Talkin’ Boats With Tucker West

Tucker West became president and CEO of Kadey-Krogen Group in April 2021, after serving as vice president of sales for seven years, and following jobs at Grand Banks Yachts, The Catamaran Company and Sunsail. Today, he oversees the boat brands Krogen Yachts, Summit Motoryachts and American Tugs, giving boaters a choice of displacement, planing or semi-planing hulls, respectively.

His role as head of the Kadey-Krogen Group has been many years in the making, he says, with his whole lifetime spent on and around boats. “My crazy father used to work in the boating magazine business. He was with Cruising World, and he was one of the forces behind the Newport boat show,” West says. “We moved up to Rhode Island in the late ’70s. I was always around boats—driving a launch in Newport Harbor, sailing, all of that good stuff.”

Today, West lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, with his wife and three children. Two are in their teens, with one now older than 20. “We are boaters. I’m on the water a lot on our 1990 Donzi 23-foot center console,” he says, adding that it can hit close to 35 knots. “We use the heck out of it, blasting around. At some stage, I will be cruising around in a Summit 54, and when I’m ready to slow down in life, it’ll be a Krogen, but I’m running pretty hard all over the place, and with my current workload, I need the speed.”

SOUNDINGS: How did you start working for Krogen?

TUCKER WEST: There was a lot of in and out with the partners of the company. When I came aboard, it was owned by three individuals, none of them with the last name Krogen [John Gear, Larry Polster and Tom Button]. Our relationship started in 2004. I was working at The Catamaran Company and living in Fort Lauderdale, and we had a baby. My wife and I wanted to raise our children in the Northeast. I ended up meeting with the Kadey-Krogen team, and they offered me a job to come sell boats for them in Stuart. But I wanted to go 1,500 miles north, not 150 miles north. I said, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ but Tom Button and I remained friends. I then got a job with Grand Banks after a stop at Tartan and C&C, and everything was great at Grand Banks. I was there close to 10 years. The 2008 market crash put our Seattle dealer out of business, so they asked if I’d consider moving out there. I went out and opened up a retail dealership for Grand Banks in Seattle while managing all the dealers around the country. As I walked into my office, the company right next door to us was Kadey-Krogen Yachts. A couple of months later, Tom Button walked in and said, ‘What the heck are you doing here?’

SO: That sounds like fate.

TW: We stayed in touch, and he always said, ‘We’d love to have you.’ I said the only way I’d consider moving was if there was an equity opportunity. Sure enough, they offered me an opportunity with equity right when Grand Banks was buying Palm Beach Motor Yachts. In 2014, I bought out John Gear and became a partner with Tom and Larry.

SO: What attracted you to the Krogen brand?

TW: Everybody knows Kadey-Krogen. The 42 was the boat that put Krogen on the map, but that boat hasn’t been built since the early ’90s. More recently, the 48, the 52—those were really the known boats.

SO: What do you think made those models so appealing to boaters?

TW: I’m a quality guy. I think the world of a lot of the production manufacturers that get people on the water, but I’m more into the semi-custom quality, and I’ll put the Kadey-Krogens up against Grand Banks or Hinckley or any of them when it comes to fit and finish. The other thing is how to treat the customer, and I don’t think everybody does a good job of that. Our industry does a very good job of selling people a toy and then making it not very much fun.

SO: How do you think Krogen does a better job of supporting boat owners?

TW: A lot of it is setting the expectations for the customer, and how you handle issues. The issues are going to come up. We put ourselves in the buyer’s shoes and say, ‘How would we feel?’ There are always gray areas—is this a defect or a customer trying to get something for free? If it’s a gray area, I typically fix it. Here’s the deal: If I fix it right away, it’s going to be cheaper for me. If I’m arguing with the customer and it takes ages to fix, then the customer’s not going to be happy. The coconut telegraph is huge, and hearsay on the docks or out cruising goes a long way.

SO: How instrumental were you in creating the Summit Motor-yachts brand?

TW: Summit was our baby. I did my first couple of boat shows with Kadey-Krogen for a year or two, and people would get on the Krogens, and their jaws would be dropping at the fit and finish. Then they’d say they’ll be back in 10 years because they didn’t want to go 8 knots, and they’d go buy a Hinckley or a Grand Banks. That started our thinking on a faster boat to get people into our family at an earlier stage in life. If and when they decided to slow down, I’d already have them and I could prove that we knew what we were doing.

SO: What’s the speed difference between the Krogens and the Summits?

TW: Krogens are full-displacement and do 7 to 9 knots. Summits are planing with a 20-knot cruise and a 23-knot top. Michael Peters did the hull form [for Summit]. Hull No. 1 arrived in March of 2020, which is right when the world shut down, so that cost us something like a year. Now, we’re up to Hull No. 7. We’re extremely excited, and we have drawings for a larger Summit in the 60 range, and then hopefully a smaller Summit.

SO: Soon after Summit was created, in 2021, the Kadey-Krogen Group had more changes. Tom Button retired and Larry Polster moved into a sales role. That’s when you moved up to president and CEO, with growth-equity capital to help the transition, right?

TW: That’s correct. I ended up finding the first guy I ever met when I moved to Rhode Island in 1978, one of my best friends. He’s in private equity. He put together a group to buy out Tom and Larry. The group owns 67 percent and I own the rest. They’re silent partners. He doesn’t know the difference between port and starboard or bow and stern, but he loves coming on the boat if somebody who knows what they’re doing is running it. It’s great because he’s got strengths with financials, which is not my strong suit. It’s been a really, really good setup.

SO: Then there was more news in May 2023, when the Kadey-Krogen Group acquired American Tugs. How is that acquisition going so far?

TW: Kurt Dilworth was one of the founders of the company. We probably wouldn’t have done the deal without him wanting to stick around. We need him. He’s the boatbuilder. And now, he’s got the support system for the financials, sales and marketing. We have sold three new American Tugs since the transaction, and I’m very close to having the first Kadey-Krogen sold by somebody on the American Tug side. Things are all starting to take shape.

SO: Do you see the same type of repeat clients with American Tugs that you see with the Krogens?

TW: Absolutely. It’s probably close to 65 percent repeat customers for Krogen and American Tugs.

SO: Why do you think these boaters keep coming back?

TW: It’s a little bit of everything.

We’re probably way too honest, and people like honesty. I tell everyone what my mom taught me growing up: Treat people how you want to be treated. I see one face in the morning. I need to be able to look that guy in the eye.

SO: Do the owners of these boats do serious cruising?

TW: We have not been successful at selling dock trophies. Our boats are used. Even the guys that are out on the Summits—they may go out of Rhode Island or the Chesapeake, take a right, go down to Florida and not move for several months. But then in the spring they’ll do a 10-day cruise up and then go around New England. You don’t find them sitting still a lot. Our owners are using their boats.

SO: Which models will you have at the Palm Beach International Boat Show in March?

TW: We’ll have a Summit 54, Krogen 58 and hopefully a new American Tug 39, and there’s a long shot on a Krogen 50 Open.

SO: What can we expect next from the Kadey-Krogen Group?

TW: Our 50-year anniversary will be in 2026. For our 40th, we had a huge rendezvous that we ran, where we rented out the Fort Adams marina in Newport. We had events, presentations, fun parties for four days. For the 50th, we’re making the final plans, but there will be a big event for any and all owners that want to come. 

This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue.