[ndutton]

Frank Butler shook a fledgling sailboat industry at its foundation with his innovations and business model and time has proven the success of his strategy.

In the late 1960's/early 1970's, large conglomerates took notice of the rapidly growing fiberglass boat building industry and bought in. Companies like Whittaker Corp., Bangor Punta and Fuqua Industries were early players and they tried to force their business model onto the industry with modest early performance but ultimate failure. Frank Butler sold his company, Coronado Yachts, to Whittaker in the late 1960's and within a very short time they parted ways because of management differences. That is when Catalina Yachts was created.

Catalina has always been run lean with only 3 people at the helm unlike the overstuffed board rooms of the conglomerate owned companies. And as the saying goes, the rest is rock 'n roll history.

Disclosure: Of the 4 sailboat companies I worked for, three of them were owned by the conglomerates named above although Fuqua had just sold Islander to Mission Marine Associates by the time I arrived.