Less than 15 years ago, there was no Performance Boat Center. There was just a quiet cove in Osage Beach, Mo., at the Lake of the Ozarks. There were was no expansive showroom filled with the likes of MTI, Performance Powerboats and Sunsation Boats products. In fact, though MTI was a going concern back then, Performance Powerboats didn’t exist. Sunsation did, but the Michigan company was still building V-bottom sportboats and hadn’t launched its now bread-and-butter CCX center console line.
There were no expansive docks or storage facilities, much less a restaurant with a tiki bar and a swimming pool, just a quiet cove at Mile Maker 21.
But Mark Waddington and Brett Manire, the founders of the multi-brand powerhouse dealership, had a vision. A couple of longtime friends, they ignored “conventional wisdom” and naysayers—and there were plenty of them—and ran with it. They didn’t just build a dealership. They built a community.
In the process, they transformed the Lake of the Ozarks into a nationally recognized destination and hub in the go-fast boating world.
Of course the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout had been going strong before Performance Boat Center arrived. But Performance Boat Center raised national awareness and fondness—and not just for the top-speed event but for the Central Missouri waterway itself—to previously unimagined levels.
Why this trip down memory lane? Why now?
Earlier today, speedonthewater.com reported that Skater catamaran aficionado Ron Szolack will have not one but two new builds rigged by Myrick Coil and his team at the famed dealership. That Performance Boat Center will rig two brand-new Skaters is noteworthy in and of itself. But Szolack is one picky dude. He doesn’t make such decisions lightly.
His choice speaks to the reputation, skill and reach of the multi-brand dealership.
Make that multi-location, multi-brand dealership as Performance Boat Center opened a new Fort Lauderdale showroom that complements its other facility in the South Florida boating mecca. The company also launched its Powered By Performance dealership-expansion project last month with WMF Watercraft and Marine, which in a much-needed move expands Performance Boat Center’s reach into Southwest Florida.
And thanks to a couple of close friends with a clear vision and steadfast belief in it, it all started less than 15 years in a quiet cove at the Lake of the Ozarks.