COVER STORY
10
TCBusiness.com
“Contender is coming to town.
They see the value of getting
set up in St. Lucie County, and
you’ve got Pursuit, which has
long been established here,
and that’s a very high-quality
boat. I’d put Pursuit right up
there with Grady White in
terms of the quality and the
kind of workmanship you’re
going to get.”
MAVERICK STARTED
SMALL
Maverick, now the largest
boat builder in terms of jobs
provided in the area, had
humble beginnings. In the
mid 1970s, Dr. Leonard Berg
of Fort Pierce, who is still an
avid shallow-water fisherman,
bought the hull mold for a flats
fishing skiff and began production
at a small plant south of
Miami. Berg later teamed with
Mark Castlow, now the owner
of 14-year-old Dragonfly Boatworks
in Vero Beach.
Castlow had owned a Fort
Pierce surf shop and then a
fiberglassing company called
Atlantis. He shifted from making
surfboards to making boat
hulls with Berg and his son,
Elliott Berg, at a dusty old shop
near the north causeway in
Fort Pierce. Castlow and the
Bergs made a few dozen boats
in the early 1980s before the
Bergs bowed out. Eventually,
Scott Deal of Vero Beach reestablished
Maverick and grew
it to include the Pathfinder,
Cobia and Hewes brands of
fishing boats.
Deal was the CEO of Maverick
until January, when Pursuit’s
parent company, Malibu
Boats, acquired Maverick Boat
Group for $150 million. When
the deal was sealed, the CEO of
Tennessee-based Malibu, Jack
Springer, said the two companies’
products complement
one another.
Charlie Johnson, marketing
director for Maverick, said the
company makes about 1,800
boats annually, and that will
rise to 2,000 a year soon. v
BERNIE WOODALL
Mark Castlow, who founded Dragonfly Boatworks 14 years ago, is in his fifth
decade on the Treasure Coast boat scene. Castlow is a former owner of Maverick
and Hewes, which are now owned by Malibu Boats.
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