How Golden Boat Lifts Builds Hurricane-Resistant Boat Lifts for Saltwater & Marina Use (2025 Buyer’s Guide)

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  Golden Transcript:
   This is Bill Golden, golden Boat list for the Tom Rowland podcast.

  Bill, what's up? How are you?

  Great, man.

  You were just telling me off air about going to your, uh, rock the country in, in Ocala,

  up in Ocala. What a beautiful part of our state, man. Just love it, love it, love it. What

  is, what is, do you know Ocala? What is the horse, uh, history? There's, I mean, it's,

  I don't know much about the history, but it's all horses.

  It's, I know, it's, it's horses everywhere. There's just beautiful

  land there when you drive through there. Big horse country, and that's a big place. Hills

  and all. Yeah, it's

  awesome. So what was the venue like?

  It was pretty incredible. I've never been at this place before, but it is a big, you know, where they had through the rodeos and all the horse shows and all, and, uh.

  It was really nice. We had a great time. Beautiful place. Nice weather. Couldn't beat it. Who played? Uh, kid Rock was the headline. Wow. But Hank Williams, Jr. Uh, there was a few other ones. Nickelback and geez, it goes on and on. Nice. So yeah, there was about 20 bands played. Yeah. It was amazing. All right.

  Hey, your, um, your thing's flipped over on that side.

  There you go. It'll be more comfortable that way. I thought that felt a little funny. It'll be more comfortable that way. So here we are at Golden Boat Lifts, and, uh, the first time I've been in your facility, how many buildings do you have here?

  We're up to five. No, I'm gonna go back. We're four. We just gave up the lease on one of our smaller buildings and we're putting another building up this year.

  So we'll be back up to five buildings.

  Man, you've built a great business. How did, uh, how did you get started in the boat lift business?

  Well, I moved to Florida in 1980. In 1981 I bought a welding machine. And, uh. Somebody's seen it behind my truck and wanted me to weld on a boat lift. I didn't even know what a boat lift was back then.

  And I went over and looked, did some welding. Uh, the owner of the company back then, it was Dolphin Boat Lifts the owner Mort Seal. Asked me if I would come run a company for him, because the guy that was running it just, I guess he, um, he jumped on his motorcycle every once in a while and take off for a couple weeks.

  So I ended up going there, running a shop for him, and uh, one thing turned into another and here I am building a boat list for the last 45 years.

  Where, where did you see the opportunity? Like was it in innovation or was it in in customer service or where did you see the opportunity to really build something special?

  Well, for me it was more of, you know, back when I was young and started in a, in a business, it was more about the process of having a manufacturer. I mean, they didn't, the guys that were welding there, they had no clue what they were doing. I mean, they were just sticking stuff together the best they could.

  It would take 'em half a day to build something and, and I got in and I just seen, uh, some ways we can innovate the manufacturing as far as the way we assemble it. And you, I would do something, it would take me 10 minutes to do in a jig. It would take somebody else like three or four hours to build. So we, I got into the manufacturing processes.

  And somehow I ended up getting into sales. I guess I, you know, just, I knew too much at some point and then I had to share my knowledge. So that's what got me in born into sales and, and, uh, running a business.

  Did you have a background in manufacturing at all? I didn't.

  No. Not at all. So you're just

  looking at it going, there's gotta be a better way to do it than that.

  Yeah, and I, you know, I, I just love building stuff, so an opportunity to like build a boat list and do this thing repetitively and I just, I just dug it. It was just so much fun. And, uh, I'm not so much hands-on, but I still get out in the shop every once in a while and, and if I see an opportunity to build a, you know, a jig better or to process, you know, more efficiently, more accurately, and that's what I'm into,

  that's, I mean, but what you're known for, I mean, at least what I know you for is innovation.

  Like you've, you've changed the way that boat lifts are created. You've, you've got your own processes. Tell me about, um, like where we are today with Golden Boat Lifts.

  I started out, I guess creating the processes to manufacture better, and then, then after a while we started, you know, really listening our customers and saying, you know, Hey, can you do this a little better?

  Can you make that a little faster? You know, this is a little hard to put this together. Can you make it easier to assemble? And, you know, we, we just listen to our customers and what they want and what their customers want. Uh, you know, just put thinking cap on and, and figured things out. And, and I got a great team.

  I, I don't take all the credit. Mm-hmm. I mean, we've got a hundred employees here, so, you know, we've got a lot of, a lot of intelligent people been with me. Some of my employees have been with me for 27, 28 years. Wow. So, you know, we've gotta. A sharp crew, they're experienced and you know, I get a lot of input from them.

  I, I'd love to stand back and watch my management team mm-hmm. Figure things out on their own. It's just, nothing's more rewarding than that.

  And so from here in North Fort Myers, golden Boat Lifts has expanded worldwide, right? World worldwide. Yes. So where, where do you think the furthest destination that you've, uh, put in a lift or a dock or

  Probably my.

  Biggest Marina was in the Sesha Islands. Really?

  I just got back from there really? And let me tell you, that is a long way away from here. It is a

  long way. Did you spend any evenings on the beach where the bats are flying? They got these giant, they do have those bats, giant bats. It's insane.

  It, well, we weren't on the beach, but we were at, uh, a resort and I didn't know about the bats.

  I didn't, uh, this trip kind of snuck up on me, even though we planned it three years ago. It kind of snuck up on me. So I hadn't done the research and I looked up and I see this giant bird and I look at it and I'm like. That looks like a bat. And it came closer and closer and closer. And we all looked up at it.

  We said That is a bat. Yeah. Date they call it. Of bats. Yeah. The Sey Shells Flying Fox. And it looks like, isn't that what it is? I mean, I got on Google right away and I was like, what is that thing? And sure enough, it was this giant bat. Now they had it on the main island of the Sey shells, but they didn't have it on the off islands.

  We didn't see it. Once we were, we went to the Providence at Toll, and I think

  we were in Maho. Is it Mahe Ma? Okay. Yes.

  And I saw them in Mahe. Okay. I mean. A large bat, like the size of our vulture here. Yeah.

  It's insane. I couldn't believe it. They were flying around. We're in a pool. I'm like, what is that?

  Yeah. They're like, oh, those are bats. You know, like, like there's nothing to it. They're, they're regular bats. Yeah. Well, I wish

  I had known that you had a a, a dock or a lift there. I could have gone and gotten a picture of it.

  Yeah. Big Marina we built and then, um, we also got a couple of our floating lifts.

  A guy seen us building the docks. Mm-hmm. And he looked us up and he said, we can use these floating boat lifts as well. So we've got a few down there. We've got a guy that's marketing our product there, so it's

  right on.

  And then I guess another one we did was in, um, oh, geez, I gotta think about this.

  Marshall Islands was Wow. Another one we did, uh, we lifted a submarine.

  A submarine?

  Yeah. Yeah. For, uh. Tourist.

  So when some, I mean, is that, is that bigger than a sport fish? Like is that like a, a big long center console or

  No, no. It's probably like 20 foot long. Okay. Like three passenger, they just, you know, I gotcha.

  Not very big at all, but it's pretty neat.

  What do you think the biggest lift that you've created is?

  180,000 pound down in a, in, uh, St. Martin.

  Wow. Yeah. 180,000 pounds. Yep. So when you first started this boat lift company, did you ever think that you'd be lifting 180,000 pounds or have even someone have a need to lift 180,000 pounds?

  Back then, I thought 20,000 pounds was a big lift. Right. You know, so, yeah. I, I never thought I'd be building lifts that big, you know, that's, that's not a big part of our business though. Mm-hmm. Our. Bread and butter basically is a 10,000 pound lifts and up. That's, those are the lists we like to build.

  That's gonna be

  like a, a 35 to 45 foot boat. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And so what is it about Golden? Um, like, I, I heard you doing your, your pitch at the, at the Miami Boat Show. It made a whole lot of sense. Um, tell me what's different about what you do and how you do it than the rest of the lifts on the market.

  Well, you know, we all build an aluminum structure pretty much the same. We're using channels and, and the structure's very similar. We do a little different on our mounts. I use a stainless steel mount bracket and, uh, we use more lag bolts. We, we do a more robust, uh, uh, connection from our boat lifts to the pilings.

  But what really separates us is the gearbox. I mean, truthfully, there's one component that I. You can go cheap or you can spend a lot of money on. And, and, and you know, what separates us is that I've chose not to go cheap. I'm buying the best gearbox made out of the best alloys, the best gears. And, uh, quite frankly, it's been proven we've got 'em out there for nearly 20 years now without any failures.

