Catching Up With Randy Sweers—Realizing A Dream At Home And Abroad
Since Randy Sweers escaped Canada’s frigid winters by moving to South Florida in his early 20s, he has wanted to build boats of his own. But for most of his 30-plus-year career in the high-performance marine industry, the 55-year-old has sold them, serviced them and raced offshore in them. Now his long-held dream is coming true as he has partnered with Statement Marine company owner Nick Buis. Friend for years, Sweers and Bius are collaborating on two new models for the Clearwater, Fla., company, a 39-foot catamaran dubbed the 396 and a 44-foot center called the 44 GTrs center-console models.
With his father, Randy, alongside him, 16-year-old Chase Sweers throttled a 36-foot Statement Marine catamaran to more than 100-mph for the first time during the 2024 Joey Gratton Memorial New Year’s Day Fun.
The road to boat-building literally has been long for Sweers as he set up his the 32,000-square-foot facility in Sao Palo, Brazil, last year. But despite the predictable headaches of establishing a new boat company, Sweers is making progress and expects to bring the first models stateside in March 2024.
Yesterday, between his frequent trips to South America—think weekly and you won’t be far off—I caught up with him. Here’s what he had to say.
Last time we spoke you were pleasure boating in Brazil. That sounded like an adventure
Yeah, I was boating with friends in Rio de Janeiro and Angra. What an amazing boating area it is.
How goes the progress on your new facility?
I am going over a list of materials and build specs right now. I’m getting ready to ship a container of materials to Brazil and I’ll be there again early next month before the Miami Boat Show. The deck for the first 39-foot cat is out of the mold and hull is being infused.
So we won’t see any of the new boats in a Statement Marine display in Miami.
Unfortunately, no, none of the new boats will make it to the show. We were pushing for that, but moving into the new facility has been very time-consuming. We are figuring we will start showing them in March or early April. The first ones are always the most difficult, but our expectations for quality, fit and finish and performance are really high. We need to test the first few here in Brazil, and then we have to start filling orders. We have a lot of them to fill so we need to get moving as quickly as we have, without sacrificing quality.
The process continues.
Has it been difficult to find skilled boat-building labor in South America?
Not at all. One of the unique things about Brazil is that they have this huge marine infrastructure, and most of the country is surrounded by water. There is a lot of boat-manufacturing and boating going on there. Being able to find a skilled labor force has been a huge plus for us. As we all know in the United States, finding good labor for boat-building, especially for smaller manufacturers, can be difficult. I was able to assemble a very knowledgeable staff and skilled work-force very quickly. And every day we are adding employees.`
The stateside rumor mill has been working overtime on your projects, including one about you now owning Statement Marine. Have you heard that one?
(Laughs) Yes I have, and no I don’t. Nick and Priscilla Buis own Statement Marine. Nick and I have partnered on these build-projects in Brazil. Nick and I own a separate company together as 50-50 partners called Statement Marine Group, which is a warranty, service, refit, restoration and repower shop for Statements models and other brands. We currently have about 20 boats that are mostly Statements.
Among the adventures Randy and Chase Sweers have enjoyed together is snowmobiling in Wyoming.
But we don’t discriminate. We also have a 42-foot Cigarette, 399 Cigarette with twin 1350s and several other brands in that facility now. I also partnered with Nick in a company called Statement Catamarans so you will see some new product development coming out of there as well—maybe a big brother to the 396.
Have you always wanted to build boats?
Yes, I’ve always wanted to be more involved in design and manufacturing. Working with Nick and with his blessing and being partnership with him, we can move into the next era of Statement Marine. And we provide the dealers in our network with new models to sell to compete with other manufacturers.
You know, Statement began with some unique custom boats such as the 42 V-bottom and the 50-foot cat. And we are kind of getting back to that and being. leader in this segment of the market.
Randy Sweers’ marine industry career has long been a high-flying affair. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
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