Paxson St. Clair spent 30 years working for his father, Cobalt Boats founder Pack St. Clair. In his younger years, the son was known as “Little Pack,” but when he grew up, his father urged him to use the full name Paxson so people could tell apart the two men. That often turned into an Abbott and Costello routine, as he recalls. “People would say, ‘I know you’re Pack’s son. What’s your name?’ ”

History is now repeating itself as he builds a new business with his own sons, Pack and Cameron, only this time, it’s in the boat-lift industry instead of the boatbuilding segment. The new business started after 2017, when Malibu Boats bought Cobalt Boats and Paxson found himself out of boatbuilding with a noncompete agreement. The situation got him to thinking about how he might help his sons re-create the kind of success he’d found working with his own father.

“I enjoyed the opportunity to get into Cobalt when it was much smaller and we all wore a lot of hats. I could grow with the company and learn the business,” he says. “With my boys, I kind of pulled the rug out from under them when they were in college and the company sold, so I thought, what’s something small that we could start and grow together, and they could have an ownership piece?”

Courtesy Duralift

The answer was a boat-lift business, which is still in recreational marine but less complex than starting a boatbuilding company. In May 2020, they bought Galva Hoist and Summerset Boat Lifts, and then rebranded Galva as DuraTek Boat Lifts. Paxson is president of DuraTek, with Pack as director of sales and Cameron in charge of retail sales at Summerset.

Within the lift business, Paxson says, there are three primary segments: lifts for smaller, shallower lakes, such as those around Minnesota and Wisconsin; coastal, piling-style lifts in saltwater markets; and a style between the two that’s used in deeper fresh water. The latter type of lift is what DuraTek produces, with its manufacturing base on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. The company has an HD Series that can lift 40,000 pounds, an HD-R Series that can lift 10,000 pounds, and several models of lifts for personal watercraft.

“We’ve evolved into being the large-lift experts,” he says. “It used to be when you had a 40-foot boat, it was bottom-painted and would sit in the water year-round. Today, with the bigger center consoles, people don’t have bottom-painted products anymore. They want to put it on a lift. We have a 60,000-pound lift under construction right now for a customer on Grand Lake in Oklahoma, and we build a lot of 30,000- to 35,000-pound lifts that will handle up to a 45- or 50-foot boat.”

Now, after a few years of investing in property and equipment — so DuraTek can fabricate its own parts to better control the final product’s quality and price — the goal is to sign a nationwide dealer network. DuraTek recently added a few dealers and is looking for more in Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Being a lift dealer is different from being a boat dealer, St. Clair says. Only about 20% of boat lifts are sold through boat dealers; usually, sales come through a dock builder or from a dealer that exclusively sells boat lifts. Those types of businesses can handle the installations as well as transporting the lifts, which is similar to moving an oversized mobile home on public roadways with safety escorts.

“When we first got into this and talked to our friends who are Cobalt dealers, they said they just didn’t have the equipment or personnel to get into it,” he says. “In most cases, it’s not a good fit for a boat dealer.” However, he adds, lift dealers typically invest in a smaller floorplan and less stocked inventory than boat dealers do. And there are similarities in terms of big-picture planning for a nationally recognized brand.

“Our success over the years at Cobalt was driven by having the very best dealer network that provided the best service, and as a result, [we] had the largest market share,” he says. “Having the best dealer network is what moved the needle every time, in every market. We understand that and see the exact same model working here at DuraTek.”

He also says there’s no sign of the market for lifts slowing down. “People have a big investment in their boat. They want it safe and secure,” he says. “We’re focused on quality, but we’re also keeping our overhead low. Our secret sauce is delivering the best quality at the lowest price.” 

This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.