Under The Radar And Over The Top—Inside Custom Marine Sales

Though he shared facilities with the Bobby Moore on Thunder Boat Row on Miami’s famed 188th Street and later with John Tomlinson of TNT Custom Marine, you probably haven’t heard of Pete Pavkovich. The 30-plus-year high-performance marine industry veteran’s customization and service shop is tucked away in a quiet Fort Lauderdale, Fla., industrial park. Signage is minimal.

A 206-foot shadow-ship, Hodor carries its owner’s powerboats and other toys around the world. Photos courtesy/copyright Clint Jenkins.

You might spy it—if you glance quickly and have great eyes—as you travel north on I-95 just a few minutes past Fort Lauderdale’s international and executive airports. But you probably won’t.

All of this is by design, of course. Custom Marine Sales is for all intents an exotic powerboat project management business with almost unlimited creative license. Pavkovich and his eight-person team has many high-profile clients such as Lorenzo Fertitta of former UFC ownership fame. Discretion and privacy are essential.

Think of Pavkovich as high-level general contractor for custom powerboat builds. His client orders a boat, and from that time until the project is finished, he works closely with the boatbuilder, the owner and any subcontractors. Founded in 1993, Custom Marine Sales offers in-house services from fabricating parts to creating massive sound systems.

But the company also works with a handful of exquisite subcontractors. They include graphic artists Mark Morris of Visual Imagination and Dave Hunter of In-Visions By Hunter Painting, and ace upholstery design-and-fabrication men Jamie Borg of Cutting Edge Interiors and Mike Mears of Fineline Marine Interiors.

Drogon found snug harbor on a trip to Alaska.

“We spend a lot of time on each project,” Pavkovich explained. “We’re here six or seven days a week, and we travel around the world to serve our clients. Most of our customers have been with us for many years. Some of them work with us from the moment they order a boat. Others buy a complete brand-new boat and then bring it here.”

Though Pavkovich and his team have customized several boats including a 50-foot Nor-Tech center console, a Cigarette Racing Team 42X and a couple of Skater Powerboats catamaran for Fertitta, the Cigarette captured public attention when it was completed in 2020. As it happened, Fertitta had a trip to Alaska—and later to Tahiti—when the 42-footer dubbed Drogon and painted by Visual Imagination was finished. So he took it with him.

Following the Alaska trip, the owner took Drogon to warm up in Tahiti.

Which begs the obvious question: How?

Fertitta owns a 206-foot “shadow” ship called Hodor, which follows a 285-foot Feadship yacht dubbed Lonian. Hodor carries all “toys” such the 42-foot Cigartte dubbed Drogon and follows Lonian, which carries the owner and his guests, all over the world.

That’s how.

In late 2024, Custom Marine Sales found itself back on radar with the completion of Rhaegal, a Skater 438, for Fertitta. The owner named both Rhaegal and Drogon after the fire-breathing dragons from the “Game Of Thrones” television series. While the 43-footer was being built at Skater headquarters in Douglas, Mich., Fertitta, Pavkovich and Morris consulted extensively on the boat’s paintjob.

The result is an exquisite catamaran completely morphed—via Morris and his crew—into an outrageous dragon.

Rhagel and Lonian, the owner’s 50-foot Nor-Tech called Fancy Sauce, struck a pose in Antica.

“That’s the cool thing about working with Lorenzo,” said Clint Jenkins, a good-natured Australian ex-pat who has been the owner’s exclusive videographer and video editor/producer for more than 20 years. “He always wants to do something better with his next project than his last one. That is just the kind of guy he is.”

Jenkins, who also had input on the paintjobs of Drogon and Rhaega , described Pavkovich as “the glue that holds everything together” on Fertitta’s project.

Without Hodor to carry Rhagel and the owner’s helicopter, images such as this one would not be possible.

“Pete is the man,” he said. “He is really, really good at these custom jobs.”

Added Custom Marine salesman Tony Friedrich, whose father used to be a Pavkovich client, “Pete has done a great job of cultivating lasting relationships with his customers. A lot of his customers have been with him for a great deal of time. Others he’s met through existing clients.”

Though Custom Marine Sales has both in-house and remote service and maintenance capabilities, they are only available to clients. The company does not offer service to the general public and doesn’t need to. Demand from existing clients is more than enough.

Boasting Visual Imagination paintjobs, Rhagel and Drogon are among the most outrageous builds in recent history.

“I’ve had lot of customers say, ‘You treat my stuff better than I do,’” Pavkovich said, then laughed. “That’s just our way of doing things.

“Our clients give us the latitude to make decisions and change things as we go,” he added. “Because they know what we can do.”