just another new guy....
 

Semi-recent retired kinda, when today I actually went and "discovered" this site. I was co-owner of a marina (actually two) in central Washington and the first Mariah dealer on the west coast in 1989 up untill Mariah closed their doors.. We were a small marine dealership who used to beat up the big boat dealers in Spokane and Seattle selling our high end Mariahs. I can say we were pretty good at pi$$ing off the Sea-Ray, Bayliner & Cobalt boys by selling higher priced Z-boats to their customers "in their house"!!!. Styling and features always got the customers looking at Mariahs' but all it really took was to get them on the water. Met Jimmy and Rance many times (my business partner and I were on the Nat. Dealer Council) and was sadden'd to here of Jimmy's passing. I still have lots of "Mariah Gear" tho I wonder if it still fits.... I cherish my leather Mariah jacket!!
Well, I'll look in from time to time. I like answering tech problems for people so perhaps we'll meet.

Re: just another new guy....
 

I sold Mariah boats at Wilbus Marine at Lake of the Ozarks in 94. Loved those boats! Welcome to group!

Re: just another new guy....
 

Welcome to MOC King! :)
Great to have you on board. :wink_thumbup:

Re: just another new guy....
 

Welcome aboard!

Re: just another new guy....
 

Glad you are here


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Re: just another new guy....
 

Welcome! Awesome to know we have folks associated with and knowledgeable about the original mariahs!! They are still awesome boats today I can only imagine how awesome they were back then!!

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Re: just another new guy....
 

One day in 1989, a traveling salesman from the mid-west came into our store in Moses Lake Washington in an attempt to sell yet another dealer his "fantastic" line of boats that were built like no other! Marine dealers often get salesman trying to hype their wares all the time and often you don't want NOR need their products. Danial Hahn was his name and one of the first things he did was a handstand off the top of the windshield........ Ya wanna boat built strong?? Well......?? And it had a pad under the keel!! We were a fairly small dealership selling Smokercraft, Evinrude and Mercury engines, and usually only bass boats had pads on them. We were located on the water, so getting us out on the water, behind the wheel didn't take much and Danial had us drooling in short order as the boat responded unlike any other 18 ft hulls I had ever run before. Turn on a dime?? Hold On !!!
Danial went on to be a very successful sales guy for Mariah and probably made big time commissions on all the boats dealers bought from him. Last I heard he went on to Monteray Boats . Though we didn't sell the big numbers all the other dealers did in terms of quanity, we sold a very high percentage in relation to our market area. Eventually, dealers in the bigger markets, (Spokane, Boise and Seattle) sign'd on with Mariah but usually they didn't have the staffing, knowledge or determination over the long term to sell a more expensive product. Mariah's kept getting higher in price (as did everybody) and it was a struggle to provide a 18 to 22 ft boat that people could afford! However, I always told my potential customers, after a Mariah demo. "You may not buy my boat, but you'll know you should of"!!! And they did!!
So, day in and day out, we had boats show, demos, deliverys to far off places. Our customers often sold boats for us which I would give them $100 for a good "bird dog" referal. Bird dog ment that the guy actuall bought the boat versus went for a joy ride. We were young and dumb back then, Work'd too many hours for too little pay!! I still see many Mariah's on our lake here and made many friends. After Mariah closed, we waited for SeaFox or whatever their name was to contact us to continue being a dealer but they never did. We continued to sell fishing boats and let the recreational sports boat market go on without us. Too competitive trying to sell boats and make very little little money. The flooring companies probably convinced us to stay out of it. Yes!! I'm sure of it!

Re: just another new guy....
 

Which reminds me. One day we had a customer named James Taylor. Not THAT James Taylor, but he was a hoot anyways!!. He wanted one of the new 18' white Mariahs but with a checkerboard flag/finish line design on the aft 1/3rd of each side of the hull. Mariiah didn't want to do it as they didn't want to argue with all the parties involved IF he refused to accept it. James said, Do it, I trust you to do it right! White boat, white Chariot. Bad ass!! Mariah couldn't make a boat without the checker flag after that. Almost.....

