In the middle of 2021, Intrepid was contacted by the National Marine
Manufacturers Association about having a group from the Finnish boating industry come to visit our factory. Finland is the Land of a Thousand Islands so, despite the short length of their summers, boating is a very popular activity there. In addition, the country is responsible for building some of the largest cruise ships in the world, so it has a rich maritime history.
The visiting group was comprised of 18 people from various industries in the marine business in Finland. I was very happy to meet them all and ask them some questions about the industry in their country, while I answered their questions about how we build our boats. It was a great learning experience for all of us, and they enjoyed their time here. Finland is now on my list of places that I would like to visit sometime, and it was very nice to be able to add this group to my list of friends throughout the world!
We kicked off our 2022 Boat Show season with our attendance at the Stuart Boat Show this month. We had a 477 Evolution that was built for family cruising and fishing, and a 407 Nomad FE that was built to please the whole family. Stuart is a great place in the boating world, so I was happy to spend some time there and see some of the marine facilities that are available for us to use when we have questions or concerns from our customers. I also had a good opportunity to meet with some of the companies who take care of what we need to have done in that part of Florida, so the trip was a worthwhile success.