I am the newest staff member of the RDP technical department. I will be providing periodic commentary and technical expertise on all things related to Mercury Marine.
As the owner of Quality Performance Marine in Corona, California, a Mercury Authorized Sales and Service Center, I have maintained the level of Mercury Master Technician for over a decade. I have dealt with and successfully resolved thousands of Mercury related issues ranging from warranty coverage, re-powering existing vessels, to analysis and troubleshooting of the entire Mercury Marine product line. We have worked on many boat types from bass and saltwater center consoles to high performance cats and v-bottoms.
I began my career in the marine industry back in the mid 1970?s as a marine technician. In the early 1980's I was fortunate to start working at Team Warlock. During this time Warlock was engaged in all facets of marine performance products, from custom rigging to installation of high performance upgrades on new and used boats.
During this time Team Warlock became Warlock Powerboats and we began building high performance catamarans and mono hulls for the West Coast boating scene. As an employee of Warlock I personally supervised or actively participated in every boat built by Warlock up
On June 1, 1990, I decided I would begin my own company and founded Quality Performance Marine. The vision I had was to create a custom rig shop similar to the quality Warlock put out during my tenure there in the early 1980's. It was through hard work and adherence to quality that my reputation continued to garner me attention in the marine industry. I was asked to rig boats for Cole, Carrera, and other boat lines, including private individuals with unique tastes for high performance boats.
This approach and commitment to quality captured the attention of several companies including Mercury, Volvo Penta and OMC. In only a few months, the factory representatives for these companies approached me to be there service and warranty shop for all of the local boat builders and private parties. This was the opportunity for me to be fully engaged in the marine industry. I
continued building my network of contacts and friends with all of the local boat builders, magazines, and marine related vendors. This allowed me to establish my business and become widely known as the ?go to? shop to get your boat problems solved. Our name and reputation continued to grow as a complete marine service center in the Southern California boating scene.
In my first year of business as a marine service center, H0TB0AT Magazine approached me to start a Sterndrive Tech column in their magazine. I agreed and had a column in H0TB0AT for approximately 6 years. The first Quality Performance Marine facility was about 1500sf. Our business grew rapidly and we out grew that location easily within the year. We found a new location which was double the size and in turn we outgrew this and evolved into our current shop location in 1998 which is over a full acre and over 12000sf.
As the economic conditions in the last decade have changed, Quality Performance Marine has adapted to the changing market. We have remained both a custom rig shop and a complete Mercury Factory Authorized service center for all Mercruiser, Mercury Outboard, Mercruiser Diesel, and all Mercury Racing products. We are also a Volvo Penta, Indmar Products, and a Yanmar Diesel dealer.
In today's environment customers are holding on to their existing vessels and demanding fresh power. As a result the trend is to re-power existing platforms with better or higher horsepower engine components. In addition, service is performed on everything from family pontoon boats, bass boats, saltwater fishing boats, and wake board boats to high performance twin engine vessels.
Quality Performance Marine has recently re-rigged a triple engine offshore cat with Verado Outboards. In addition we just completed the full rigging of the very first... 32 Doug Wright Poker Run boat. This boat is currently the fastest 32 with Stock outboards. In one of my future columns, I will discuss many facets of this intricate rig job.
Quality Performance Marine specializes in all Mercury marine service related work including yearly maintenance issues to rebuilding sterndrives, gear cases, or adding boat accessory upgrades. Quality Performance Marine has been recognized by Mercury and given a Premier Sales and Service Center designation. Quality Performance Marine is also a Verado certified service center.
If you suffered a loss or casualty we can also help as we work with many of the insurance companies to repair boats after they are involved in accidents. If you are looking for any parts, components or complete outboards we can provide you with any and all items at extremely competitive pricing.
Quality Performance Marine also has an onsite prop shaft dyno and just about every tool Mercury makes to work on their products. We have two laptops loaded with the latest diagnostic programs to easily diagnose and solve all EFI and code related issues.
We have the experience, skill and ability to solve all your boating problems and we stand behind the QUALITY and PERFORMANCE of all our work. I look forward to once again writing on topics of interest and perhaps providing answers to Mercury related service issues.
Rob Clarke
Quality Performance Marine
951-735-5503
www.qualityperformancemarine.com