  I mean, I, it's unbelievable, um, that they've doubled their warranty and I know that they're probably, I, I don't know when they're ever gonna fail. I mean, we've, we've overbuilt them to the point that, uh, it's double what basically everybody else in the industry uses. You only need 4,000 inch pounds of torque to lift most boats the way the cable arrangements are and so on.

  I chose to build a gearbox that is 8,000 inch pounds of torque, and that allows me to, you know, if the boat fills up with water examples Mm. Uh, you know. The customer overloads, one side of the lift or the other, overloads, the lift entirely. We've got a lot of, uh, additional strength built into a gearbox where it's just not gonna fail and drop the boat.

  Um. And we also, some of the other things we do is that I feel is super important is like my cables, you know, I buy my cables from this company that I've been buying from like 30 years. So reliable. The best stainless steel cable. I never have rushed, never have any failures with the cables. I mean, it means a lot.

  So you take the mm-hmm. Most important components, you make sure they're the best. Uh, then you gotta have a product that, that never fails. I mean, basically, I mean, somebody really has to screw up to, to break one of our lids. I mean, but it, it, we just overdo it. And I believe in the marine industry, you gotta put the right components to, you can't use cheap stainless steel.

  I mean, there's 200 series and there's 300 series. You better be using a 300 series stainless, right? Or you're gonna have surface rust. Our motors are stainless steel motors, right. Aluminum end caps. Everything we do is, is gonna be something that's not gonna. Disintegrate and pit and you know, get corroded in the marine environment.

  Mm-hmm.

  I mean, we sell a lot of our lifts, excuse me, now in, in, in the freshwater, in the Great Lakes and, and people love it, but I watch the companies that build boat lifts in the freshwater come and try to sell that lift in the, in the salt water. And it's just, it's miserable results.

  That's a whole different world.

  I mean, the salt water is, it's so damaging and so corrosive, uh, more so than, and if you haven't lived in it and seen it every day and what it can do to something that you think is, is impervious to salt, water and sun. I mean, the sun is a, is a big thing too, and it, it is hard to describe. I mean, you could try to tell somebody what's gonna happen.

  You see a first time boat owner that, that leaves the Great Lakes and comes to Florida for the first year and by the end of that first year, their boat looks terrible. Because they're not taking care of it like they did right up north. And, um, it's just a very difficult environment. Um, and for a boat lift, a boat lift is something that you buy, that you should buy like once.

  I mean, it's not even like a trailer, like a trailer. You're probably going to get a new boat at some time and you're gonna get a new trailer. Maybe that's every, every four or five years, you're kind of trading this thing out. Yeah. Um, but not a boat lift. A boat lift is like permanently installed behind your house for the most part.

  Yeah. I mean there's, I see these hydraulic lifts come in from, you know, they're building up in Michigan in a, in a freshwater lakes, and then they want to take this hydraulic pump and all these attachments and fittings, and they're all rusting and they're leaking and they want to come and bring it down to Florida.

  And I'll tell you what, it just doesn't last. I mean, I, I remember we, we had a. Uh, hydraulic company come to us and they said, you know what, we can make a hydraulic motor and, and put it on your lift. And, but we need a pump. We need a fluid, we need a reservoir. We need all these hoses to power that pump, or I'm sorry, to power the gear box and a boat lift.

  And then they come to me and they say, you know, we got this really cool motor. We put right on the end of the hydraulic pump to pump everything to get it working. I'm like, well, that doesn't make sense. Why don't I just take this stainless steel motor that's totally submersible, just put it on the end of the gearbox.

  Why am I gonna go buy a hydraulic pump reservoir? Uh, you got hoses. You, you've got a now hydraulic motor, you've gotta have a hydraulic brake. It becomes so expensive. And then as soon as there's a problem, you got, you got. 10 different things that can go wrong when you just take a motor, you put it direct to the gearbox, you are done.

  I mean it you, you have no problems as long as you've got power going into motor, you've got a boat lift that's operating.

  There's also the situation where you don't have power going to the motor, like after hurricanes, which is another place that I think that you've done some really interesting innovations there about being able to either lift the boat or.

  Take the boat down with a, with a cordless drill.

  Yeah, without a doubt. When Hurricane Ian came through Fort Myers, there was probably thousands of boats stranded up on our lifts with our lifts, and we're, I think we're the only lift company that has a gearbox. So you can actually just put a, uh, cordless drill with the adapter for like the end of a simulate the end of a motor.

  Put it in, you can lower the boat right down. If the boat's not too heavy, you can probably raise it too on a cordless drill. But yeah, it's, it's a lifesaver. I mean, it, it was, uh, great for, uh, we had a lot of rescue boats that, you know, first responders, that the boats were stuck up on the lifts until, you know, our local contractor went and, and lowered them one, a cordless drill.

  Wow. So, yeah, it's certainly. Uh, comes in the, uh, handy when a storm comes and you can't use your lift. It, it's very important.

  So on this podcast we talk about a lot of different things, whether it's, um, excellence in, in being a fishing guide. That's certainly a, a common thread that we have of, there are a few people who have, who have achieved excellence as a fishing guide.

  And then we go into like, what is it that, that they do differently than the other people? Or maybe they don't even know that they're doing it differently, just they're doing something different. Right. In the boat lift industry, it's a very competitive industry, and like you said, when you go to the Miami Boat show, all the lifts basically look pretty much the same, but you've been able to differentiate, differentiate yourself from the crowd.

  And I just wonder, like you said it before, you take the most important things and you just double down on those and make, make them, make them the, the. Most durable or the heaviest duty, but it's gotta be more than that. Like what is it, what did you concentrate on as you're building this company to separate yourself from others?

  Well, I could probably start with being honest. That's like the most important thing in being in business. Being straight with your customers, always letting 'em know where you're at, where they're at, you know, as far as their products are concerned. But, um, probably seconding that is listening, man. You gotta listen to what your customers want, what their customers want, and you gotta hear what they're saying.

  Um, and that's, it took me a little while. You know, when I was in my twenties, I knew everything. I was the smartest guy in the boat lift business. You know, one day my ears woke up, you know, and started opening up. And, you know, when I got my forties, I really started listening to what my customers were saying.

  I mean, and not just here, I mean, we, one of our biggest customers are in Sweden, in Europe. They wanted a style, they wanted this elevator lift. That's no more than a. Foot above their dock. Everything was low profile. They didn't want to see anything. And we worked with 'em and we developed products that would work for their environment for their customers.

  Right? What they, what they expect to see or what they don't expect to see. Right? So we built products, um, you know, basically all over the world tailored to their environment and to their customers liking. Mm-hmm. So I think that was really what helped us, because, you know, our, our customers understand the end user that puts their boat on a lift is our customer too.

  But our real customers are the marine contractors and what we consider our dealers that go out every day to take care of our product, they're gonna install it, we're gonna make sure that they're well trained to install our product. And then the aftermarket after sale, you know, service and making sure everything is, is operating properly, you know, for the long term.

  And that's what separates. Us from the other guys, I think is we choose to go with the best people. I fired more contractors for, you know, not doing what the customer wants. And, and it's really important. I mean, that's what, you know, my product's only as good as the installation, right? I can build the best product in a world.

  If I've got a terrible installer, I'm gonna have a terrible product at the end because it's not gonna do what it was meant to do. So that's, that's like the, the secret sauce. And I hope all my competitors aren't hearing this, but it truly is. I mean, you, you gotta have good installers. I mean, so that's, that's what makes a difference.

  And, you know, we have conventions and we're constantly training. We do many videos, uh, just little clips to teach our dealers, you know, little nuances about our product. Mm-hmm. And how to install it better. And, and, uh, we have longer life.

  Do you have a story or a, or a memory of, of one of the most important things that you heard from a customer or from an installer that you actually put into your product line?

  Oh, geez. I can go on. I mean, it's, every dealer has something that they feel is important, but we've had so many contributions. Tom, I probably couldn't nail one down, but you know, if anything, I would say the gearbox, because when we developed the seed drive, that was like 19, 20 years ago when we developed that, that was a huge relief to our, to our dealers because, you know, it, it was a choice between a a, a belt drive or gearbox that's filled with oil that, you know, they leak.

  So, you know, we chose to build the sea drive. And the other thing that's super important about that drive is that we use a grease filled synthetic grease that never has to be changed. Hmm. And it never leaks. So we've, we've developed a product that not only does it operate great, there's like zero maintenance and there's zero service.

