Everyone Wants a Boat, Especially in a Pandemic

As COVID-19 spread across the country over the spring and summer, many Americans gravitated toward the road, the water, and recreation. Throughout 2020, boat sales surged, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association.

Smoker Craft Boats, based in New Paris, Ind., has seen the surge up close. The multi-generation family business has grown over the years to become the second-largest family-owned boat builder in the United States.

“Right now, the backlog is three times bigger than it was a year ago at this time, so we’ve scaled up,” Phil Smoker, the Vice President of Sales, said over the summer. “We’ll be at the highest level of output that we have ever been for pontoon boats.”

The company is based in Elkhart County, known across the country as the leading manufacturing base for recreational vehicles (RVs) and trailers. As such, it’s often considered a key county to measure economic indicators like trade, wages, and unemployment.

Phil Smoker says that the future is bright for production as he looks into 2021, but that it’s hard for boat manufacturers to grow as quickly as the RV industry, primarily because of restrictions around boat engines and marine safety. Currently, industry observers expect boat production to be 3–4 percent higher in 2021 than this year.

A Two-Family Tradition
Smoker Craft, Inc. is made up of two families. The Smoker family started with wooden paddles six generations ago before expanding to trailers and then focusing on boats. The Schrock family founded Star Tank in 1903, which eventually became Starcraft. Over time, the two companies came together and both families and brands are still active.

Peter Barrett, the fourth generation of the Schrock family (the fifth generation started this year as interns and catalog models), says, “I know of no other boat building family in the US that has consistently manufactured boats for this long.”

The families and their previous generations literally built Smoker Craft with their hands. Phil’s father, Doug Smoker, the current president and CEO, is the first head of the company to keep all ten of his fingers.

Future of Boat Building
Like many successful manufacturers in the Midwest, Smoker Craft has continued to grow with a blend of family know-how and longtime practices blended with technological innovation and some automation.

“We’re engineered almost to the point right now where we can build a boat from the ground up on the computer system or AutoCAD,” says Doug Smoker. “We used to have a lot of different physical patterns to lay around for different boats and had to work all day by hand with no computer usage at all.”

Smoker Craft will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, and the company’s leadership sees an even brighter future for the company (with fingers intact).

“We have a long way to go, but we sit pretty well with others in the industry right now,” shares Doug Smoker. “When you walk through our plant today, it’s so much different than it was even five years ago.”

“I attribute our longevity and success to the quality of employees we have been able to attract and keep,” adds Barrett. “They are part of the family and we would not be here without them.”

The company is willing to infuse technology into the business through in-house development or by looking outside, but the price of the tech relative to production is a critical factor, especially with some 400 players in the boat manufacturing industry. Doug Smoker believes consolidation and standardization in the future will change both how boats are made and industry best practices.

This story is part of Heartland Voices, a series from Heartland Ventures focusing on the heritage and future of successful Midwestern businesses.