Interview with CC

[gotwake]

Nice job Erik -

[Erik]

RE: Interview with CC

Hey - Thanks. There are a few things I knew that would not be answered but she was very nice and I give Correct Craft a huge thumbs up for hiring her. And hiring outside their ranks.

Erik

[NautiqueJeff]

RE: Interview with CC

She actually worked for Correct Craft before she went to Boston Whaler.

[bkhallpass]

RE: Interview with CC

What interview are we referring to? BKH

[Erik]

BKHP: it is regarding an interview I conducted and posted here:
http://www.erikjernberg.com/

[bkhallpass]

Thx, I'll read it this evening. BKH

[Rhode]

Good job, Erik, for pinning down CC's new marketing veep before she even punched the time clock; and, props to Ms. Dunigan taking the interview. Also, I think that Mr. McNew should be credited for filling the position from outside the family (not "ranks," as politely noted above) and taking back a former employee who dared to gain experience elsewhere at a big-time boat company.

The only thing that struck me about the interview, aside from the redundant boilerplate marketing drivel, which Ms. Dunagin was surely limited to spitting at Erik, was that she evidently missed the import of the question about CC using the established SAN model name for the new 220. Generally speaking, she refers to this as a "model line extension." No, Ms. Dunagin, that was not a model line extension, as there was at the time, and still remains, only one boat in the product line that is called a SAN. This was deception, plain and simple, and not-so unlike "Castling" in the game of chess when a player simultaneously moves their king (210), and one of their rooks (pun, 220)...the 210 moves two squares towards a 220, and the 220 moves to the square at the other side of the 210.

Again, good job, Erik, good luck, Ms. Dunigan, and good move, Mr. McNew.

Rhode

[AbunDiga909]

Sweet interview Erik! Thanks for posting it online, I would never have thought to try to get an interview in the first place...

Nice job!

~Austin

[Erik]

Thanks Guys.

Rhode, I definitely asked a few questions that could not be answered and I knew that going in. I really think people were expecting, and wanted, an extended/enlarged version of the Super Sport hull. Then they got the 220. Which to me just sort of layers another level of confusion on top of the already confusing Air 211 and 226. The 220 release really was kind of a pump-fake, made even more confusing by removing the Super Air Nautique name from the 210 and applying it to the 220.

I think someday we will still get that bigger 210, but not without removing some of the boats they already have in the lineup. Way too much new stuff right now for them to kick out something new.

I can make this positive comment about Malibu: The 24lsv was a very good idea and was exactly what people asked for and the market needed. Huge opportunity being missed in that area from the other players. Wake boats are going to get bigger, not smaller, over time. The companies that get there first will win in the end.

By contrast I think they are knocking it out of the park right now with the Ski Nautique and ITS brand... This year's version is the best since....well you know which version of the Ski Nautique I personally love

I got my press passes in the mail yesterday so we will have more to say after the miami boat show

[Erik]

Sweet interview Erik! Thanks for posting it online, I would never have thought to try to get an interview in the first place...

Nice job!

~Austin

Most people wouldn't. It is my business-nerd and boat-nerd tencencies that combined in a fireball and caused me to chase this down. And truth be told I am also a marketing-nerd and edited some of the nerdiest questions out before I conducted the interview. So the questions I knew that would be of interest to like, 3 people in the world, were removed before she and I had the interview.

[Rhode]

Erik,

This is going to be one of those "right on, dude" posts, except I'm going to start by saying that you managed to capture what I feel about the 220 in a 1,000 words less than I could have ever done..."layers another level of confusion"..."pump fake."

In my words, the 220 is another "tweener" boat, between this and between that, just like the 211 and 226. Why don't we all just start calling the new offering the "Two Tweener." Straight up, though, I could see myself buying the Two Tweener because I wakeboard only and am looking for more space than the non-family friendly 210 and its one beverage, one towel and one cell phone per person limitations for storage. Also, I suspect that the Two Tweener's wake blows doors on the BU VLX, which I sampled in '05, because it starts out heavier and draws much more water (it's less beamy).

If I were in charge at CC, I'd leave the 211 alone and keep it in the fleet. That boat seems to be an equal compromise between skiiers and wakeboarders. I'd also leave the 210 alone, as it is time-tested and universally enjoyed as an easy-to-trailer, beast wake-throwing boat. However, I would change the name back to SAN and CC would issue a press release apoligizing to everone for their craven act this year in defrocking that boat of its God given name. I'd rename the 220 the Two Tweener One (221), so as to associate it more directly with the smaller, 211 Tweener and those two boats could pull the baby boomers into their graves. Then, I'd burn the molds for the 226 and claim that this boat was only an experimental model; and follow-up by giving all the current 226 owners a $10K coupon to trade-in on whatever it was that they thought they were buying and didn't get. To continue, I would roll out the big dog wakeboard boat many of us want that is not only roomy but actually throws a bigger wake than the SAN (210). Here's where we need some hardcore engineering and Mr. McNew should spare no expense. There has to be a way to build a boat with a lot of space, but which also displaces enough water to throw a better-than-SAN wake. Factory ballast SHOULD GET THE JOB DONE W/O NEEDING TO SACK OUT THE JOINT. CC would call this wakeboard boat whatever the marketing fools told them (suggest Big Dirty Dog 330) and they would get between me and another pile of cash.

Oh yah, right on, Erik.

Rhode

[NautiqueJeff]

Couple of things that I'll throw in here...

CC tried dropping the SUPER from the Air Nautique 210 in early 2003. Customers and dealers complained, and by the middle of the year the SUPER was again part of the name. This is what I was told by my dealer anyway.

I would look for a 230 to be released next year. I don't have any insider information or anything like that, but I wouldn't be totally surprised to see it, and I look forward to it.

[Rhode]

Jeff,

From your mouth to God's ears about the 230! I hope they don't dump on us some stupid 100" beam monstrosity that draws 20" of water and needs four waterbed mattresses of extra ballast so as to clear the wake. There's room in their fleet for a 23' plus foot party barge, for sure, but CC needs to step up to the plate with a bigger wakeboard boat first. From my perspective, CC is surving in the wakeboard space on the 210 like a coke addict at 2:10 AM rubbing their gums with their index finger...

I had an '03 and didn't know it wasn't called Super until '04 when it was pointed out to me. The offense is that they used the SAN name on a different boat, not that they dropped the word Super.

Rhode

[NautiqueJeff]

I understand, I'm just saying that they tried dropping the name in the past, and it didn't go over well. I personally believe that they should have kept the SAN name associated with the 210, whether they added it to the 220 or not. That's just my opinion though.

[Rhode]

Jeff.

I agree with you completely and am sorry for any confusion; was just launching off your documentation of what happend in '03 when CC should have learn their lesson once and for all. Any reaction to my boat fleet described above, or the prospect/fear of CC dumping on us some 100" beamy barge b.s. wakeboard boat?

Rhode