multi-purpose than they used to be ... outfit one boat to handle five jobs”

Moose Boats’ 35-ft diesel, waterjet M2 patrol boats built for the U.S. Navy 36 MN May 2011