Floating new ideas
SPOKANE VALLEY – Scott Kurtz shows up for work these days in baggy pants and a paint-spattered sweater.
He’s dressed for his new job as owner of a boat storage and repair business. Kurtz might spend the day sanding blisters from a fiberglass hull, or designing an extended swim platform for a Bayliner. The job requires the same problem-solving skills he honed as a metallurgical engineer at Kaiser Aluminum Corp., but the feedback is quicker.
“When I was an engineer, I could work on a problem for more than a year before I got the gratification and customer acceptance,” said Kurtz, 44.
At Contemporary Fiberglass and Marine – Kurtz’s 16-month old-company – customers drop in all the time with suggestions.
Take Ray Coffman, for example. Coffman runs a charter fishing business from his 29-foot Cuddy Cabin Bayliner. He’d always considered the narrow “swim platform” off the back of the boat a design flaw.
“It was only two feet wide. …There was no room for error,” Coffman said. “Your foot slips off the back, and there’s the propeller.”
After Coffman and a few of his customers nicked their toes on propeller blades, he commissioned Kurtz to build a longer swim platform. The fiberglass platform now extends four feet from the boat – a safer design for people who want to dangle their legs in the water, Coffman said.
“We also clean all the fish back there,” he said. “It keeps the mess out of the boat.”
Kurtz has since sold a dozen of the custom swim platforms. He’s hoping that innovative projects like the platform will help him carve out a successful niche in the boat repair and storage business.
The swim platforms sell for about $50 per square foot. They’re shaded to match the color of the boat, designed with a non-skid surface, and engineered to withstand weights of up to 125 pounds per square foot.
“Three hefty men can be up there, and it’s still very sturdy,” Kurtz said.
So far, word-of-mouth has been his best advertising. He’s received four orders from the same marina on Lake Roosevelt.
Other projects litter his shop. Kurtz designed and built a six-ton hoist system that lifts 35-foot boats. He’s also working on “family-style” seating arrangements. Typical boat seating includes two forward-facing seats, connected to two backward-facing seats. They fold out into two uncomfortable sleeping cots, Kurtz said.
His design includes a side couch that folds out into a futon. It sleeps a family of five.
“He’s really onto a good idea,” said Darby Jacobs of Jacobs Upholstery, who’s working with Kurtz on a prototype. “I hear from lots of customers that they don’t like the back-to-back seats. …You’d be able to take an 18- or 19-foot Runabout, and retrofit it like a Ski Nautique.”
Kurtz worked two stints in manufacturing before opening Contemporary Fiberglass and Marine. He left Kaiser’s Trentwood plant during the 13th month of the lockout, and ran a rolling mill in Wisconsin for three years. When that mill moved to Mexico, Kurtz headed back to the Inland Northwest.
To raise start-up funds for his new company, he refinanced his log cabin on Lake Roosevelt. Kurtz recently hired his first permanent employee. He’s anticipating sales of $125,000 this year.
“I don’t make as much money as I did as an engineer, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore,” Kurtz said. “I’m paying my bills and having a blast.”