SeaVee Boats welcomed 800 guests to an open house at its new manufacturing facility and headquarters in Medley, Fla., last Saturday.

“We had a great turnout and feedback, and a nice dynamic in the shadow of the Miami boat show,” sales and marketing director John Caballero told Trade Only Today. “The focus was to put the factory on display and allow the public to see our quality with their own eyes.”

Before the new 9-acre location was completed, Caballero said, SeaVee’s manufacturing was spread out at six operations in the Miami area. “The beauty of the new facility is that now we have all operations on campus,” he said.

SeaVee headquarters has expanded with two new buildings, one that occupies about 180,000 square feet and a second 40,000-square-foot facility that is used primarily for small parts. The company hopes to build up to 250 semicustom boats a year and employ at least 350 people.

SeaVee will build 32-, 34-, 37- and 39-footers in Medley and has begun work on a 45-footer that the company plans to debut at this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. The company will continue building its smallest boats — 27- and 29-footers — at its plant in Stuart, Fla.

Prior to the open house, SeaVee held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with U.S. congressmen and delegations from both Florida senators on hand.

Caballero said the new building was designed exclusively for building boats. “It’s a building designed from its inception to be a boat factory,” he said. “It starts with the lamination at the rear of the building.”

After the boat comes out of lamination, a garage door opens to the trimming area. The boat proceeds through the production line, where a series of catwalks will eliminate the need for ladders to board the boats in production.

A test tank helps with quality control and reducing finish times. The quality-control manager used to have to trailer boats to a local ramp. “Now the boat is placed in the pool with overhead cranes, and we can check the stance of the boat, the fittings, the pumps, static tests on the motors,” Caballero said.

He added that SeaVee has a service facility at a local marina and that the boats are still water-tested, but if an issue comes up, it can be dealt with more efficiently. “The end result is the boat doesn’t come back to the factory and affect the integrity of production,” Caballero said.

He said SeaVee had a good Miami International Boat Show and that the company took orders at the open house. SeaVee took several applications for employment.