A Century of Innovation

Imagine being in Florida in 1925: no air conditioning, few highways, not many boat ramps, roads unpaved and a good chance you’d run into a rattlesnake on your way to work. There were few boatbuilders, but Florida’s forests were rich with hardwood for materials. At the time, the port city of Jacksonville was the state’s biggest, with a population of 130,000.

That was the landscape when Walter C. Meloon, an engineer from Ossippee, N.H., settled with his wife, Marion, and their three sons, Walter, Ralph and Harold, in Pine Castle outside of Orlando. They founded the Florida Variety Boat Co.

In his garage workshop, Walter worked on a boat powered by a Ford Model T engine and an old airplane prop. Though his workshop burned down twice in one year, he was undeterred. He paid back the debts from rebuilding while working at a foundry owned by his brother, and he started selling powerboats, sailboats and racing boats — setting a precedent for overcoming adversity.

“I think the Florida climate was and is more conducive to boatbuilding,” Walter’s grandson, Ken Meloon, recently retired chairman of Correct Craft, told Soundings Trade Only. “It would have been difficult to test and develop new products and finished products prior to delivery on a year-round basis in New England.”

Those were the humble beginnings of Correct Craft Boat Co., which this year celebrates its 100th year in business. It has nearly 2,000 employees worldwide and sales revenue expected to exceed $1 billion.

The Depression

Achieving today’s success meant surviving many of America’s most challenging periods. By the mid-1930s, the company had started to focus on powerboats. The Meloon family also had a hand in the promotion and development of Cypress Gardens water park, which opened in 1936 and bought their boats, helping to fuel a surge in popularity for water skiing.

About that time, Walter heard a radio ad selling the “correct heel for your shoe.” He believed the name could work for his company, which he renamed Correct Craft.

“During the Depression years, they supplemented their income from boatbuilding by building boathouses and doing dredge work,” Ken says. “The family did the dredging which made it possible for the tour boats to travel from lake to lake in Winter Park, Florida. Those tours are still happening today. The family did tour-boat rides to earn money, as well.”

By the 1950s, each of the sons was contributing to the company in his own way: Harold was a machinist, Ralph was a promoter and businessman, and younger Walt was a boat designer and salesman. The patriarch had a faith-based approach to life and business, which is why Correct Craft held Christian services at the production facilities and honored Sunday as the Lord’s Day. The company embraced a mission of “Building Boats to the Glory of God,” which became the cornerstone of Correct Craft operations and has held strong to this day.

“My father taught me early in life to be responsible, and in doing so more responsibility would come my way,” Ken says. “He had me demonstrating boats to customers at 12 and then delivering boats to dealers at 16. My older brother, Ralph Jr., went through the same on-the-job training five years ahead of me, so I was forewarned.”

Current CEO Bill Yeargin has said that even today, integrity, loyalty and grit are all important. He has also noted the marketing savvy, manufacturing ingenuity and cultural resilience that Correct Craft displayed in its early decades. For instance, the company quickly produced 400 assault boats for Allied forces to cross the Rhine River in 1945. At the time, Correct Craft produced less than 50 boats a month, but they got it done by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s deadline — in part by hiring women, with so many men in the military. The only request that Correct Craft declined was from a U.S. Army colonel who suggested that they work on Sundays.

Correct Craft was ultimately awarded the Army-Navy Excellence in Production Award, and the federal government listed the boatbuilding achievement on its records as “the miracle production.”

Water Skiing Takes Off

Despite such successes, by 1960, Correct Craft was struggling with bankruptcy from a court settlement that involved a corrupt government inspector who wanted payoffs to approve boats Correct Craft built under government contract. “The family needed to devise a plan to put the assault-boat contract and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, caused by a devious government inspector, behind us,” Ken says.

Factory warehouses were established in New England, Indiana, California and Texas. They became a new way to get the product out to dealers.

Then, in 1961, Leo Bentz, a Miami ski-school operator, offered Walter his mold for the ski boat he’d designed and named Ski Nautique. A deal was worked out for Walter to get the mold for free with contingencies, including that Correct Craft would build, provide and service three boats for Bentz’s schools. The Meloons built the Ski Nautique — the first fiberglass ski boat — then further refined it and launched it in 1961. After a lot of hustle and promotion, the Ski Nautique made Correct Craft the leading manufacturer of water ski and, later, wakeboarding boats.

