Catamaran sport b Michael Becker News Editor michacl@nsnews.com BY all rights Ron Gilchrist should have gills. Water has been more sig- nificant to Gilchrist’s life chan the average fellow. Although the North Vancouver man “retired” years ago, today he finds himself at the heim of Americat Sport Boats Inc., 2 young company set to capitai- ize on an ingenious boat designed specifically for the reel and tackle crowd. The boat is the Americat. Gilchrist and son Ross, the company’s vice-president, will have nine of the boats builr under contract later this sum- mer. If you spend any time in local waters you may have already seen Gilchrist aboard one of them. With che help of a naval architect Patrick Bray, of Bray Yacht Design, the Gilchrists set about conceiving an off- shore fishing boat that could safely and comfortably handle the often challenging condi- tions encountered on West Coast waters. The twin-hull catamaran affords stability, a smoother ride than a single hull and fuel economy. The America’s light hulls are asymmetrical rather than symmetrical. The design makes for extra fuel efficiency and better handling. The cat bit Gilchrist in 1993. “f rode on a power cat from Florida in Vancouver har- bour. I said, ‘This is it.” He had been dabbling in another boat project and decided to shift focus. “I need- ed a retirement project — I'm not a rose guy. I started think- ing about the boat industry because I fove boats,” he said. Two years ago the first pro- duction boat was built. The rest of the first nine are under construction in Eugene Oregon at Milan Sport Boats, but the future plan is to build the boats in Canada, right here in B.C. Gilchrist recently connect- ed with Mike Winthrow as a business partner. Said Gilchrist, “We're looking for partners and financing to start the production.” They're also looking for a location. Gilchrist foresees the construc- tion of 300 Americats in B.C. over the next five years. He'd like to grow the company to 70 employees over the same period. “i really enjoy this. The longer the project goes, the less risk there iy. My son Ross and | took all the risk when we hired an architect. We've gota turn-key package for anybody who wants to come with us,” he said. There was at least one unexpected bump along the way for the Gilchrists, howev- er. The company was original- ly incorporated as Pacificat. The name was initially accept- ed in Oregon and British Columbia. Then Gilchrist got a letter from his lawyer. “He said, ‘You've got the B.C. gov- ernment after you.” They beat us with the name by about three weeks. We just quicdy changed.” The province’s — much- vaunted fast ferry became the Pacificat, a vessel built to roam B.C.'s coast, but Gilchrist fig- ures that he’ll be eventually be serving the Americas — South America, Central America, Mexico and the United States and Canada — with the Americat boats. Gilchrist takes to water as matter of second nature. He was born in Ocean Falls, B.C., in 1936. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s the isolated coastal company town pro- duced one third of the Canadian national swimming team’s top competitors. Gilchrist, his two brothers and his wife Lenora (nee Fisher) were competitive swimmers. Lenora competed on two Olvmpic teams. Gilchrist, his wife and Gilchrist’s brother Allen swam competitively during — the British Empire Games in 1954 in Vancouver. — Gilchrist coached the Canadian national team in 1968. His thoughts turned to swimming goggles in the carly 1970s, He set about improv- ing upon a version of swim- ming goggles manufactured in Australia that had originated from welder goggles. Said Gilchrist, “They fit right in the eye sockets and they didn’t have any rubber on them. “Several companies at the same time put the rubber on them and they started to go like crazy.” Gilchrist founded International Forms — in Montreal. The company went on to become became Leader Industries. Leader eventually supplied all Addidas Arena bathing suit outlets with a line of about 30 swimming related products, everything from goggles to bathing caps and nose plugs. At its height dur- ing Gilchrist’s tenure, Leader produced approximately eight north shore news & BUSINESS Wednesday, June 30, 1999 — North Shore News ~ 21 oats set for sea & NEWS photo Mike Weketleld RON Gilchrist, chairman and CEO of Americat Sport Boats Inc., sits aboard one of the catamaran fishing boats his North Vancouver company is building. The million pairs of goggles for Addidas ind some ore com- petitors. The Leader plant grew to 40,000 square feet and expanded its product line by developing sports eye guards for racquetball and squash. “We also invented the plastic hockey shields in 1984-85. On the basis of that plastic shield I took the company public,” said Gilchrist. The next proz- uct was the full shield for NFL players. “It became a very big product and GE helped rae a lot with that. I learned. to swing with the big companies. We were small but we were inventive.” He took the company pub- lic in 1986 and got out in 1988 to “retire” with his fam- ily in California. Gilchrist start- ed a film company as a hobby. He made nine one-hour video _ plan is to Build the boats in British Columbia. programs, The instructional swim videos with footage of world-class swimmers and divers and commentary by top swimming and diving coaches continue to sell throughout the wortd. During the five years in California, Gilchrist and partners also produced 15 low-budget video-only feature films for international distribu- tion. They came with titles like The Newly Deads, Mayhem, and The Killing Game. “The last three we did we sold to Japan at $100,000 cach for the licences. We did well on them. It was guerrilla film-making,” he said. The first one cost $47,000 to make and grossed $250,000. “I think we grossed about $4.5 million total on the 15 films. The last one cost us $240,000,” said Gilchrist. _The mini movie mogul phase of Gilchrist’s life closed in 1989. “In the film industry, if you don’t decide that you’re going to have new product — either make it. or obtain it, you’re out of the business overnight.” Meanwhile Gilchrist’s latest product, the Americat, sports the following specifications: Length: 22° 10” Beam: 8’ 6” Weight (with engines): 2,800 Ibs. Fuel Capacity: 78 U.S. gallons (120 U.S. gallons optional) Engine: twin 4-cylinder Honda 90s Horsepower: 90 HP per engine Props: stainless steel (stan- dard) Contact Americar Sport Boats at 986-3651 or visit the Web site at . Plan to save for kids’ school NOW most youngsters are out of school for the summer, it’s time to teach yourself to maximize your own finances — for the sake of their future education. Many advisers push Registered Education Savings Plans since Ottawa introduced an annual 20% grant up to $400. Other advisers have suggested building a life insurance pou icy’s cash value instead because that avoids the RESP’s restrictions. But you could be better off first to make maximum RRSP contributions, pay off your mortgage and other debts, have enough life/dis- ability insurance and look into developing a sideline business. - Here’s why: @ An RRSP contribution will immediately save you between abour 26% and 50% tax — compared with the 20% RESP break. Also, if your retirement sav- ings program is on track, you can then afford to help with higher education costs. Otherwise, you'll be desper- ately trying to sock away catch-up retirement savings just when those college costs hit; . B Aim to have all (or most) debts paid off by the time your youngster(s) reach 18. Then you can redirect the former mortgage or other monthly debt payments to fund higher education. | If your youngster doesn’t go past high schoo! or is bright enough not to need much of your financial help, invest your former debt payments toward helping her or him buy a home, for example, or See Review page 22 IDSSELEWABLET * ED INTE: P-166 cr AMD K5-200 SYSTEMS 850 MB HDD, *16 MB RAM 40X CD-ROM, 56K MODEM 16 BIT SOUND, 15” TOWER CASE {UPGRADE 10 4.3 G6 FOR $120} GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES!!! IBM Thinkpad 755 CX Toshiba 439 COT Pli 233 Toshiba 2500 CDS * Prices subject to change, limited quantities $749 $1089 $1499 Pentium CPU 166/233 MM Monitors VGA/SUGA 58K Modem Hew & used hard disk drives $38-682 from $25 $40 (new) from $5 . RAY SPECIESI . % PENTIUM Mother Boards (up to 200MH) from $30 * 486 PCI Mother Saards % UPGRADE to PENTIUM-166 only $118 {tectuding lateur)