  But then there's also, the way that that gearbox is installed is on the side, you know, diff differently than,

  well, that is so important. I'm glad you mentioned that, Tom. You know. I've been in this boat lift business for a long, long time. I worked, we started another company back in the late eighties, and it was a chain drive.

  The motors were in the, uh, horizontal position, I'm sorry, in the vertical position, and they need to be in a horizontal position. And the motors are set with weep poles on the bottom of the motor. And if, if it's not set properly, water will get on the top bearing and it'll rest there. And then a bearing will start making noise.

  And if it gets down at the bottom of the motor, it'll burn out the centrifugal switch. So motors don't last as long. Um, and when I started Golden Boat lifts, it was like, no way am I ever gonna mount the motor anyways. But with the, uh, basically you want to have the capacitor on top. No water can get in a capacitor.

  It's like a bowl. So you wanna make sure the capacitor is up top, the drains are below. It's the way the motors were designed, and, uh, we really have no problem. And that's, you know. We build a boat lift with no problems, you gotta make sure you design it and everything's incorporated. Is there a

  challenge to mounting it sideways?

  Do you have to do something differently? I mean, why doesn't everybody do that?

  Well, it's, again, it's, it's the gearbox, right? And, and our gearboxes cost a lot of money because they're dual gearbox. There's two gear boxes built into one, and, uh, it's very expensive, uh, to build that gearbox so people choose to be on a budget, you know?

  Mm-hmm. And if you're out to save money when you're buying a boat lift, you probably shouldn't look at a golden lift because you're gonna, you're not looking for the best either. And, and, and my true belief is the gearbox is a heartbeat. Of the boat lift. And if, and if you put the motor in a different position or you choose a gearbox that has less strength, I think you're jeopardizing the longevity of the product.

  Hmm. And also, like it could fail, right?

  Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You overload a 4,000, uh, inch pound torque gearbox, and you put 5,000 inch pounds of torque on there. You're going to break something sooner or later.

  Hmm. And, um, then, you know, as you, as you see like these different installs here and you have these beautiful books of all the different installs.

  My favorite is the, is the one with the, the elevator lift or the, or the, the one with the dock underneath. Right. So where you can walk, yeah, you can walk completely around your boat. So that's like an innovation of, you have all these boat lifts that basically look the same. And then how do you get inspiration to.

  Create something like that or to say, well, if we can lift a boat, then somebody probably needs a kayak lift or they need these other things. Is that just listening to people or, it's

  exactly what it is, Tom. I mean, I can remember, uh, Brent Stokes, Stokes Marine came to me, I don't know, 15 years ago and said, bill, one of my customers wants this platform.

  Can you, can you build it? We want the through flow decking. So, you know, it's easy on the feed and we want it to be gray and all I remember the first one we built, man, I lost my butt on that one. But, you know, I learned, and that's kind of what you go through, you know? And, and, and we got better and better at it.

  And, uh, you know, turns out that each of the plastic pieces were a little different dimensions, you know, so when we started putting it together, it was maybe a little bigger, a little smaller whatever to frame. So we, we adapted to, you know, the differences in the plastics that we get and, and, you know, people want this supplier, this type of through flow or SureStep or, or tighten decking.

  So we give the customer what they want. Sometimes they'll use the deck that matches their mm-hmm. Their dock already and. It's really made a difference and we sell more of those. I one of the buildings I have, basically that's all we built in them now, is that and walkways.

  Man, those things are so nice. I mean, you see other people like that have their boat up there and they'll take their boat off and then they'll just leave the lift in the water and they'll be sitting there kind of like.

  Like on the sandbar, right? It's, they can make it a foot deep or six inches

  deep, or, that's my buddy Pete. Yeah. He actually put one of our tiki huts above it and he's got the platform, he lowers it down, him and his wife on, you know, Saturdays and Sundays, they, they got their little dog and their cocktails and they'll bring it down to the water and if the tide goes out, they just hit the remote and lower it down a little bit.

  So yeah, their, their backyard sandbar pretty much. Yeah. That's nice. Pretty cool. Yeah.

   And then, then when your boat's on it, you can walk all the way around it, clean it. That's

  the other cool thing. Yeah, I know. That's nice.

  Yep. Yeah, that's really nice. And so where does the innovation go today? Like, have you done all that you can do?

  No way. No

  way, man. We, we just came out, uh, last year with a freestanding boat lift. We introduced it at Miami Boat Show, and that thing just was a hit. I mean, there's a lot of places down in the Caribbean islands and so on where, where it's just difficult to get a barge to put pilings in. Mm-hmm. So we built the What

  about even, even, um, restrictions and permits and all that?

  Absolutely. Yeah. We're. We're doing, uh, the same product, freestanding four post lift up in like Lake Michigan, where they're gonna pull 'em out every winter. And, but they're still, now they're able to pick up bigger posts.

  So how does a freestanding four post work? It's not going into the ground at all?

  No, it, it has foot pads adjustable so you can level it, but basically it's a frame that'll sit on the bottom if the bottom's on level.

  We have adjustable pads, uhhuh, that'll level the lift up. And, uh, I'll tell you, it, it, when we were at the Miami Boho, I was surprised at how well the product was received. These people from down in Antigua, we sell a lot of lifts and they, there's like one marine contractor and it takes a year to get from one side of the island to the other and then they pay, you know, just ridiculous amount of money for each piling.

  So they couldn't believe it when they seen it. They were like, oh my God, this is why we came to the boat show. We didn't even know why we came, why we were here. But now we know they

  Is that something that somebody could install on their own so they don't even need somebody like that? Exactly.

  Yeah. You just gotta have a couple strong.

  People, uh, to move the stuff around. But, uh,

  and what about like in Florida where you have really strict permitting process for, uh, for, for putting in pilings? I mean, I've seen marinas sit there and wait for years to be able to drive pilings in, or sometimes they, they're never able to. Well, you

  can't, yeah.

  If you've got like a coral bottom and you can't get through it. Yeah. So this is something we're hopefully gonna start selling here in Florida. We, uh, the other thing we've got that's, that's very innovative is one of our, uh, hydraulic lifts that we sell out west and, uh, up in the Midwest and, and throughout Canada, uh, we have a bottom based hydraulic lift as well, uh, where the cylinders are gonna be up outta the water all the time versus the standard, uh, bottom based hydraulic lift where the cylinders are always underwater.

  Hmm. So, I, I've filed for a patent a couple years ago. Should be coming out of the patent office here real soon. And, uh. That product's gonna be hitting the market.

  Wow. So we just talked about a hydraulic lift that you said is definitely not as good as what as, as what you're putting out a mechanical drive lift.

  What makes your hydraulic lift something that you have confidence in?

  Well, it's a totally different, it's not a four post lift. It's, it's not really something you'll see in, in Florida. It's gonna be a lift that's gonna come out every winter.

  Mm-hmm.

  You know, the hydraulic lifts that you see up in the Midwest and, uh, basically throughout the Canada, you know where you're gonna see the lakes freeze.

  They're gonna pull those, those lifts out every winter or every fall. Mm-hmm. Put 'em back in, in the spring. And the type of lift it is, the cylinders are mounted basically to the frame and the cylinders are always underwater. The design that we have now, the patented design is we've mounted the cylinders up above where the, uh, basically where the boat supports are.

  Yeah. So the cylinders are always up outta the water. So that's the, that's the difference. And we're not running a gearbox. So that's, that's a little different than, than what we've spoke about before, as far as one hydraulic lift versus the other.

  Hmm. What's the craziest thing that you've seen in the, in the, well, I'm gonna say boat lift business, but I mean, the, there's a need to get your boat out of the water, right?

  So you have the docks that you run your boat up on. You have these different lifts that, I mean, I've seen ones that fill up with air and then they just buoy the boat up. All of a sudden we have one of those. Do you? Yeah, of course. Yeah. So, I mean, is that, have you seen something that's just crazy and you think, how did, why would somebody.

  Have I ever thought that would work? Um, maybe ever work in salt water. That's, I'm sure you've seen plenty of those. Like it's, it's not gonna work in salt water. But has there ever been some kind of creative thing that you look at and you're just like, wow, that is a hard way. I mean, you can scan a cat a lot of different ways, right?

  But have you seen anything that surprised you?

  I've probably seen a lot of things that surprised me. Nothing that pops out, you know, that, that, you know, I'd want to talk about, but yeah.

  So you have one of those lifts, that lift that fills with air? We do. Yeah. Yeah. And so what's the, what's the best application for that?

  Uh, really like deep water. If you get into a place like a quarry or, you know, you get out west where there's some really deep water, they just have floating docks that, you know, the water could be a hundred feet deep. Mm-hmm. So that's the, that's really the market for us there. Or again, if you get in a place where you just can't put piles in.

  Right. And we'll sell 'em here in Florida, we have, we have a few here in Florida, down in Puerto Rico, we've, we've sold a few. Okay. And just a, it, it really depends on a situation. 'cause that lift is gonna take more water. It's gonna take, you know, gonna need more water depth wherever that lift is gonna be.

  'cause it's at least a couple feet below the boat and you gotta consider low tide and things like

  that. And that's gonna stay in all year round. That

  could stay in all year round or it can come out. Yeah. But mainly the ones that come out, they're using a bottom base hydraulic, they, they just drag 'em out and drag 'em back in, in a, in a springtime.

  So it's a, it's a easily movable lift. The hydraulic or the, uh, the airfield ones are they just soft plastic, so they, they don't really. Do good sitting on the beach, they're better off just sitting in the

  water

  all the time.

  Right, right. And what about like, um, covers and, and matching, you know, the aesthetics of your house or something like that?

  Do you do, I mean, I've seen your, your, your, um, installation book, which I would encourage you. How does somebody get that book, by the way?

  Oh, they just call us or send us an email. What's the number? It's uh, 1-888-909-FIVE 4 3 8. Or so if you

  call that you can get one of these books, which I highly recommend if you're considering any sort of a boat lift, you should see what they have.

  I mean, some of the installations that you've done are

  incredible. Well, you can go to our website. We've got a, uh, you know, inquiry space that you can just ask for catalog, and it's, uh, golden boat lifts.com.

  Okay. You just put a lot of time in that, into that book. It's really nice. Yeah. They do a really nice job first class.

  And so you have that at all the boat shows. You're also at all the boat shows for the most part.

  Well, we do all the boat shows. We can do, yeah. For the most part we're at every major boat show.

  Yeah. And so, and that's when you come with this, with this, uh, this, the innovation station. It's behind us here, and we're gonna have b roll of all this.

  But walk, walk me through like what you're, what you talk about at the, at the boat shows and what we're looking at, what we're looking at here.

  Well, really the, what we like to show is, is how much care we put in when we build our product. So, you know, one thing we talk about the gearbox. We're gonna build a gearbox that's never gonna fail.

  We're gonna put a motor in a position that it's never gonna have an issue. We use larger diameter winders because we have a lot of torque in our gear boxes. So we're allowed to, um, put a bigger spool, which increases the torque requirement. But of course I have it in the gear boxes, but it also increases the speed and it increases the cable life because the bigger the spool, you wrap it around, the longer the cable's gonna last, the less bend it's having.

  So, um, you know, those are the things we like to show off our limit switch, which is super important to us, that, uh, obviously the limits keep the lift from overrunning. It's, it's up and down. Mm-hmm. Uh, limits. And without that you're gonna lift's gonna keep going. It's not gonna shut off when it's supposed to.

  So that's one of the places I found listening to one of our contractor service department one day was saying, no, you know, we, those limit switches after a while. The sun eats up the, uh, plastic and then moisture gets in and then the micro switches stop working. And right then I said, well, well, we gotta fix that.

  We don't want any issue. So we can come up with a neat little, uh, plastic vacuum formed cover that snaps on top. And we've never had a problem with the microswitches since. Just eliminates the sun from being able to even touch the, the cap on the limit switch. You know, so it's little things that we do.

  The, we use twice as many, uh, lag bolts for our mounting hardware, stainless steel brackets, things like that that, you know, I like to show how much we care about. How long the product is. It's not about, if everybody said, how much does your boat lift cost? And it's about, oh, you're $500 more. Well, if you realized how much more we put in at a product, we'd really appreciate what you're gonna get.

  Mm-hmm. It's, it's a huge difference. So being at a, at a trade show where I can actually show and they can walk over and look at my competitor's product, they always come back and sign up because it's just a huge difference for, you're, you're only paying a difference at a cost of material. We're not making more money because our boat lifts cost more money.

  Right, right. You're getting a better product. That's, that's the bottom. But a lot

  of people don't know what to look for. I mean, all the boat lifts look the same. They, they really do. They're, they're, they're all made out of aluminum and they, they all have cables for the most part, and they all look the same, so people don't know what to look for.

  75% of my competitors say, oh, we build the same thing as golden. None of them build the same as golden. Let that be heard. No competitor. A golden boat list builds a boat lift like ours. No one does. We just separated ourselves with that C drive gearbox. Uh, and that, that really is the, is the heartbeat, again, of, of the product.

  So

  that, that manifests in reliability and durability and, and life and long and longevity. Longevity. I,

  I've got boat lifts down in Jolly Harbor and Antigua from, let's see, 1996 till today. It's almost like going through a golden boat lift museum, man. I mean, we got the old, you know, even, even some of the older gear boxes other than, you know, they leak a little oil and things like that.

  Uh, before we started with the sea drives, they're still in operation. Wow.

  Well, one of the things about having a product that lasts that long is that. It lasts longer than the boat that you're going to have. Right. So you're going to a, you know, the, the journey of a boat owner is, you're gonna start with kind of a smaller boat and you're gonna get a larger boat and a larger nicer boat.

  And a nicer boat or Oh yeah. Or one that's a little more suited to what you, you like to do. And so you're gonna put multiple boats on this, on these lifts. And the thing that you inter introduced last year, which I thought was really cool, was the adjustable bunk system. And how'd you come up with that and, and tell people what that is?

  So, uh, we supply an aluminum bunk and it's kind of a hollow shape. So the standard method of, uh, attaching to the boat lift, you'd have to drill 16 holes. You'd use 16 three h by four bolts, and if you tighten a bolt too much, it would crash the crush, the aluminum on the other side. I just didn't like it.

  You know, we're always trying to be more innovative with the materials, the products that we're building. So I guess one day I came up with the idea of a key slot and we ended up putting in key slots in the, uh, in the bunk, patented it. Um, and now we got a bunk that you can use an inch and a half carriage bolts instead of four inch bolts.

  You never have to drill a hole because it, and then you can slide a four and a half. It's multi-directional adjustments on the, so you can go in and out and in four and a half with the, uh, with the bunks, just depending on, on what the needs of a boat are. So

  for a boat owner, you know, in two years when he gets a different boat, he can adjust it.

  Super easy, adjust. But for a marina operator. Yeah. That's really, now you could have somebody coming in every couple weeks, every month. Exactly.

  Yeah. It's huge because yeah, otherwise they're gonna re-drill and you could just imagine you're over the water, you're gonna drill 16 holes, then you move the bunk and you got 16 empty holes you gotta look at.

  Right. So yeah, it's been a game changer. And has

  that been well received?

  Absolutely. It's incredible. People that build, like the boat sheds, boat trailers, everybody's coming to us wanting to buy the buying bugs from us because it just makes it easier for their employees. It cuts the cost down. Uh, future adjustments, the appearance, it's just, it's everything.

  How many patents do you have?

  Oh, I think 14 now.

  14 patents.

  Do you remember getting your first patent? I sure do. What is it? What was it? It was called the cable bolt. And the funny thing was, I was a young dumb kid when I came up with that, and I didn't know anything about anything. So what does it, what does it do?

  Well, I. It holds the cable against the, uh, winder. So what happened was, many years ago, before the C Drive, um, came out, we used a gearbox that everybody's using today, but it would block the end of the shaft. And we used to feed the cable through the shaft, put a clamp on and pull it back. Mm-hmm. And the clamp would bottom out against the

  Yeah.

  The hole. And that was the way our cables were attached. But when we had this gearbox that blocked the hole, it's like, well, now what are we gonna do? And I, I was sitting at a restaurant one day with my machinist and I got the napkin out and, and, uh, drew a picture of this bolt with a hole in it and said, look, all we gotta do is put the cable through that hole, tighten a nut on the other side, and lock the cable to the, to the shaft.

  And now we don't have to worry about the shaft or the cable going out the end of the shaft and all this other stuff. Well, boy, I did that first boat show. I did. Everybody was oohing. And on all my competitors next boat show I did. Every one of my competitors had it on there. And, and I was like, guys, I got a patent on this.

  And, and you know, back then I didn't, you know, it cost you a hundred thousand dollars to sue somebody. And I, I didn't have a hundred thousand bucks to just go sue somebody over this stupid bolt. But, um, fast forward about 18 years after I got the patent, all my competitors ended up, uh, rewarding me because then I could afford to go to an attorney.

  And, uh, so I ended up getting paid for that patent. That was, that was lucrative. But it, you know, it took a while and all my competitors got to enjoy it. Today, I don't think there's a competitor out there that has a liquorice sense that's gonna copy one of my patents 'cause they know I'm a bulldog and they know I'll sue 'em, but like a heartbeat because these are these proprietary things.

  Sure. I've worked my life to, to learn and develop these products. And it's hard when you see it just, you know, your idea's just stolen and, and, and used. So, uh, so

  a lot of people, you know, have heard about patents. They understand that a patent protects you. But how did you know at a, at a young age that.

  That you needed a patent. Like if something is like you come up with this idea.

  Yeah, it was, you know, it, I think somebody said something to me and said, man, you need to patent that. You know, knucklehead don't, don't right. You know, everybody's gonna copy. And then I, then I patented, everybody copied me anyways.

  But I learned, you know, the patents I have now, they keep getting stronger and stronger too. And then, you know, you, you, you, you learn your way around

  them. What's the process of getting a patent

  after the idea? It's document. You really gotta document a lot of stuff. You know, the date you came up with the idea, and then, then it's off to the patent attorney, you know, and, and you gotta get the idea in their heads so they can, you know, they, there's a story they gotta write, you know, there's, there's prior art, you know, and then, then your products.

  So they really gotta explain the way it was done before. Um. What advantages it is to, to the design you developed or to, you know, the patent you're applying for? Uh, it gets kind of complicated in it. It's a long process. The, the patent inspectors, they're, they're not easy on us. You know, they want to, they wanna make sure that, uh, they, they've done everything right as far as evaluating, you know, the, the validity of your patent.

  Make sure no one else has ever done anything like that. Um, yeah, it's, it, it could be costly, it could be time consuming, but the reward is that nobody can copy you.

  Hmm. So that could be incredibly lucrative and has been for lots of companies. Yeah. And so in, in your business, those 14 patents have been very valuable.

  Very valuable. And so when you come up with an idea today, how long do you need to, uh, validate that idea or, you know, do you talk to people? Do you look around or do you go immediately to the patent office?

  I generally do a little. Research on my own, you know, do a little Google search and see if there's anything like that out there.

  And, uh, I just, uh, was at the patent office two weeks ago for, uh, our boat lift cover. We have a, a new patent we're, we're working on for the boat lift cover. So something real interesting. I can't wait to share it with you. Interesting.

  Yeah. For the cover. Yeah. So when, how often do you go and you think you've really got something and you, you find out that someone in a different industry that has nothing to do with boat lifts, but might have something to do with cables or something else has come up with a similar idea?

  Well, it's funny because, uh, industries, if it's a separate industry, sometimes you can take something that, um, applied in one industry and apply it to your industry. Yeah. Like our boatlift industry. And, uh, you can file for a patent. Oh, even the cable tie off that I have. That's no different than, I don't know if you remember the old brake handles where you would Yeah.

  Put the cable through and you tighten the bolt to adjust the cable, right? Well, it's similar except we're wrapping around a spool. I can remember somebody that copied my patent, then he said, oh no, you can't patent that because it was used on a bicycle. Huh. That's, that's not what the patent office thinks.

  They Right. I got the patent no matter what. It, it, it's, so I've seen like, uh, one of my competitors builds a boat lift cover and it's, it operates just like the, uh, cover on a dumpster where the two arms and a roller pulls the, the fabric or the cover over top of, so the, you know, dirt doesn't fly on or whatever.

  Uh, they made a boat lift cover exactly like that. And they call it a boat lift cover and patented it. So yeah, it's amazing how you can take something from one industry and bring it to another and get a patent on it.

  And what's, uh, do you have, I mean, recently you just came up with some idea for a boat lift cover Yeah.

  Yourself. Do you. I mean, you had a good history of this. You've got 14 patents. You've, you've created all kinds of different products. When you get an idea, do you follow a similar path? Like when you get an idea, do you know immediately that's a good idea? Like, and then you go to, what, what happens then? You go to work on a, on a sketch pad or like, yeah, yeah.

  What, what's the process there?

  It's funny you say that. 'cause sometimes you think you got the best idea, you work your butt off and you get a pad and you finally, you don't sell it. Right? Like we, we came up with this, um, stock stabilizer, right? It works great when it's needed, right? Mm-hmm. But there's not that great of a need.

  So it's like one of these deals, like, well, we went through all the patent process, uh, and developing, getting a patent, and then not selling a lot of them. So you don't always get a home run, even if you think it's a home run, you know? It's, it's, it's difficult. But we have had home runs, that's why I keep doing it, you know?

  Yeah. Maybe one outta every four or five become like a major home run.

  You know, when, when in my career of, of fishing, I used to go to, um, a lot of different consumer shows and boat shows and different types of shows, and I would teach fly casting and, and Sure. So I would go there and there was one called the International Sportsman's Exposition, and it was all around the, the west.

  And then there was, there were these ones around here, and they would be similar to a Miami boat show or, or just, just a gathering place. And at these places there was like this group of people and. It was Yeti. It was Bubba Blade. It was this guy that, I don't know what happened to him, but he had this, he had this idea for a sunglass, a hat that had retractors built into the hat, and you would hook your sunglasses onto them.

  So it would, you would need, you know, a, a retainer or anything. It would all be attached to the hat. And he had this big idea, and I saw many other ideas that either made it or didn't make it. And today, you know, you'll be talking to somebody and you'll have an idea. Oh, wouldn't it be cool to have an alarm clock that had, uh, phishing sounds like it's a screaming drag as you're, as the alarm clock.

  Oh, man, that's a, that's a million dollar idea. Yeah, you should, you should do that. And I'm like, well, it's a million dollar idea. That would take 15 years of boat shows. And I mean, I just look back at Power Pole and Yeti and Bubba Blade, golden Boat lifts like. All of these companies that had an idea, but they did something different.

  They actually acted on the idea. They built the idea, and then they went around and they showed people this idea for literally, it's, it's just like they say, like a, a overnight success. 20 years in the making.

  Yeah. But, but truthfully, what, what makes a difference on that is. We got customers that come to us with a need, right?

  Mm-hmm. So you gotta have the need first. Yes. You gotta see the need. You can't come up with something, you think somebody's gonna want it, it it, you gotta have something that somebody needs. Mm-hmm. And, and you know, in the boating industry, we know how boat are, man. They, they need this. They don't want that.

  They need it. Right? Yeah. You need a new boat. You don't want a new boat. That's right, man. So, you know, it's, it's, so, we're familiar with what, what is needed in our industry and we listen. It's really the customers, our dealers listening and their customers tell us what we need to be building. So that makes it a little bit easier to know.

  I'm, you know, know I'm gonna sell a product and an area if I'm building what I know they need.

  Yeah. But you also think that maybe a dock stabilizer is something that somebody needs. That's right. But you have to, you have to go out there and. W try it, sell it, and then realize, eh, maybe, maybe they don't need it as bad as I thought they did.

  Hey, we got a

  patent on it. We won the innovation year award in Miami Boat Show with this thing. I mean, it's an incredibly awesome idea. It works incredibly well. Is it like a sea keeper for the dock? Well, it's serial, but it's like rollers on a piling uhhuh. So you know, it basically, the dock never moves Uhhuh.

  I mean, it goes up and down with the tide, but it cannot tilt, you know, side to side. Wow. So, uh, we did it because we sold, uh, it was actually Marine Max. They had a four. They couldn't do a wider dock than four foot wide, and it was so unstable because it was narrow. We used paver blocks and most of the marinas that we built for them.

  Right. So it's a heavy dock. So heavy and narrow doesn't work well when it's, you know, it's, it was outta balance. So when we put that roller system in, it made it like the sidewalk up on land. It was that solid.

  Wow. That's cool.

  Yeah, it's a, it's a great idea. We still sell 'em. I mean, it's just not something that Yeah.

  You know, like a, a part on a boat lift.

  How much of your business is, is docs.

  About 10 to 15%. But we're quite big, you know, we're no doubt the, the biggest single boat lift manufacturer in the industry right now. So we do a lot of boat lifts, but we, we built quite a few marinas. We have, I think four or five on the books right now that we're, we're in the process of building, so Right

  on.

