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52Maritime Reporter & Engineering News WorkboatsMetal Craft Marine is wellregarded in maritime cir- cles for designing andbuilding high performance craft outfitted for the most demanding work conditions. While the company is diverse in its work scope and capability, its history lies in high-performance jetboats and its current core competency lies in the construction of tough fire boats and military boats for worldwide use. Like many small boat builders in its genre MetalCraft has a colorful story totell. It literally starts with the company?s location, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada,on the northeast bank of Lake Ontario, where there has been a boatbuilding op- eration dating to 1676. MetalCraft Marine Inc. is slightlyyounger than that, born in 1987 whenMonty Smith, the founder, bought out Kingston Aluminum Yachts. In the be- ginning it was Monty and Tom Wroe, the general manager and President, who hadworked together at Kingston Aluminum Yachts. ?They were building these mag- nificent sailing yachts, beautiful boats,? said Bob Clark, contracts manager, Met- alCraft Marine. But that business was short lived. According to Clark it was the proceeds from a lucrative real estate deal that enabled Smith to purchase the com-pany from Kingston Aluminum Yachts, and soon thereafter they changed the name to Metal Craft, as well as the direc-tion toward the patrol and workboat mar- ket. ?Boat number one was Tom?s first power boat design,? said Clark. ?And be- lieve it or not, it is the hull shape of the 70 (the company?s new 70-ft., 40+ knot fire- boat) that we were just on. It has been anamazingly successful hull shape for thecompany.? While MetalCraft certainly enjoys a successful business today ? including the fact that it is the only Canadian commer- cial aluminum boat company to have a U.S. GSA contract (GSA contract No.GS07F0084J ) ? steady business and fi- nancial success were not always a given, as Clark explained. ?The company was so poor then (at the beginning, with the de- livery of its first government boat con- tract) that the inspector upon trialing thefirst boat said ?I told Tom I am never going to do sea trials on a boat again that doesn?t have a windshield!? And it was December.? Clark joined the company as a consult- ant in 1991 when it had only four em-ployees. ?The primary problem for small companies is that when the same guy de-signs the boat, and the same guy builds the boats, it?s hard to find time to actually MetalCraft Marine Small Company with Big Ambitions Celebrates 25 Years On the occasion of Metal Craft Marine?s 25th anniversary, Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ventured north, to the boat builder?s Kingston, Ontario headquarters, to discover the se- cret to its success. By Greg Trauthwein (Photo: Martin Meissner) MR#11 (50-57):MR Template 11/4/2012 10:40 AM Page 52