Start it up | At Maine Cat, Dick Vermeulen hopes to land customers with a new line of power catamarans

On a breezy day last March, the prototype of the world's first diesel/ electric-power catamaran entered the waters of Muscongus Bay. Dick Vermeulen, owner of Bremen-based Maine Cat, took the helm of the Maine Cat P-38 and accelerated the nearly silent engine in the direction of nearby Harbor Island.

Vermeulen's hope was that the boat his company had been designing and constructing for the last 13 months ˆ— its first power boat ˆ— would achieve a cruising speed of around 15 knots, and that the twin hulls of the catamaran would offer a smooth ride in the chop of the bay.

But, as he half-expected, things didn't go perfectly. The boat's OSSA Powerlite engine, a cutting edge diesel-electric system created by California-based Glacier Bay only a few years ago, couldn't propel the boat past a speed of about nine knots. And that was only after Glacier Bay technicians had already spent a week trying to get the system to work properly.

Vermeulen had been enthusiastic about the engine ever since meeting Glacier Bay representatives at the Newport Boat Show last year, although he had suspected their forecasts of what their product could accomplish might be too good to be true. "We wanted to give the technology a try," said Vermeulen a few weeks later, standing on the deck of a half-finished sailing catamaran on Maine Cat's assembly floor. "But I don't know if it's going to live up to all the hype."

For now, the P-38 prototype sits upside-down at Maine Cat's facility as its hull is reconfigured and other changes are made in preparation for another sea trial in June ˆ— this time with a diesel engine made by Volvo.

Despite the flaws that emerged on the ship's first sea trial, Vermeulen is optimistic about the prospects of the first powerboat Maine Cat will produce. In fact, he predicts the P-38 will lead to a doubling of his company's size and a big influx of orders after the finished model is released 18 months from now. "I think I could sell 20 to 25 a year," Vermeulen says of the boats, which each will cost around $500,000. "I think it's going to blow us away."

Vermeulen says that even without the diesel-electric engine, the boat's lightweight and sleek hull design will offer unparalleled fuel efficiency. At the anti-climactic sea trial, 38 people were excited enough about the boat to make the trip out to see it. Two of those visitors were so impressed with the P-38 they placed orders soon after.

Like many of the Maine's 112 boatbuilding-related companies, Maine Cat's success as a business relies on selling a high-quality, unique product unmatched by mass market companies with more recognizable names. But building Maine Cat into a company with 23 employees and roughly $3 million in annual sales with that strategy wasn't easy, says Vermeulen. Creating a niche product takes risks, he says ˆ— sometimes ones that don't work out. And taking Maine Cat ˆ— still a very small player in the global catamaran market ˆ— to the next level will require a similar approach.

According to a recent study of Maine's boat building industry commissioned by Maine Built Boats, a group representing Maine boat builders, nearly half of Maine's boatbuilding companies are similar in size to Maine Cat, with between five and 50 employees. But in order for the industry to thrive, the study concludes, those mid-sized companies need to grow, achieving greater economies of scale, further disseminating the reputation of Maine built boats and creating a regional industry powerful enough to compete in global markets.

That conclusion doesn't sit well with Vermeulen. He believes the small size of his company has been one of its greatest assets, enabling him to build a relationship with each customer who buys a Maine Cat boat and ensuring high quality in every boat the company manufactures. And he thinks innovation ˆ— which he says is the primary key to success for Maine boat builders ˆ— comes easiest to smaller companies. But facing a competitive and often turbulent market, Vermeulen also wants to find new markets for his company and achieve moderate growth. And whether or not it will gain the distinction of being the world's first diesel-electric power catamaran, the P-38 is Maine Cat's latest shot at accomplishing that growth.

The tale of two hulls
Fifteen years ago, when Dick Vermeulen quit his job as a commercial general contractor and open a boatbuilding business, there were only a handful of companies producing catamarans. It was rare to spot a sailing cat moored among the mono-hulls at popular cruising ports throughout the world, and nearly impossible to find a recreational power catamaran. "There were hundreds of companies making mono-hulls and hardly any making catamarans," says Vermeulen. "I knew that if I had to compete against a company like Hunter or Hinckley I wouldn't have a chance."

What's more, the catamarans were extremely heavy and slow, and not especially attractive. "As a mechanical engineer, I thought the hulls could be done better," says Vermeulen. "There weren't any high-performance cats out there at the time. It was a cool challenge that hadn't been addressed in composites."

To manufacture each of their boats, Maine Cat now uses vacuum-bagged, foam-cored composite construction, creating virtually unsinkable and extremely durable components that are much lighter than could be created using traditional fiberglass techniques.

Maine Cat's first boat was a 22-foot sailing catamaran that Vermeulen began designing in 1991. By 1993, three Maine Cat employees, initially working out of Vermeulen's garage, were producing the Maine Cat 22 for customers all along the East Coast. In 1997 the company introduced its second boat ˆ— a 30-foot version of the Maine Cat 22. "That was when we took a quantum leap," says Vermeulen.

After finding success with the Maine Cat 30, the company moved to its current site in Bremen, built up a workforce of 23 and introduced a 41-foot cat. Altogether, the company has sold 54 Maine Cat 30s for around $175,000 each and 18 Maine Cat 41s for around $400,000 each.