  And that'll be, that'll be everything from the, from the water out,

  everything from the water out gangways, and you're gonna get to see some of our work when you get in a pink shell tomorrow, so, right. Yeah.

  Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, that's gonna be great. And so was that, was that stuff there before the hurricane?

  It got wiped out.

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how much of, uh, I mean, that, that seems to be a, a serious need and frustration for people too, is like, you get hurt. I mean, you sell a lot of boat lifts in areas where there are a lot of hurricanes sell a lot of boats where there are areas where there are a lot of hurricanes.

  I mean, they kind of go hand in hand. So. Like, how does a hurricane affect your business one way or another, or the building of your even, I mean, you're trying to make them storm proof. I don't know if you can make anything hurricane proof, but, well,

  you know, hurricanes are not a fun thing to go through. No.

  When Hurricane Ian came through Fort Myers, we were down for nearly two months. Um, I took this with substantial loss, but, you know, we, we had to take care of our people first and, and, you know, so we did what we had to do. Um, but after that, we realized two of the marinas that we built down on Fort Myers Beach, actually three, were the only three marinas that made it through Hurricane Ian.

  And, uh, the Monday after Hurricane Ian, um, the Coast Guard called us and said, look, our, our, we can't get to our docks. We want to use Moss Marine. It's the only big marina that we can, that we can bring our rescue boats to, but we need a gangway. So we have to, I don't know how it happened, but we actually had the, the proper ganglia inventory.

  Uh, they escorted us down to Fort Myers Beach. We put that on, uh, the Moss Marine Docks that made it through the hurricane. And that became, um, the central area for rescue boats, um, and Coast Guard. And then the other marina we did at Gulf Star Marina, they, uh, actually used those docks for FEMA so they can bring equipment over to the islands, the barrier islands that were cut off when the, uh, when Sandoval Causeway and, uh, wow.

  And Pine Island Road got, you know, wiped down basically. That was

  tough, man. I mean, that, that hurricane, that was a, that was a tough one.

  Yeah. But, you know, so fast forward though, hurricanes, they set you back, you know, but we ended up rebuilding just about every marina in Fort Myers mm-hmm. Because they've seen that we, we build a robust product and, you know, all our welders are certified welders and we weld boat lifts that are picking up, you know, tens or thousands or maybe a hundred thousand pound boats.

  So we put that same love in care in all of our welds or our docks. Hold up. I mean, just. Phenomenally. It's, you know, that's, this is our business, man, making, making stuff stay together. So our docks did better than than anybody else's. Wow.

  So you build, you obviously build a great business. You've built great docks, you've built great boat lifts, you've got patents.

  What do you like to do when you're not building boat lifts?

  Um, selling more boat lifts and selling docks and, no, you know, I travel, my wife wants to kill me every time we go on vacation. Some reason there's a marina pretty close to wherever we're staying if we're not like staying on the water. But, you know, hey, we're surrounded by water, earth is, is how much percent water, right?

  Whatever, you know, so you know what it is. You can't get away from it. I just, I just love this business. So, um, most of my travel includes, um, visiting friends that I've gotten to know in this industry over the last 40 some years. Uh, and it always includes a boat lift someplace or a dock. I, I don't know. My, my fun is, is just going and, and.

  Just enjoying the water. Uh, the people that I've worked with all my life or my career, I get to see them. That's, you know, that's my joy. I love traveling. And, uh, it always includes the marina or a boat lifter or something. I mean, you know, tying the water. But we

  started out by saying that you, you were in the Seychelles and then the Marshall Islands.

  I mean, it sounds like the travel that you've, that, that this business keeps luring you to are some of the most beautiful places in the world. I have

  been everywhere. It's just about, you know, China to, you know, throughout the Middle East, you know, we started doing the Boot Do Dubai Boat Show. That was my big thing.

  I wanted to go to the Middle Eastern. And

  what do you, what do you think about, um, I mean, when I, we flew into Doha, which is not Dubai, but I looked down at the water. The water's beautiful there. There's tons of boats there. The Middle Eastern boating, uh, industry. Is that just on the super rise? Is it, what, what's your forecast for, for that?

  We are doing phenomenal. And Qatar is one of the countries. Mm-hmm. We sell a lot of boat lifts. Bahrain, I had the pleasure to meet the King of Bahrain's brother-in-law, and we worked some deals in Bahrain, uh, to get our boat lifts in some of these artificial islands at their building. Uh, of course, uh, Dubai Abu Dhabi.

  I've worked with the oil ministry to put our boat lists on oil rigs. So, yeah, I mean, we, we have fun. I mean, I've, I, I don't know if I told you we're, we're lifting manatees now. We've got some manatee lifts. Well, that was gonna be my next question. What's the strangest

  lift you've ever built? I know you built one for alligators too.

  Yeah. And manatees, the Dolphin Research Laboratory down in the Keys. Uh, we've got a couple lifts there. Uh, SeaWorld in Miami. Uh, we've got some lifts there for manatees and, and their dolphins. Uh, let's see, some of the craziest ones. I put a couple boat lifts on the Panama Canal for their, they get these little boats that retrieve the ropes for these big ships.

  Yeah. And the guys used to climb down this muddy ladder and, you know, low tide and they climb in this boat and paddle out and get the rope. Well, we've totally modernized that. We've put elevator lifts in with staircases that are attached to the lifts that ain't never sit in the water. You know, they can walk up and down these ladders.

  They're always, you know, they're always out in the water. 'cause they're, they stay, you know, on top of the lift. And then they, they lower the lift down and, and get on that boat and, and, you know, grab the rope and they Wow. Bring the boat back with the rope. And they raised it up. They didn't have to carry the rope up the ladder like the old days.

  How

  long does it take to raise it up? The, like

  three

  minutes.

  Three minutes? Yeah. We got high speed and it's 40 foot of travel at low tide. So it's quite a bit of travel.

  Have you ever seen these lifts that they have on, on inland lakes, like in Tennessee or Kentucky or something? And they'll be, they'll there, there's certain lakes where they do not allow, um, docks on the water.

  So all the houses are way up the hill. And I've seen these, these things. I don't know if, I guess they're a lift. Yeah. But the boat is way up there. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen those. And it comes all the way down

  a cliff. Incline lifts. Yeah. Yeah.

  Have you ever built one of those kind?

  Never built one of those. No.

  That seems

  like a, a a a one of a kind kind of thing.

  Yeah, I think, I think you gotta spend a lot of time putting that in on the side of a hill. Yeah. Probably a lot of custom stuff, but

  yeah, that's somebody that really wants to put their boat in the water right there.

  You know, we were talking about, um, strange lifts and opportunities.

  Um, we just finished a boat lift to lower handicap people. Into basically this bubble that's, you know, has oxygen pumped into it, going down into a bottom of an aquarium. Like a, like a seaquarium. Sure. Yeah. In, in Abu Dhabi. So it's like the coolest thing we ever done. Wow. And now they just commissioned us to build another one.

  So Wow. We end up building some of the craziest stuff is crazy. Well, when I first came

  in here, I don't know why I, I didn't think about this earlier, but I did a podcast with Chris Fisher from Arch, and he catches the, the giant hammer, I mean the giant great white sharks. Okay. And they already have some sort of a lift on the side of their boat, but they're building a new boat.

  And so I sent him an email this morning and I was like, Hey, give number. You need, I'm telling you, you need to talk to Bill Golden. That's because this is like, if you have a challenging thing, they're gonna build a, some sort of a catamaran boat and they're gonna have a lift off the back to where they're gonna guide these sharks in.

  Lift the sharks up and then they put this hose in their mouth and then they can tag them. And they have like 10 scientists working on these sharks carefully because it's still a shark. Um, that's crazy. But they, they lift up. So I, I sent him an email this morning of if he has a need, I'll definitely introduce you to him.

  That,

  that's funny 'cause that just reminded me of one day I came to the Fort Lauderdale boat show and, and my sales manager said That guy is walking, he's been waiting for you all this all morning. And the guy introduces me, introduces himself to me. Uh, as you know, he owns subsea, uh, uh, submarine company.

  They commissioned a company to build them a boat with a built in lift for the submarine.

  Huh.

  And they took it across the ocean and a boat sunk, it fell apart because they had this well in it. And that's when they came to us, said, look, we need you to build a floating dock and then we need you to build a lift into it.

