Catching Up With Dan Kleitz—Outerlimits And The Sustained DNA Of Mike Fiore – Speed on the Water
The general manager of Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats in Bristol, R.I., Dan Kleitz is 37 years old. He has been with the custom high-performance V-bottom and catamaran company for 14 years, and in that time he’s experienced triumph and tragedy. In 2014 alone, he saw an Outerlimits SV 43 shatter the V-bottom kilo record in April. Later that year, Outerlimits founder Mike Fiore died following an accident at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri.
The SC 37 catamaran has been a strong seller since the company introduced it a few years ago. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
And yet through it all, including deaths of company president Joe Sgro and Paul Fiore, the man who inspired his son to start the company, Kleitz never lost faith in the Outerlimits brand. If anything, those losses inspired him to keep pushing Mike Fiore’s vision. Fiore hired Kleitz to sweep floors at the company while he was still in college.
More than a mentor and muse, Fiore was his hero.
As anybody who’s spent more than a minute with him knows, Kleitz is unabashedly proud of Outerlimits. Some six or seven years ago when a reporter-friend suggested he tone it down if he wanted a career in the industry beyond Outerlimits, he responded, “Why? I’m never going to work for another boat company.”
But as Kleitz has grown a bit older, wiser and mellower he has toned it down a tad—but again just a tad. He still bleeds Outerlimits blood, as you’ll learn from this interview.
You’ve been busy lately. What’s happening at Outerlimits these days?
We have a good mix of catamarans and V-bottoms going through the shop right now. It’s kind of funny. In the history of Outerlimits, who would have thought we would become a catamaran builder to the extent that we are now? We have a ton of SC 37s going. We are delivering one this weekend. We have another in final rigging, another at Stephen Miles Design getting painted and the first canopied SC 37 in rigging. We have our eight-seat SC 46 catamaran in body work right now, and the second one is in lamination. On the V-bottom side, we just finished the body work on an SL 52 and it’s going to paint.
The first outboard engine-powered Outerlimits catamaran, the SC 37 has been well received. Did you expect that?
Yes and no. Obviously, when you look back at Outerlimits we have been the leading high-performance V-bottom company for many years and we continue to dominate that market. When it comes to the catamaran segment, Mike’s plan was to continue to push into that market with the help of Steve Curtis. Because of Steve’s resume and experience, we knew we were going to have something special—and we do. How people were going to receive it was the question, because when you think of Outerlimits you tend to think of V-bottoms. But we urge people to come give the SC 37 a try and see what it can do. For our last three buyers, SC 37s were their first catamarans. They were V-bottom guys who were impressed with their handling and performance.
In 2021, Dan Kleitz married Karly Shea, his partner of almost 10 years.
Between the stand-up SL and sit-down SV cockpits, which V-bottom seating layout is more popular?
I’d say it’s almost fifty-fifty. We go in spurts—some years we will only build SL boats and other years we will build a lot of SVs. But yeah, I’d say it’s about fifty-fifty year in and year out. Right now, we have an SL 50 in rigging and we are just finishing up Crypto II. We also have an order for an SV 50.
It’s just personal preference, standing or sitting. I’m a sit-down guy but a lot people I know prefer standing in a V-bottom. But Outerlimits is the only company that can do both.
Any new models in mind?
We are always thinking about new stuff. Right now, we have an eight-seat version of our SC 37 catamaran on the drawing board. That is probably the only option we lack for that model right now.
Outerlimits is one of very few companies still selling and building sterndrive V-bottom sportboats. How do you account for that?
Two words: Mike Fiore. We have basically grown and refined what he left us with. Outerlimits is still the best money can buy. No other company can build you a 52-foot V-bottom with a full cabin and a head and galley that also runs 140 mph. There’s not another company in the world that can do that.
Dan Kleitz tests every model Outerlimits builds before it is delivered to its owner.
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