Ken Clinton is the newly appointed CEO of Rec

Boat Holdings.

Boating Industry caught up with Clinton in the flurry of transition to discuss his prolific career, notable achievements and strategies for success.

Boating Industry( BI): Prior to your marine industry career, what did you do? Ken Clinton( KC): I was a first class outside machinist at General Dynamics( Electric Boat Division) in Groton, Connecticut, building Trident 688 class and Seawolf nuclear submarines. Prior to that, I worked at several machine shops running CNC mills and lathes.

CEO, Rec Boat Holdings

A major shockwave in recent industry news was the unexpected departure of longstanding Intrepid executive Ken Clinton, whose epic rise within the

By Wanda Kenton Smith marine manufacturing ranks over 34 years was the stuff of legends.

Affectionately nicknamed # Boatgoat by loyal customers, Clinton paid his dues at Intrepid, from his start as a scrappy, entry level boat builder to a station and line supervisor, followed by a promotion to plant manager and then to VP of manufacturing. In 2009, he was named president and CEO – a post he lived, breathed and championed for 15 years. Over time, Clinton became the face and heartbeat of the iconic Intrepid brand he built.

Despite the adversity of finding himself abruptly unemployed, Clinton exuded his typical upbeat persona in his search for new opportunities. He was recently named CEO of Rec Boat Holdings, with responsibility for all aspects of the brands manufactured in North America for Groupe Beneteau including Wellcraft, Four Winns, Scarab and Glastron. In this pivotal new role, he reports to Gianguido Girotti, deputy CEO of Groupe Beneteau and CEO of the Boat Division.

Over a whirlwind few weeks, Clinton packed up his life and Tampa home to relocate to Traverse City, Michigan, where he now oversees the Groupe Beneteau ' s Rec Boat Holdings brands and their respective manufacturing operations in Cadillac, Michagin.

BI: What led to a career in boat building? KC: It was February, and I was on my honeymoon in Busch Gardens, Tampa, after leaving Providence airport with about of foot of snow. I remember looking at my wife and saying …“ It’ s 80 degrees and the grass is green in February!” After asking locals lots of questions, I remember asking my wife on the flight home why we needed to wait until we were too old to enjoy this weather, or to wait and retire in Florida like everyone else. We packed up and moved to St. Petersburg and the job hunt began.

It was the 80s, and I’ d been making over $ 13 an hour … I figured I’ d find a job at $ 10 or $ 11 in Florida … after several interviews and offers, I went home to my wife and told her I thought we’ d really screwed up – the best offer I’ d seen was $ 6 an hour. I broadened my search into other areas and ended up at my first job in the marine industry at Triumph Yachts. The gentleman that conducted the interviewed asked me,“ Son, what makes you think you can build boats,” and I replied,“ I built submarines. I’ ll do everything opposite and it will float instead of sink.” He laughed and offered me the job.

BI: How was the transition from submarines to boats? KC: I started working in Station 1 where the hull first came into the assembly building, and we did all the hull prep. They were 34-foot inboard sedans, so I was installing rudders, shafts, V-drives, 454 Mercury and Crusader engines, fuel tanks, fresh water and raw water systems, all the below deck pumps, fuel systems, etc. Though I had not built boats before, I was very mechanically inclined and had a knack for understanding how things worked and how to do things more efficiently. They didn’ t have any jigs, fixtures, or splashes, and everything was being done with plumb bobs, angle finders, and string. If everything for the most part repeated, why couldn’ t we create jigs, fixtures and splashes to locate everything instead of the‘ shoot from the hip’ way they were doing it? I suggested it a couple of times and was told,“ This is how they want us to do it so just do it this way.”

The lamination shop was building the hulls faster than we could rig them and they began to stack up in our area. I asked if I could drop back to an empty hull to get going on the next one. I precisely documented everything in my notebook because they really didn’ t have any blueprints; I figured this was my chance to prove my theory. I created splashes, jigs, and fixtures to locate all the underwater gear. When we dropped back to the next boat and I showed my supervisor what I did … we literally reduced the build time in my station by almost 50 percent.

BI: Did being a bit of a maverick help your career? KC: Triumph was a Genmar-owned company, so they decided to consolidate boat factories and laid everyone off at Triumph, kept the managers and transferred Triumph to the larger sister-company, Wellcraft, in Sarasota. I trans-

28 may 2025 www. boatingindustry. com