Boat Bling Visit to MTI

[Boat Bling]

My favorite role at Boat Bling is visiting our distributors and training their sales teams. It takes me places I would never otherwise visit and I get to make friends all over the country & occasionally internationally.

This week I traveled to St Louis to meet with a new distribution partner. Monday's 6AM flight out was a little rough after spending the previous weekend in Parker. Saturday's Roadraper regatta annihilated our crew but I got to visit the RD's and visit with old friends so it was well worth it.

Floating beer pong at the lower sandbar


Evening cruise to Roadrunner


RD even posed for a promo shot [emoji12]


Despite the disco lights, we still lost a couple river rookies on the ride home lol


Once I landed it was straight to Pappy's. This place was voted the best BBQ in St Louis and did NOT disappoint despite the 45 min line. Even got to meet Pappy who hooked me up with a shirt.


After the work was done at the customer's offices, I had an extra day so I made arrangements to visit the MTI factory in nearby Wentzville, MO.


The property is huge, much larger than I expected.



Front entrance


42 V model



Cat model



Office walls are lined with framed magazine features, probably 60+ throughout


CRC







-Zack

 

[mbrown2]

Great pics...keep them coming !

 

[Boat Bling]

Next up was the factory tour. My guide was Dennis who serves as an operations director of sorts as they've scaled the business while maintaining the level of quality expected in products of that level. At this point I have to disappoint everyone and say that there were 0 pics taken inside the shop doors [emoji20] Understandably, they take their trade secrets and customer confidentiality seriously and I had to sign multiple docs before being granted access so I'll describe it as best I can.

The shop is split roughly in 1/2 between the V side and cats. Technically this is actually 2 separate businesses under 1 roof. Interesting note, the cats are far less complex and take less time to build.

The amount of options available on the V's was surprising. I had no idea there were multiple top configurations with subtle changes depending upon how the customer plans on using the boat. As with many custom boats, the sky is the limit beyond standard options as well.

Everything is done completely in-house including interior and paint. With models now reaching over 50', the spray booth is massive. There's even a 2nd booth for smaller parts to free up space.

-Zack

 

[Boat Bling]

I spent a lot of time checking out the brand new 34' cat. The boat was built around Merc's 400 outboards. This model is going to turn some heads at the upcoming LOTO shootout. I was sworn to secrecy on intro pricing & current speed #'s but it is seriously cool and would be awesome on the West Coast. The 36' they made a few years ago for the West Coast Mkt never really took off but I think we'll see some 34's on Havasu in the near future.



They were working on the bottom of a 57' V hull in the glass shop. I believe this would be the 2nd they've built. It looked like a beached whale lol. My business partner saw the 1st one on display at the Dubai boat show and the scale is just huge. He tried to get pics but couldn't fit the whole thing in frame haha.




After chatting with the crew for a while it was time to get back to work.

Drove past the arch on the way to the airport and decided a detour was in order to get a pic. After walking around like an idiot trying to find an entrance into the park I located another idiot about my age doing the same and together we found our way to a good photo point and traded phones for pics without selfie sticks.


On the walk back to our cars she caught 3 Pokemon...still not sure how that works but she seemed excited lol

Overall it was a productive trip [emoji41]

-Zack

 

[River Lynchmob]

Nice write up...love that 34 with 400s. Who's MB was that...what was it?

 

[Boat Bling]

Nice write up...love that 34 with 400s. Who's MB was that...what was it?

The 34 was very cool, lots of interior room.

The MB is owned by my friend Nick who happens to own the MB owners forum. It's a 14 or 15 F22. I Probably have 100 hours driving & riding behind it. He had a '12 21 Tomcat prior and the 22 feels much bigger.

-Zack

 

[River Lynchmob]

The 34 was very cool, lots of interior room.

The MB is owned by my friend Nick who happens to own the MB owners forum. It's a 14 or 15 F22. I Probably have 100 hours driving & riding behind it. He had a '12 21 Tomcat prior and the 22 feels much bigger.

-Zack

The 22 is sweet...if we go to canyon lake that's what we will get. My BIL has a 21...they are sweet and the best bang for the buck out there.

 

[Boat Bling]

The 22 is sweet...if we go to canyon lake that's what we will get. My BIL has a 21...they are sweet and the best bang for the buck out there.

Agreed, a 22 would be a great setup out there. Starting to see a lot on our local lakes. Action Watersports in Mesa has been selling a ton. Best of luck with the move [emoji41]

-Zack

 

[Boat Bling]

Pulled these from the Lugo Manufacturing fb page. Got to see this boat getting its final coat of clear in the paint booth when I was in MO. Should look great at LOTO this week.




Got lights?


-Zack

 

[RiverDave]

They build such bad ass stuff over at MTI & Lugo.. I wish I was closer to them.

I am happy to hear they are building a Havasu Style boat!

RD

 

[prosthogod]

I heard from a little bird there will be a new distributor of MTI in Lake POwell

 

[RiverDave]

I heard from a little bird there will be a new distributor of MTI in Lake POwell

No shit! I'd be very interested to learn more about that..

RD

 

[prosthogod]

No shit! I'd be very interested to learn more about that..

RD

You didn't hear this from me, but Jerry Moyse(Swift Trucking) the rich brother of Ron Moyse (magic Boats), is getting a big center console MTI delivered maybe by Desert storm. Well Jerry happens to own antilope marina, which there is a houseboat builder there who I think Jerry is tied into. That is where the dealership will be. This is all hearsay. No I didn't hear it from the horses mouth