Re: just another new guy....
 

OH, and then..... :)

Re: just another new guy....
 

I love listening to the stories. Keep 'em coming! The old dealers are always the best sources of information and background. :wink_thumbup:

David Allen, who ran Southwater Marine in Southampton England, was another old Mariah dealer with lots of good stories!

Re: just another new guy....
 

Love the stories!! Please keep them coming!!! We need a topic for this!! Yes!

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Re: just another new guy....
 

I agree! Great stories! :wink_thumbup:

Re: just another new guy....
 

About 1998 or so, our small dealership decide to display our Mariah's at the Big Seattle Boat Show held in the Kingdome. We had been selling a few Mariah's into the Seatttle/Tacoma area for a while but do to distances, we spent most of our selling efforts in Central and Eastern Washington. The Kingdome show was usually held on the last two weekends of January which meant we would have to travel our boats 4 to 5 hours just to get to Seattle while dealing with Snoqualimie Pass and winter weather. DIrt, sand, snow and ice just weren't very good for the boats but we decided to stage the traveling well before winter, so I'd take a boat to a storage facility in the months prior to January whenever I went back to Seattle to visit friends and family.
Now, the thing about the Seattle show was And still is) its very expensive to get space AND, if you're not a longtime boat show exhibitor, you will get pushed into a potentially "less than perfect" space out in the middle of no-where. On the main floor is where you want to be, but we were boxed into a spot that was approx. 20 x 60, I believe. We had to spend $12,000 and were able to slip an 18' , an all red Z222 and a 27 ftr in that tight space.
For two weeks we lived in that booth, talking and talking and talking boats. Not just about Mariahs, well, mostly about Mariahs. But people were surprised that here was a boat that look'd so badd-a$$, with such an awesome interior, at such a good price. (Ya gotta have boat show specials ya know). I always told people that we really should charge more for these things ya know!!!! We sold 4 18' boats and the Z 222. We just couldn't keep people out of the Z boat!! The 27 was a hit but everyone wanted to trade in a 32 footer or such. We just couldn't take trades like that due to the trade-in values everyone wanted and our market (Central Washington) . Anyway, about the beginning of the 2nd week, we noticed that the salesmen from all the other dealerships at the show where coming around to see what all the hub-bub was about. It seems that all the customers we were trying to sell boats to were telling everyone that "those Mariah Boats over in the corner, being sold by those nice young, knowledgable handsome guys" were sooooooo superior to anything else at the show, blah, blah, blah... We had to stay late after the show and early to the show every day in order to "help" the salesmen who came acalling and wanted us to show our boats to them. Actually, I thought that a few of them could or would have cut up our interiors or scratch'd up the sides of the boats if given a chance. I didn't trust boat salesmen any more than I would've a used car salesman!! The nicest ones were from Seattle Boat Company who sold Cobalt boats. They were truely interested why Mariah's were being marketed so well by three young studs and we show'd them all about the Mariah's. We had lots of features but were much cheaper than Cobalts were. Seattle Boat catered to the rich, MicroSoft kinda people who didn't have to worry about money. They were very professional and created the "country club" kind of boating experience. IF we had our dealership in the muli-million people marketing arena that existed in Seattle, I think we could of kick'd anyones butt in terms of a hig quality product and hard work. However, we never did return to Seattle as yet again, some dealer took on the line in the Puget Sound area, lock'd up the territory and kept us out. The fact that they didn't do many numbers meant Mariah was stuck with an under-performing dealer... again.

Re: just another new guy....
 

I don't think there is a much sexier or nicer boat than a red Mariah Z222...

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Re: just another new guy....
 

I've said it before. But I just love the proportions of the triple 2 :wink_thumbup:

Re: just another new guy....
 

X3. I do like the Z222. :wink_thumbup:

Re: just another new guy....
 

Awesome to hear stories about Mariah back in their hay day. If love to see any pictures you might have taken back then.