  And we want a canopy on top of it. Some pretty cool pictures. I'll have to share. Share 'em with you. Yeah. But that was, um, they were having, uh, it was Chinese New Year's and there was some guests come and it was at the Four Seasons Resort that had to have the submarine ride. So we had to have this thing done.

  It was like, and we literally designed it. To be able to put on a jet and flown over because of the time restraints. And I did a lot of design. I did outta wood, so we didn't have to ship so much material over. We shipped floats. It was crazy. I mean, it cost more to ship it than it did to build a product.

  Oh boy. Pretty crazy that, uh, they, they got it, it worked, and it, they got it on time. So it was important, I

  would think after the, the, the submarine incident a few years ago, there's less, less, uh, need for or or less desire for tourists to go down in submarines. I'm not getting in one. I'm not going in one.

  I'm not going in one at all. So what's the future, you know, uh, what's the future for Golden right now you got, if you were to look at a crystal ball, um, do you have more innovation? Is it,

  we got more innovation. I'm so excited. I mean, we're, you know what blows me away? You know, all this stuff with tariffs and we are the.

  Busiest we've ever been. I mean, we are so blessed and, and it's gotta be due to the fact that the, the, the incredible product that, that our company builds, our team builds because it's just, and, and, and the future just holds so many opportunities with the building Marinas, rebuilding Marinas. Um, we've got our new, uh, hurricane I, I guess I'll let the, the cat outta the bag.

  It's the, the boat lift cover. Uh, we're building a hurricane resistant boat lift cover one. It doesn't need to be removed. So we've got so many cool things and a freestanding lift. I mean, they're, they're at their infancy right now. And, and you know, the whole reason I got in a boat lift cover business and I bought a boat lift cover company, uh, almost two years ago now, was to introduce this idea.

  It's been kicking in the back of my head forever, um, that we filed for a patent on, which is gonna make a difference. Every one of these boat lift covers that are installed, every time there's a threat of a storm, they gotta remove the cover. Yeah. And you know. Uh, I couldn't remove every cover I sold before, you know, in a week.

  If you get a week from a hurricane warning, I, I got competitors out there that probably got five or 10,000 covers. I mean, most they can do is, is 50 before the hurricane comes. The rest get blown away.

  You get blown away. Or maybe it's something that some, uh, a homeowner could try to take down on their own.

  But I mean, it's seems it's not easy. I mean, you know, I've, I've done my share of getting ready for hurricanes. You're boarding up windows. You're, you're, you're securing everything. Now you gotta take the cover off the boat. Lift one more thing. Yeah, one more thing. Like, you don't, you don't need one more thing.

  Um, and then it's

  getting to put it back on. If it never comes off, you never have to worry about finding somebody to install it. So that's, that's the

  good thing too. That's right. So, um, well, I'll look forward to, to seeing what this thing looks like. Um, but a hurricane resistant, anything seems. Seems tough.

  So how about, um, the, like the current environment with the tariffs and everything like that? I mean, you look at a, a company like yours, mostly metal. How has it affected you?

  Uh, the aluminum tariffs affected us. We did have, uh, a price increase some of the tariffs over in China. We do get some castings over there, which, um, I don't know who I'm gonna thank, but they dropped the tariffs, uh, today, last night?

  Today? Last night? Yeah. Like 90% of the, of the, uh, a hundred percent. So I'm down to only 10% more than what we were paying a year or so last. So can you

  explain, like, from, from your perspective, like, I, I saw that news this morning that, that, that tariff had been, um, dropped or changed or something like, from somebody that's dealing with this on a daily basis.

  What does that mean to you? And then what do you think that means to the overall economy that that happened?

  Well, I. It, it, it, to me, it's huge. Let's, let's just face it, the stock market just, just is up now. I mean, just a, a total different environment than what it was a week ago, right? Mm-hmm. Um, I put in an order for like four containers.

  I'm getting them sailing across as quick as I can. I don't want see another, so immediately

  people are gonna be buying. This

  morning I was on the phone to my supplier in, uh, Springfield, Missouri, and we wanted to make sure we were some of the first containers on the next ship mount, because right now there's, it's gonna be a, uh.

  Uh, uh, s Fest Buying Frenzy, uh, well, trying to get the containers on ships. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, you know, everybody held back for a month or so right on orders from China. So, um, now it's gonna be who gets the containers on first and, you know, they can throttle up the engines a little bit on those mm-hmm. On the, on the big, uh, container ships

  because, and so the, the ripple effects from that will be what in the stock market.

  Like that's why everything's going up. 'cause people are buying, oh man, shipping, everything's restarted again. It's

  nuts. I'm excited as could be. I mean, again, we were, we were doing super well and I was, you know, surprised at how well we were doing, considering the, you know, the current tariffs and so on. Uh, it hasn't affected much, even like in Canada.

  I was surprised when the 25% tariffs went on in Canada. I do a lot of business in Canada and um, at first everybody was shocked. They held back. Slowly started taking stuff. Uh, we shipped two containers last month to Canada, which was, you know, great because, you know, we're building this stuff sitting on a floor.

  I feel the, the factories in China, in China as well, they're building stuff that's sitting on a floor. Can't move. Uh, today's a good day, good day that I can tell you it's a good day. Great. So I was super happy. We're, we're, uh, bit on a marina, uh, back and forth with my contractor. They didn't wanna pay any additional costs and tariffs, and I certainly didn't want to eat the tariffs and, and you know, just what a blessed day it was this morning to be able to call 'em up and say, Hey, it's done.

  You know, let's go. We're putting this stuff on, uh, on a ship. It's coming over, no tariff free. So 10% increase, which is to me is minimal compared to a hundred percent.

  So when in some of the news that I read, it was like 90 days or 90 days. That's why I'm, I'm not, so why is there, why, why, what do you think is behind the 90 days?

  I, I think it has to do with the fentanyl or something. Oh, I believe it has something to do with, um. How they handle it, the Chinese handle it. Hmm. I believe that's the, but I haven't gotten the down to the bottom of it, but that was, uh, the first thought.

  So 90 days take it, take, take whatever you can get.

  Right? Like that's, I I'm doing

  it. I want to at least have till the end of the year.

  Yeah. Well, that's exciting. That's exciting for everybody. And so do you think that, um, that that is going to affect the boat market and the auto market and other markets? I think

  everything and, and, and we've, we've made a decision a few months ago to actually bring the casting.

  Back to the United States. So we're, we're gonna be a hundred percent made in the us. I do not like the threat of a tariff or, or honestly, I don't like doing business with, with China if I don't have to. Mm-hmm.

  So, and so moving back here, what does that look like for you? Uh,

  hopefully by the end of the year we've come up with a, a new C drive, uh, another patent that, uh, we filed for, I forgot to mention that, but that's, uh, something new and improved.

  We'll see, you'll see us at the Miami Innovation Year award with that this year.

  And so you feel like by the end of the year, maybe you could have everything made in America. That's the goal. Wow. Yeah. And do you feel like, um, in similar industries, heavy metal industries, um, like, like yours, that that's a sim that other people are feeling the same way and that's, that's definitely going to like thousands and thousands of companies are going to be doing what you're doing?

  I hope to see that, but you know, here's the other thing. There's only so much capacity. The casting company that we've gone to, to build this casting, it's a different, uh, a different process than a liquid mold that we were ha a liquid injected mold, um, that we currently use for our C drive. Uh, this is a little different method.

  It's a steel casting, but it's a super, super smooth, uh, high quality product at the end. Uh, so it, it's a little more expensive, but we figured that the, the tariffs, there's, there's zero value added with a tariff, zero value added with the freight, right? So, I mean, you don't get anything for it, right? You get a scratch maybe, or something like that in a product, but you don't really get any value.

  So we really wanna put those dollars that, that, that we invest in a freight and, and, uh, you know, put it back into the product, right? Mm-hmm. The tariffs and the freight, we're gonna put it in a product, the product's gonna be better, it's not gonna cost anymore, right? So, right. You know, we're, and, and. Nobody has to pay for freight from China.

  Nobody has to, you know, pay a tariff, you know, and those things are, you know, it's just zero value added. Hmm. You get nothing for it. So this is why we're excited about bringing it back, uh, bringing the gearbox here to the United States. Yes. And we'll be the only ones in the industry that are building our own.

  I, I take that back. There's one other company that builds, uh, their own gearbox.

  You think that that will, that they will be forced to, to make that change in the future? I think it would make sense for them to. Mm-hmm. But again, but anybody, yeah. I mean, like, if you're boat lift or, or otherwise, if, if these are the type of materials that you're using for your business, whatever that may be, it's gonna be wise to Yep.

