Drawing Board: Revel Yachts
American engineering, craftsmanship and courage, combined with European design, is the bedrock of a new Maine-built brand.
Launching a new boat model these days takes guts; launching a new boat brand? Now that takes something else entirely. To keep things P.G., let’s call it … courage. That’s a trait Josh St. Germain, 34, Revel’s CEO appears to possess in spades. And though considerably younger than many of his industry peers, the gregarious leader boasts a resume that gives him considerable sea-cred. A life-long boater, St. Germain graduated from the prestigious Landing School in Maine before cutting his teeth on the engineering team at Sabre/Back Cove. He would round out his sales and service skills with a dealer in South Carolina for a number of years, and it was in this role that he would learn how to interact with happy—and sometimes not-so-happy—customers. It was also, he says, where he saw the shortcomings of many boatbuilders.
His career would pivot once again when, one afternoon while sitting with a customer on his boat in Charleston and explaining his boat’s electrical system, the customer looked at him and asked, “Why are you here? Why do you work for a dealer and not for a builder?” St. Germain replied that he had, in fact, worked for a builder previously. That customer went on to put him in touch with an old neighbor, Steve Potts Sr. of Scout Boats. This serendipitous introduction led to a number of satisfying years working for the Charleston-based builder.
“I learned a lot,” says St. Germain. “I feel like I had a big impact on the Scout product and improving the quality, and I have the utmost respect for Steve Potts. What he did with that company, starting out building a 16-foot boat in his garage, all the way to what it is today, was inspiring.”
Inspiring enough that in August of 2022 he left Scout and, backed with investment from a former customer, set out to launch Revel Yachts. “I was 32 at the time,” St. Germain says. “I had a one-year-old. I said, if I don’t do this now, it’ll be 10 years before I do it. I’m going to go through having kids and then I’ll never do it. My wife, who’s, generally speaking, very conservative with decisions, has been the most supportive person and my biggest cheerleader—which has been just really, really fantastic and unexpected. We’re cutting our income in half and we have a young child, we have a house with a mortgage, we have all these things, but to have her support is just absolutely wonderful.”
With a financial partner and family backing, St. Germain went about establishing his team. For the interior and exterior design, he tapped Macra Naval Architecture based in La Spezia, Italy; our own Bill Prince was tasked with designing the hull and structural grid, and, returning to his Maine roots, St. Germain secured Lyman-Morse for the build.
Lyman-Morse is certainly no stranger to helping to launch brands (Navier as a recent example) or in some cases, like that of Bertram, even relaunch brands. But what makes this partnership unique is that St. Germain plans to use LM as his long-term build partner. It’s a production deal that seems advantageous to both entities. American engineering and craftsmanship combined with European design flair seems like a winning combination, but St. Germain’s first boat, the Revel 44S, will need to offer something different if it’s to break into the American outboard market.
That secret sauce, St. Germain says, will come in its unique layout that you see and the technology that you don’t. That layout looks to be a blend of BlueGame, Sunseeker Hawk and the now-defunct Ocean Alexander Divergence line. The Revel 44 sports robust-looking fold-down gunwales to port and starboard that should make for easy entertaining. Down below, this dayboat boasts weekender capabilities, with a cabin amidships and a convertible V-berth forward. What you don’t see is the digital switching, which will be provided by Starlink, and a planned app that will allow owners to control and monitor various systems such as the lighting, refrigeration and security cameras.
Base price for the 44S, which is slated to debut on the show circuit this fall, is $1.8 million. At that price tag, she comes with triple Mercury 400s. You can opt to upgrade to twin or triple 600s and take your projected speed from 46 to 54 knots.
Time will tell if St. Germain and Revel Yachts will be a flash-in-the-pan or will go on to become one of the next American greats. So far, he’s accomplished two of the most vital tasks: He’s assembled an incredible team and he’s gone all in.
View the original article to see embedded media.
