Brief History of Aqua Technologies
Way back when, when I realized that the earth was no longer flat. I had just learned all about sailing in a Christ Craft kit built pram. My little 8-foot world cruiser and me sailed all around Green Pond, New Jersey every summer during the 50’s. Then in 1958, the magic year, I graduated into Comets and Thistles. That was also the year a hurricane came ashore blew the plywood yacht to dust!
My father had instilled an entrepenaurel spirit in both my brother and myself. He spent many a year, 6 instead of 4, at the University of Michigan during the depression to get a civil engineering degree. Just had to have that degree, the world needed more civil engineers. That’s why he developed and started the Black Angus Steak house chain of restaurants in the late 1940’s. He also seeded a great desire to travel and see the world. He left home as a teenage high school student from Providence Rhode Island, hitch-hiked and traveled on tramp steamers in the early 20’s throughout the islands. His father final caught up to him while he was a wine steward in Bermuda. He finished high school at Greenbriar Military Academy in West Virginia!
His wandering stories always seemed to be of wonderful places and peoples. That kept the sailboat dreams alive while away from the water. The fact that he worked for himself drives me to do the same.
Sailing was a wonderful experience and I took to it like a duck to water. My older brother Paul tried for a few years but seemed to like the old Penn Yan power boat that my dad had for fishing and lake cruises.
Many years past, so did many different sailboats; Prams, Comets, Thistles, Sunfish, Hobie Cat, AMF Force 5, several Catalina’s of various sizes, one super old wooden hulled Alden sloop, and several fiberglass “Clorox” boats later, we were now into Com-Pac Yachts by the Hutchins Company of Clearwater Florida.
During all this transition from one vessel to another, I changed my career from mechanical engineer to a self employed marine engineer. This was almost footprint-to-footprint the way the family did.
In 1985 my wife Janet, sons Peter and David, and myself opened a small but successful marine supply store in Charleston, South Carolina, “Atlantic Boat Chandlers”. Where we were introduced the field and marine air conditioning and refrigeration. We became dealers and distributors with a second company “Carolina Cruisair”, which later grew into Aqua Technologies in 1986. We designed, serviced and sold marine equipment all over the Carolinas and Georgia, private vessel, commercial and even military ships.
Then one day in 1988 a gentleman came to me who just had to have the store, he really wanted to be in the marine business. Naturally, being the nice people that we were, we sold him Atlantic Boat Chandlers, and everything in it! We concentrated on air conditioning and refrigeration. Since we had sold almost every boat in the area AC and refrigerators, business got slow. We packed up our floating home and sailed south to the Florida Keys, set Aqua Technologies back into operation and did more refrigeration and air conditioning in the Keys. West Marine opened a store in Charleston that same year! It was good not to be in the retail business there!
Janet at this time was working for American Eagle Airline and she had the genetic makeup to wander, just like the rest of the family. The boys were in college and the Navy. She had a dream of living in St Croix United States Virgin Island. That was a Wednesday, we were on a plane and on St Croix by that weekend, looking for new place to put roots. Shortly, she had her position with American Airlines and we took off and sailed our floating home down island. That was the early 90’s. For some unknown reason I ended up again as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry (St Croix, who would have guessed) and Aqua Technologies now was a part time business. We still did the air and the refrigeration, but generators were added. The work was fun and profitable. The economy of the island shifted and we pulled anchor and sailed to Miami. Janet still was with American and I did a few jobs until Aqua Technologies became a major supplier and service company is south Florida.
We opened a wholesale division to work directly with several local boat dealers. We did the “factory” installed ac, refrigeration and generators that the dealers wanted flat rate pricing on. We did “sharp pencil” quotes and stuck by our figures. Everybody was happy. The company grew and later in the 90’s we added the retail sales of Com-Pac Yachts. We plan to only sell ComPac’s, because when something is good, why change it. We believe in the way the boats are built and also believe that we cannot be all things to all people.
By this time we were regulars at the Miami Boat Show, nice yearly display of generators, refrigerators, air conditioning, and a few other accessories. The move into the sail boat dealership was perfect. Our first show and we sold three right then and there. Those customers are still talking to us too! They even have express desire to move up to a larger Com-Pac Yacht.
Today we sell only the ComPac Yacht line in addition to the old stand-by refrigeration, air conditioning and generators. So when it comes to options for your ComPac Yacht, we have that area well covered. Marine electronics, accessories, hardware and all. One stop shopping. Of course not everything is on the web, but let us know and we will add your requirements. We have several dealers that we can arrange for outboard motors for the trailer boats, both 2 and 4 stroke models.
You can assemble a complete yacht price via the web sight. After you assemble the boat the way you would like it to be, call or e-mail us to a “sharp pencil” price. We still do the pricing the same old way, we make it good for both of us. It work that way when we started with Atlantic Boat Chandlers in the 1980’s, refined it with Aqua Technologies and keep it that way now at Aqua Technologies South.
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Thanks for visiting our sight
Capt. Pete, & the staff of Aqua Technologies South.
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