Thunder Jet hits high seas

The growing appeal of welded aluminum boats for ocean-going excursions is creating a new, lucrative niche for Thunder Jet boats in Clarkston.

Thunder Jet is adding 20 jobs in the coming month, bringing the number of people it employs to 70 as it completes an $800,000 expansion of its factory, said company President and Chief Executive Officer Darrell Mills.

The additional positions will help minimize, but not erase the impact of a recent decision by Potlatch Corp. to move about 25 top corporate positions from Lewiston to Spokane, says Douglas Tweedy, regional labor economist at the Idaho Department of Labor in Lewiston. "These new jobs are great for the economy, but losing the corporate managers and financial managers is a hard loss because of the high wages."

Jet boat factory workers earn about $11 to $17 per hour, compared to financial and administrative service managers who make from $19 to $35 per hour, Tweedy says.

The new Thunder Jet hires will help the company boost production from 500 to 750 boats per year at the plant, which now has 55,000 square feet, more than double what it was before the expansion.

"The aluminum industry is spreading into salt water," Mills said. "They're saying they're more durable. They last longer than fiberglass."

The trend is welcome news for Mills and his employees. Production at the factory had plateaued at between 400 and 500 boats per year, an indication of the stagnation in the traditional markets for welded boats in rivers, streams and lakes, he said.

Now the plant is backlogged by about 700 boats.

Making an ocean-faring boat isn't that much of a change, Mills said.

In fact, some owners take older models of Thunder Jet boats into the ocean, Mills said. "It will be a rougher riding boat, but it will be fine."

But the boat manufacturer also has designed two special lines to meet the challenges of ocean navi-gation. One line of 19- to 24-foot boats are almost identical to river vessels except they are self bailing and the sides are a few inches higher. The retail price, at $45,000, is not much higher than what Thunder Jet charges for river models.

But Thunder Jet also has introduced 24- to 32-foot boats that run about $60,000 to $180,000. The largest models can be at sea for a week at a time. The hulls are shaped to cut through the higher waves with more ease. They sleep six and have combination stoves/heaters that run on diesel to limit the chance of explosions.

A group of 50 dealers from the Northwest and Canada toured the plant Thursday, learning a little about how Thunder Jet puts boats together.

Steve Dorn, who owns a boat and recreational vehicle business in Redmond, Ore., and other dealers huddled around a computer-aided automated router with a nine-piece tool changer that can mark, cut, engrave and drill. The tool cuts every part that Thunder Jet installs in its boats, including plastic or wood for cabinets in the ocean-going boats.

Thunder Jet is one of the best companies in this segment, Dorn said. "They're organized. They have more sophisticated equipment and their capacity is a lot bigger."

Mills had difficulty keeping the group's attention as it stopped at a partially finished ocean-going boat. Dealers climbed a ladder to peer inside.

Boaters are discovering how aluminum vessels have more than double the lifespan of fiberglass, which deteriorate after about 15 years and fail to hold resale value as well, said Thomas Rutschmann, who is co-owner of a dealership in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

Dorn said Thunder Jet boats meet the needs of his customers, who want to be on a mountain lake, a river and the ocean all within the same season.

"They're extremely versatile," Dorn said. "That's the big selling point."

Rutschmann, whose dealership is hundreds of miles away, said his customers are like Dorn's in wanting to use their boats in a variety of settings.

"You can take one (Thunder Jet) boat and use it for everything, which is really nice."

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Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 743-9600, ext. 261.