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Local college professor launches boat business
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
John Crotts understands why people would expect him to start a restaurant or a hotel if he were to embark on a business venture. After all, Crotts is the director of the College of Charleston’s Hospitality and Tourism Management department.
Crotts has started a business all right. but it has nothing to do with dining or room booking.
It has everything to do with recreational boating.
Earlier this month Crotts, a lifelong boating enthusiast, launched CeeVee North America LLC, producer of the JetVee, a 10-foot, 540-pound, joystick-operated watercraft powered by a 70-horsepower inboard motor. The craft seats two people and can top 40 miles per hour. It sells for about $12,300.
Crotts points out that the JetVee is a pure South Carolina product. From stem to stern, all of its parts are produced in the Palmetto State. Beaufort-based Two Stroke International makes the engine and the joystick controls. G-Crafts Marine in Awendaw makes the hull. Low Country Mobile Marine, also of Awendaw, assembles the JetVee.
And CeeVee North America, a virtual company, is based out of Crotts’ Mount Pleasant home. Until Crotts signs up boat dealers to sell the watercraft, interested buyers can place orders at the JetVee’s Web site, www.jetvee.com.
Crotts estimates his company will produce about 50 JetVees over the next year. Production began in May, after CeeVee submitted its last patent application and the U.S. Coast Guard approved the boat.
What happens if the demand for JetVees outraces the supply? That is a problem Crotts and his colleagues look forward to.
“We’ll do as many as we can and if we need help, we’ll hire people,” said Noah White, co-owner of Low Country Mobile Marine, a two-man operation White runs with business partner Michael Claud.
New Zealand connection
It was during a teaching stint four years ago at New Zealand’s University of Otago that Crotts and another Otago professor conceived the idea for the JetVee.
Their first version of the watercraft, the CeeVee, had a 30-horsepower outboard motor.
“From the start, our intent was to design a small watercraft for both quickness and stability,” said Crotts.
“Traditional steering wheel controls do not work well in watercraft of less than 16 feet, forcing us to design our first joystick.”
Improvements to the hull and the joystick, plus a more powerful inboard motor, led to the JetVee.
Later, Crotts and his New Zealand partner, whose lack of finances forced him to withdraw from the business last year, created an automated system that puts the boat in a “trim,” or level, position after acceleration.
Crotts, who said his investment in the JetVee business amounted to “the low six figures,” took his JetVee concept to manufacturers in the Lowcountry’s recreational boating industry.
“He came to us with some molds and we built a couple of hulls,” recalled Bobby Gelhken, president of G-Crafts Marine.
Hot market
In addition to recreational boaters, yacht owners desiring a swift little ship-to-shore boat will be key customers, Crotts said.
Also, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. military have shown interest in using the JetVee as an unmanned surveillance craft, although neither party has signed a deal with CeeVee North America, Crotts said.
About 80,000 Jet Skis, a popular recreational watercraft produced by the Kawazaki Motor Co., were sold across the United States last year, Crotts said, adding that he believes the JetVee eventually will slice into 10% of that market.
As much as Crotts loves producing JetVees, he intends to keep his day job.
“Teaching is genuinely a key part of my life I never want to give up,” Crotts said. “As the JetVee takes off, I will have to bring on new partners and employees to handle the day-to-day task of the boat business. Right now, though, I work best in both worlds: the world of thoughts and ideas and the world of building a tangible product.”
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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