Boat U.S. - May 2008 - (Page 41) in 1973 by Thunderbird’s previous owner — Fuqua Industries, which named Victor president. Three years later, in 1976, Victor purchased Thunderbird while his soon-tobe management team (his children) went to college. “He began making boats because he just felt that the quality was poor and he could do better,” says Scott Porter, who worked at his father’s business part-time before graduating from college with a degree in Business Administration. He was the first of Victor’s children to come aboard at Formula full time. “I think all throughout his career, we’ve always tried to push ahead not only the design of our product, but also the engineering features to build a more reliable product,” he says. The consolidation of Thunderbird’s Miami and Decatur plants has proven to be two big factors in the company’s success — it solidified a reliable workforce which could produce quality products and it transplanted its performance offshore boat heritage from the Southeast to the Midwest. Another important player, though not bearing the last name Porter, is John Adams, Formula’s designer. Adams has been with the company for longer than the first generation of Porters. He refers to himself as the glue that has kept Formula true to its roots. “I’ve been here long enough to know Formula’s heritage and it hasn’t really deviated that much from day one — it’s been a performance-oriented, great fit and finish, attention-to-detail philosophy,” he says. “It’s easy for Formula to get through product planning because there’s so much history and knowledge and a sense of what the product is all about,” he adds. But what makes Formula special is the way that these elements — the workforce, the heritage and the design continuity — have all worked together over the years to give it a clear advantage over its competitors, which include big corporate-owned manufacturers. “When we started to compete in the cruiser market, we brought that offshore deep-V hull feel with us and nobody else could do that because Sea Ray, Bayliner or Regal — they didn’t really have that kind of heritage,” says Adams. “They just weren’t able to pull off the cruiser product and understand the ratio of performance, characteristics and cruising features, and combine that in a way that it all works.” The year was 1969, and breaking into the cruiser market with a 26-foot boat clearly opened the doors for Formula. “It allowed us to become more competitive-oriented with a splash of performance heritage as opposed to doing it in Florida where there would have been too much dominance in the pureperformance side,” he says. The next big turning points for Formula were the development of the Sun Sport in 1983, and then the Super Sport in 1998, which Adams describes as a marriage between an offshore boat and a cruising boat. “Again, what better situation for a company to be in — we were doing very well in cruisers and in offshore boats and to take those two together and come up with a boat that had the Formula classic deep-V hull, twin power for the most part, sleek styling, but much larger cockpits than offshore boats, so you could accommodate more people,” Adams says. “It was a home run and a half. We sometimes sit back and wonder why other manufacturers really haven’t the ultimate performance FAS3Tech — all have the same flavor. Adams describes this as the company’s DNA. “The dead rises are deeper than most. We understand the hydrostatics and fluid dynamics that we gain from our offshore FAS3Tech boats and we bring them to every product that we build. We understand what it takes to make a boat perform well and we have that to our advantage.” Yet, Formula’s product line is diverse, enabling customers to move through the line as their needs change. An example is Scott Porter, above, at the helm of a 37 Performance Cruiser. At left, Formula’s designer, John Adams. gotten into this design concept,” he says. Over the years, Formula has had a significant influence on the recreational boating industry through both design innovations and product technologies. The company was among the first in the industry to install curved tempered glass windshields (1985), to have small boats with little transom doors (Formula 27 PC in 1993) and to have big, open flush cockpits (Formula 280 SS in 1994). Formula also pioneered an engineered structural grid technology (FAS3Tech in 1996) that uses structurally engineered fiberglass, making Formula’s offshore and largerhull boats extremely strong without adding an extreme amount of weight. Scott Porter says other builders have used similar technology, but in a much simpler fashion than what Formula does. If you look at the Formula product line, you’ll see the boats — the easygoing Bowrider, the day boat Sun Sport, the performance day boat Super Sport, the luxury Performance Cruiser, the elegant Yacht, and the FAS3Tech owner who gets tired of the offshore boating lifestyle and trades it in for a Sun Sport or Super Sport, which accommodates more people, has a cabin, shower, TV and even air-conditioning. “They give up a little speed, but they gain more livability,” Adams says. This year marks Victor Porter’s 50th year in the recreational boatbuilding industry, and Scott Porter reflects on how the industry has changed since he first started working with his dad in the 1970s. “The complexity of the product has advanced over the years,” he says. “Our company has advanced our products and that has caused others to step up what they do.” Besides technology innovations, larger boats are also more complicated to build. “When I joined, the largest boat we produced was a 26-footer and that’s nearly the smallest size boat we produce today,” Scott Porter says. “Now the third generation (of Porters) is starting at the company — at a point that is far advanced from where my generation started,” he says. “We’re going to need to transfer a lot of knowledge.” — By Jill Culora To watch a video of Formula Boats go to www.formulaboats.com/content/tour.aspx. BoatU.S. Magazine May 2008 41 http://www.formulaboats.com/content/tour.aspx
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