Rather than relying on a sales staff and dealers to drum up business, Vermeulen sells every boat himself, getting to know his clients and what they plan to do with the boat so it can be customized for them. Maine Cat's website includes a page listing every hull the company has built along with the person who bought it and, often, a description of their travels with the boat. "Our demographics are all over the place, but most of our clients are the mom-and-pop-sailing-to-the-Bahamas type," says Vermeulen. "They range from Nova Scotia to Texas."

Although catamarans have been on the market for more than 30 years, according to Charles Chiodi, publisher of Boston-based Multihulls Magazine, they have only in the last 15 years begun to steadily increase in popularity. "People like them because they are so much more comfortable and safer than other boats," says Chiodi. "In the Carribbean now, half the boats you see are monohulls and half are multi-hull. In Maine and Nova Scotia, the traditional hull still prevails ˆ— people still have that schooner mentality. But more and more people are beginning to accept two hulls instead of one."

Chiodi says that while Maine Cat is still a small company in that expanding market, it's created a good reputation for itself through its use of high-quality materials and progressive technologies, as well as by building good rapport with clients.

But since the days when Vermeulen was building 22-foot catamarans in his garage, says Chiodi, major players in the catamaran market have emerged. Companies in France, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia now dominate the market, and in the United States, companies like Performance Cruising in Annapolis, Md., offer direct competition to Maine Cat.

But the race is on among all cat makers to chase the new product that's emerged only in the last four or five years ˆ— power catamarans. Aware that nearly 10 times more people own powerboats than sailboats, many shrewd catamaran builders are seeing abundant potential in that untapped market.

And one big selling point for Maine Cat's P-38, says Vermeulen, is its fuel-efficient design. Because catamarans have less of their surface area in contact with the water than a regular boat, they create less friction and are more efficiently able to travel through the water. Maine Cat creates all of their boats using a lightweight and durable foam called Core-Cell, which is then coated by a composite fiberglass. The minimal weight helps make the boat more fuel efficient, as does its long, skinny hulls that Vermeulen says will guzzle less gas than other cats. "With gas prices where they are, certainly, fuel efficiency is getting to be something that people are thinking about," says Vermeulen.

The hull itself may be fuel efficient, but exactly how much so will depend on the engine that ultimately propels it ˆ— either the OSSA Powerlite or the Volvo diesel engine.

But Charles Chiodi thinks that beyond the appeal of fuel efficiency the P-38 will attract clients with its classy aesthetic.

"Their boat is mimicking the Down East style of boatbuilding," says Chiodi. "They don't go after the fancy, modern-looking style like the French and the South Africans. It's a sexy-looking boat, but it fits into the Maine theme. It's just like other Maine boats, except with two hulls."

Trial and error
Nearly all of the 20 employees at Maine Cat involved in the manufacturing process have logged a decade or more in the boat building industry, and some more than 40. Vermeulen says that experience is essential to maintaining a high-level of craftsmanship and continuing to innovate. "One of the things about the manufacturing process is that it gets really boring after a while," says Vermeulen. "So when we have a new project like the P-38 it's really great to be able to say to the guys, 'Hey, how are we going to figure this out?' They get really energized by new challenges and know how to address them."

And like most Maine boat builders, Vermeulen has found his company's Maine identity invaluable. "Telling customers that the boat is built in Maine is huge," he says.

But beyond geography, what has ultimately earned Maine Cat a loyal customer base and glowing reviews from national boating magazines is its innovative approach to boat building. Starting with the decision to produce multi-hull boats and continuing with many aspects of a boat's design ˆ— from the unique open bridge deck to the exposed nuts and bolts in the interior ˆ— Maine Cat has taken unconventional approaches and gotten attention for it. Two years ago, the Maine Cat 41 was selected as Cruising World magazine's multi-hull boat of the year in the over-40-foot category. In 1999, the magazine praised the simplicity and efficiency of the Maine Cat 30's design, describing it as "a kick-your-shoes-off, let-your-hair-down kind of a boat with an open-faced honesty about itself."

Charles Chiodi thinks that producing a power catamaran with a diesel-electric engine is boldly innovative, but also risky. "No one else has done this," he says. "Right now it would be hard to market. People are unwilling to experiment with things that cost thousands of dollars."

Although he was hoping the technology would prove so effective that people would be willing to pay the extra $40,000 it would tack onto the price of a boat, Vermeulen says he's skeptical now whether the diesel-electric engine is really worth it. Like all his models, though, he'll customize the boat for each customer, and give them the diesel-electric engine if they want it.

Vermeulen thinks this product he's currently developing will still help Maine Cat grow steadily. But, he admits, "recreational boats are a tough market and you never know how things are going to go."

What has allowed his business to continually maintain a backlog of at least six months, he says, is that it put its relationship with customers and the quality of its product first, and growth second. Vermeulen hopes that as the Maine boatbuilding industry as a whole makes efforts to grow, the passion for the challenge of creating distinct and cutting edge boats doesn't get lost in the chase to expand market shares.

"To think bigger is better is not necessarily the way to go," he says. "When you get bigger, you get into mass production and you run the risk of losing quality control and customer service. I don't want to be a 20-person, $3 million company forever, but I don't want this company to lose touch with what has brought it success."