Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2013)

16 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? OCTOBER 2013 ONE ON ONE WINN WILLARD, HUNT YACHTS of the busiest ports throughout the na-tion. Law enforcement agencies, the Coast Guard and Navy also use many Hunt designed boats to patrol oceans, rivers, lakes and even war zones.What do you consider to be the most interesting commercial project you?ve recently worked on? Probably the two sizes of new, very fast and multifunctional patrol re-sponse boats for the NYPD. The Þ rst of them will be launched later this year. They will be capable of 40 knots, use waterjet propulsion and carry all the latest high-tech gear for disaster and terrorism response. Although we are unable to talk about it in detail (for ob-vious reasons) our extensive work in the homeland defense sector over the years is quite exciting. Brieß y discuss your business since the global economic trouble of 2008. How do the coming 12-24 months look? The pleasure boat market ground to a standstill in 2008-2009. Many companies are gone. Survivors are half their former size, and there is still too much capacity, so more may go yet. However, Hunt Yachts has actually tripled its business since 2009. We?ve used a zero-debt business model and an investor-backed system for rolling out new models to escape the crippling overhead which doomed other boat builders. At Hunt Design, we survived being small and ß exible, the bene Þ t of being in both the consumer and com-mercial markets. We had a big surge in the patrol boat market when the Navy, Coast Guard and local law enforce-ment geared up with new boats Þ lling a long neglected void. Now that market is well satiated, so it will be mostly re-placements and service going forward. We believe this will be an opportunity for Hunt Marine Services which further demonstrates the advantage of being such a diversiÞ ed business. Economic, legislative, competitive ? looking ahead, what do you consider to be the biggest challenges to your business, and why? The worldwide general eco- nomic malaise has left little enthusiasm for fun of new business. To overcome this, Hunt must continue to inno-vate across all three business entities. Whether it be maximizing our commer- cial opportunities at Hunt Design, of-fering unique, owner-centric programs such as our two-year Carefree Purchase Program at Hunt Yachts, or Þ nding new ways to add value for our customers at Hunt Marine Services, the most suc-cessful companies always tend to be ones where ?innovation? is more than just a buzzword. Ray Hunt was always up for a challenge, designing and rac-ing sailboats and powerboats in a style that no one could ever imagine at the time. Hunt will continue to look for new ways to carry on this tradition.Winn Willard, Director of Hunt Yachts and Vice President of Hunt Associates, graduated from Babson College with a degree in Business Administration and Economics. He studied naval architec- ture at the University of Michigan, is a member of the Society of Naval Archi- tects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and has been with Hunt Associates since 1970.MR #10 (10-17).indd 16MR #10 (10-17).indd 1610/2/2013 3:34:04 PM10/2/2013 3:34:04 PM