Performance-Oriented Pontoon Dealership Opens Southwest Florida Location

When it comes selling Avalon and Tahoe pontoon boats decked out with custom paint, massive sound systems and Mercury Racing outboard engines, Delaware-based WMF Watercraft and Marine is an industry leader. That’s because Bill Forenski, the multi-location dealership’s founder and owner, is a longtime go-fast powerboat enthusiast who currently owns an MTI 340X catamaran he purchased from Shaun Torrente, his Cape Coral, Fla., winter-time neighbor.

Fully customized pontoon boats with Mercury Racing outboard engine-power are a specialty of WMF Watercraft and Marine, which now has a Southwest Florida location.

Now Forenski, who has been introducing performance-oriented, richly dressed Avalon tri-toons to the local community through the Fort Myers Offshore group, has another WMF Watercraft and Marine dealership just a short drive from the Cape Coral winter home he shares with longtime partner, Patience Karlik. The 45-year-old businessman/entrepreneur has purchased the existing Boater’s Paradise dealership from now-former-owner Wally Hunter in the thriving Pine Island Road area.

“As of today, we are officially in business,” said Forenski. “We are working out of the existing location, which has been there for 10 years. We don’t have a new showroom and service center yet, but we will be building them and hope to open both next year. In the meantime, we are open.”

The new WMF Watercraft and Marine dealership took over the former Boater’s Paradise location in Cape Coral.

Both during and after the Roar Offshore Fort Myers Beach offshore powerboat race weekend set for October 6-8, Forenski and his crew will produce promotional events for the new dealership. The details are still being worked out, he said, but at least one event will showcase Avalon and Tahoe pontoon models at the Boat House Tiki Bar and Grill in Cape Coral.

During the next few years, Forenski plans to move 100 to 250 models though the new location. But the Cape Coral brand of his thriving dealership is as much about lifestyle as it is about business for him.

“I have a great general manager in Delaware so I have been able to spend more and more time in Florida,” he explained. “But I’m only 45 years old and I’m not ready to retire. Now I can do what I love—sell boats—down here. It was kind of a natural for me to do this.”