In the beginning, there was Brett Manire and Performance Boat Brokerage. Manire had worked for the company for a year and a half when he decided it was time for a change. He joined forces with long-time friend and customer Mark Waddington, and together they bought the brokerage company and began the re-formation and evolution of what has become the premier, comprehensive boating center on the Lake of the Ozarks: Performance Boat Center.
“We decided to eliminate the ‘Brokerage’ name from our business and add the ‘Center’ term to our business name and focus. We wanted to... encompass the services Performance Boat Center provides to its customers,” Manire said. He began to list those services:
• New and used boat sales
• Brokerage services
• Full-line service on performance and pleasure boats
• Paint and gel coat repair
• Indoor storage at a 40,000 square-foot, climate-controlled facility
• Outdoor storage
• Financing
• Insurance
• USCG documentation
• Nationwide transportation
Customers would be remiss to assume that just because the term “Brokerage” disappeared from the company’s name, that service is no longer offered. “We buy, sell and broker all kinds of boats,” Manire said. “Our primary focus is on high performance and pleasure boats, however, we have the experience to sell all kinds of boats. We have anything listed from a pontoon to a cruiser to a 150mph performance boat. Prices range from $25,000 to over a million.”
The sales team is composed of Manire, Glenn Labor, and Rusty Williams. Manire and Labor have worked together since the 1990s and have collectively sold more than 2,000 boats. Labor currently heads the sales staff, while Manire and Williams focus primarily on customer relations. Williams has quite a following from power boaters nationwide, Manire explained, having participated in several Florida Poker Runs. He has even imported some of his Florida crew to the Lake of the Ozarks and Performance Boat Center.
But any boat owner knows that the purchase is just the beginning of a journey — one that could contain anything from minor cosmetic repairs, to complete overhauls, to customizations and upgrades. For any of those needs, Performance Boat Center brings a service team loaded with experience. And each team member seems to have his own specialty.
The service department is headed by Jim Watson, who moved to the Lake from Chicago and ran a marina for six years before joining the Performance Boat Center team. The technician team is currently composed of three men. Andy Sanders, who has been with PBC since the start, specializes in diagnosis, repairs, and custom rigging. Tony Battiato, the newest tech on the team, is known for maintaining an obsessive attention to detail while working at what Manire calls “an incredible pace.” Gary Taylor, who has worked with Manire since 1999, has been a marine technician for more than 25 years. “Gary specializes in some of the smaller horsepower projects around the dealership as well as maintenance programs,” Manire explained.
Every winter, the service staff goes through training from engine and boat builders, to maintain cutting-edge knowledge and skills in the ever-changing industry. Manire also pointed out that Performance Boat Center plans to grow its service staff in the near future, adding to the team’s depth and breadth of experience and know-how.
A father-son duo heads up the paint and gel coat shop. Chris Brown and his son Conner work on projects large and small and are gaining a reputation for their abilities at larger, custom designs. Chris has worked on two highly recognizable boats at the Lake: Speed Racer and Iron Man. This spring, the pair repainted a 40-foot Skater formerly owned by the late Bob Morgan, of boat racing and Shootout fame. The boat will race again, now with “Performance Boat Center” emblazoned along the hull.
Barb Newlun is the office manager for Performance Boat Center, and keeps the company running smoothly with her work behind the scenes. She has been with Performance Boat Center from the beginning. Manire said of Newlun, “She has a great ability to be a stickler to keep paperwork in line and keep a smile on her face.” Barb Newlun and her husband Brian live in Sunrise Beach and enjoy cruising on the water, as well as off the water on their Harley Davidson.
This stellar team has piloted Performance into its business success.
“Since the creation of Performance Boat Center,” Manire recounted, “we have implemented new policy and procedures, added to our services offered, increased sales 40%, doubled our staff, and added two of the most luxurious Performance Boat lines to our offerings: Outerlimits Power Boats and Statement Marine.”
This is Performance Boat Center, transformed from a brokerage company, only since 2011.
But the biggest change has come this summer.
With the purchase of a marina at Mile Marker 21, Performance Boat Center is moving onto the water, and has spent the summer moving to the site of the former Yacht Club Marina. Old buildings have been demolished, and the site sports a brand new facility. It has also been renamed: Redhead Yacht Club.
Manire described the new location: “A large showroom and retail area, a new state-of-the-art service facility, detail shop, paint repair, and a large indoor storage facility.” The marina will offer more than 100 wet slips, ranging in dimensions from 10x20 feet to 20x60 feet, as well as a large ramp for trailered boat customers. In the quiet cove, electrical connections, water, Internet, and a full-service fuel dock stand at the ready for boats needing a reprieve from the open water. Slip tenants will have access to new bath and laundry houses.
Although still being developed, alongside PBC at Redhead Yacht Club will soon be Bikinis Pool Bar — one of the largest of its kind on the Lake. The full-service bar will offer a perfect, clean place to relax, have a drink, and cool off on a hot, summer day.
With such a sterling record in just a few years, Performance Boat Center has proven its staff members mean business and its services are top-notch. As the company’s evolution has taken it to the waterfront, boaters will be privy to even more of the unparalleled quality offered by the PBC team.
Sipping a cold drink, poolside, with the Lake’s premier boat technicians working their magic nearby... Performance Boat Center and Bikinis Pool Bar at Redhead Yacht Club just might be a boater’s dream come true.