The company then started naming every model in the line “something” Nautique. With help from marketing director Larry Meddock, the team branded the moniker Nautiques by Correct Craft. “We had Fish Nautiques, Barefoot Nautiques, Cuddy Nautiques, Bass Nautiques and Super Air Nautiques,” Ken says. The Air Nautique Tower was also created, to help wakeboarders achieve new heights for tricks.

For many years now, the Ski Nautique has been the sole towboat for the Masters at Callaway Gardens in Georgia, the Moomba Masters in Melbourne, Australia; and many of the World Waterski Championships. The company also started building V-drive inboards, which lent themselves to creating large wakes for wakeboarding and wakesurfing.

New Century, New Challenges

Yeargin says the mission of making life better continues to permeate Correct Craft today. The team produces high-quality, useful products, and participates in philanthropy for their own people, as well as for their communities and around the world.

Employees can learn at Correct Craft University, founded in 2019, taking courses such as Bible studies and leadership. The company has offered tuition reimbursement and loan programs, scholarship programs for employees’ children, on-site fitness centers, public speaking courses and a mentorship program. There can be a company match when employees hold fundraisers, and all Correct Craft employees are eligible for bonuses based on their department’s financial performance.

In 2023, the company took about 100 employees to Monticello, Arkansas, to work at three local charities: a shelter for abused women and two orphanages. There have also been philanthropic trips to Mexico, El Salvador, Africa and beyond.

“I wholeheartedly believe that a company must have a higher mission that drives its values beyond its own success or failure,” Yeargin wrote in his book Making Life Better: The Correct Craft Story. “Your organization has got to have something bigger than coming in every day and punching a time clock. For us, it’s helping to make life better for those we can help, both at home and around the globe.”

Riding the Waves

Yeargin joined Correct Craft in 2006, following a series of CEOs who didn’t work out. He streamlined operations in ways that helped Correct Craft to weather the Great Recession of 2008.

“This was a very difficult time for the company,” Yeargin says. “The board replaced the longtime family CEO to transition to professional management. The head of production died unexpectedly. The first four CEOs did not work out, and I was the fifth CEO in five years. The company had moved into a new facility and was losing money. At that time, it did not look like the company would survive to see its 100th birthday.”

Private investor Daryle Doden, founder of Ambassador Enterprises, bought Correct Craft in 2008, marking the first time the company was not owned by a Meloon family member. Still, Ralph Meloon, then chairman emeritus and 92 years old, showed up at the offices to inspire the team. Ken Meloon was chairman at the time of the sale.

“The outside investor is a wonderful man who is a dedicated Christian,” Ken Meloon says. “He has a God-given talent for operating businesses for the glory of God and keeping eternal returns at the forefront. If W.C., W.O., R.C., Sr., and W.N. Meloon were around to see how Correct Craft is being used in service to the Lord, they would be extremely pleased.”

“The family consisted of wonderful people,” Yeargin tells Soundings Trade Only, “but they could not agree on how to run the company, and it was causing some deep existential problems. Daryle acquired 100% of the company one month before the Great Recession started. At the time, it did not look like a good investment, but it has worked out well.”

In his time as CEO, Yeargin has grown the company with enhanced efficiency, product innovations and numerous acquisitions. From a single-brand business with revenues of $39 million in 2009 to more than $1 billion today, Correct Craft has eight boat brands, three engine brands, and three of the world’s largest boat and cable parks. The company has 14 locations around the United States, with manufacturing facilities in six states, and works with distributors in about 70 countries. Its marketing arm promotes water sports, boating and fishing around the globe.

In 2022, growth continued with the acquisition of Indmar Marine Engines and Pacer Marine Engineering. “We have been able to demonstrate to business sellers that Correct Craft is a good buyer and future owner of their company,” Yeargin says. “We will invest in the company for the long term and protect their brand, employees and legacy.

“Internally, we are very disciplined about not overpaying,” he adds. “Many CEOs get so captured by the idea of doing acquisitions that they are willing to pay almost anything to get a deal done. We have a very intentional process of reviewing deals to ensure we don’t do that.”

The company also continues to operate Watershed Innovations, which it founded in 2018 to focus on innovation and emerging technology. That subsidiary’s mission is to focus on disruptive technologies while Correct Craft’s existing brands continue to improve product lines. Watershed is working on electrification, robotics, augmented reality and other projects, according to Yeargin. Its biggest breakthrough, he says, involved a telematics system that led to the company Osmosis.

All of this history is part of the celebrations that Correct Craft is holding this year — with an eye toward the next century. “We are having events at all of our companies across the U.S. when I visit those facilities,” Yeargin says. “We are highlighting Correct Craft employee stories all year, too. We are excited.”