  To be bringing it back to America. It sure it does.

  You know, there's some, like, uh, I got a, a good example. There's a gearbox company that's been wanting to sell me gearboxes. They're $197 a gearbox. I couldn't even think about putting 'em on my, but they're still selling 'em to, to. People in our industry.

  And so 197, that's

  $197 gearbox.

  It's, it's like the cheapest gearbox. I mean, I was paying 400 bucks, you know, 20 years ago, but, you know, you can't get any cheaper.

  Wow.

  But, you know, that's where people go to if you wanna save money, but you end up costing in the long run.

  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, so, um, any other plans for say, five years out?

  Grow, grow, grow, baby grow?

  We're putting another building up right now. Um, we, you know, the boat lift cover company, it's in its infancy. We see a lot of growth in that business. It's, we're already five times, our orders are five times what we sold last year.

  Wow.

  So yeah, we are, we're selling marinas full of covers. That's

  before you even, before you even, uh, unveil this new product.

  Yeah. That's before the, the hurricane proof cover. Wow. So,

  yeah. Okay. Well, I certainly have enjoyed working with you. You're an innovative guy. You, you're always, I mean, you could see you got a twinkle in your eye when you talk, start talking about, um, innovation inventions, changing something, making it better.

  I mean, you really do. How old are you? 64. 64. You got a twinkle in your eyes as soon as you start talking about innovation. That's, that's, that's special.

  The crazy thing is I've been in this business for so long, I still get a charge on every day coming to work. I don't need to come to work anymore, but I do.

  I get up in the morning, it's like, I wanna come in and see how things are going. We, you know, we got a lot of cool things going on, building a lot of really neat stuff. So I love to come in and just see how the guys are doing and what excites me more is I built a team up. They can do it on their own. I mean, they're.

  Truly independent of me. They're, you know, I got a bunch of great thinkers. So, and they understand how, how, you know, I want this business to operate, listen to the customer, do what the customer wants.

  That's a, that's a good place to be. And then you, I guess at, at some point you have to, you have to realize that you built a great team and the best leadership that you can offer is maybe to follow, like, to, to let them do their thing.

  You've got them in a place that you want them now you need to let them do their thing and you need to support them in, in what they're doing. I guess,

  Tom, the, the only place I smile bigger at is when I'm sitting in a conference room with my team and they figure the things out and I could sit there and just smile nothing greater.

  There's not a greater reward than that to know that we put together such an incredible team and, and this company's gonna continue on along after I'm gone.

  Right on. Right on. Well that's a good place to end. So, um, if people are interested, obviously, um, certainly gonna get some interest. Um. Because of what we've talked about today.

  But, uh, if they're interested, what's the first step? Do they go to the dealer? Do they go to the website? Do they call like, what? Come, come

  to our website. I mean, that's the best place to start. We will call you if you, if you reach out, we have an inquiry sheet on our website. You reach out to us, you ask for a phone call, we're gonna call you back the next day.

  Uh, any questions we'd be glad to answer. We'll direct you in a, in the right direction as far as the contractor or product that's, uh, would be best suited for your boat. So pretty much

  wherever you are there, you have somebody that can install just about every

  place in the world.

  Yes, every place in the world.

  So even like whether you're Texas, Louisiana, Florida. Maryland, Australia. That stuff's easy. South Africa, but on in our own country, like Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, but, but also we have international listener listenership and, and Australia is a man. Those guys are hardcore fishing people down there. Hard core. My buddy just got off a fishing

  trip

  of Australia.

  I love Australians. Man. Those guys, they are hardcore. They really are. And they own a lot of boats. There's a lot of boats down there.

  Yeah. We're doing good in Australia. We've really started, we found a great contractor over there. It's the last few years, every year he is been buying more and more. So yeah, we're excited.

  Right on. Well, congratulations on all your success and Thanks. And certainly, uh, awesome working with you. I appreciate the partnership and, and likewise. Uh, and if you're looking for a boat lift, golden Boat Lifts, that's, that's the place to go. Go to the website. What's the website?

  Golden boat lifts.com.

  Really easy. Golden boat

  lifts.com. And what's the phone number? (

  888) 909-5438.

  That's it. So a, a good step, especially, um, if you're considering like a redo of your whole backyard, you're gonna put in a pool, you're gonna, you're gonna redo your backyard or you're buying a house, you're gonna renovate this house and you're, you know, you want to bring your wife in on this and let her see what kind of installations are possible.

  This book that you have of all the different installations, you should definitely get that and, and check it out because I mean, man, your imagination will start running wild about what your backyard can look like and how, how awesome your boat can be right there. And, uh, it's, it's, it's definitely worth getting.

  So that's, that's a place you could start. No care, just getting that. But anyway, bill, thanks so much for today and we're gonna do a little tour around the factory here after this, and, uh, looking forward to it. Thanks, Tom, all. See you.

How Bill Golden Built a Global Boat Lift Empire: Innovation, Patents, and Hurricane-Resistant Engineering

Are you searching for the best boat lift for saltwater, hurricanes, or marina use? Want to protect your boat investment for decades? This episode gives you the blueprint.

Today, Tom Rowland sits down with Bill Golden, founder and CEO of Golden Boat Lifts, the world leader in innovative, patented, and hurricane-ready boat lift solutions. From humble beginnings in Florida with a welding machine to global installations in the Seychelles, Marshall Islands, and Middle East, Bill shares how he engineered an entire industry around quality, durability, and listening to customer needs.

"We build it so strong, it basically can't fail." — Bill Golden

With over 14 patents and decades of real-world testing, Golden Boat Lifts has developed unique products that withstand saltwater corrosion, high winds, massive loads, and even power outages during hurricanes. This is your ultimate masterclass in what makes a great boat lift—and why most people overlook the key features that actually matter.

Why You Should Listen

If you're buying a boat lift or looking to upgrade your marina, this episode reveals:

• Why gearbox torque capacity is the #1 factor in lift reliability

• How Golden's patented Sea-Drive gearbox eliminates maintenance

• The truth behind cheap stainless steel and cable failures in saltwater

• The genius of drill-powered manual operation during power outages

• What every boat owner should know about lift covers & hurricane prep

• How customer feedback fuels product innovation at Golden Boat Lifts

• Why global marina developers turn to Golden for custom projects

Whether you're a boat owner, marina operator, waterfront property investor, or just passionate about high-performance marine engineering, this episode delivers actionable insights directly from the industry leader.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• The full origin story of Golden Boat Lifts (5:30)

• The manufacturing breakthrough that made Golden #1 (8:45)

• How they created a hurricane-resistant boat lift cover (25:30)

• Why gearbox design makes or breaks a lift's lifespan (18:10)

• How Golden supplies global installations across 5 continents (12:00)

• Why proper installers matter more than the equipment itself (32:10)

• How Bill developed the adjustable bunk system for multi-boat use (36:00)

• Real-world success stories: submarines, manatees, Panama Canal (44:30)

• How Golden shifted production back to U.S. manufacturing (50:45)

• Bill's new innovations: freestanding lifts, hydraulic lifts & more (54:10)

Some Questions Tom Asks:

• What separates Golden Boat Lifts from all the competition?

• How did you design the Sea-Drive gearbox?

• Why is saltwater such a brutal environment for lifts?

• What are the biggest mistakes people make when buying lifts?

• How did you develop hurricane-proof lift covers?

• Why is installer training so critical to product longevity?

• What drives your ongoing passion for innovation?

Key Takeaways:

• Saltwater boat lifts need 300-series stainless steel — never 200-series.

• A boat lift should have 8,000 in-lb torque gearboxes for true resilience.

• Drill-powered backup systems save lives during hurricanes.

• Great lifts are over-engineered and properly installed.

• Customer feedback drives long-term product evolution.

• 14 patents later, innovation never stops at Golden Boat Lifts.

Resources & Links:

• Golden Boat Lifts Official Website: https://goldenboatlifts.com

• Request Golden Boat Lifts Installation Book: Call (888) 909-5438

• Tom Rowland Podcast Official Site: https://tomrowlandpodcast.com

• Full Episode Transcript: Click here to read.

Highly Searched Keywords (Optimized for Google Search):

• Best boat lifts for saltwater

• Hurricane-resistant boat lifts

• Golden Boat Lifts review

• How to choose the right boat lift

• Patented boat lift designs

• Marina boat lifts

• Floating boat lifts vs. piling boat lifts

• Gearbox failure in boat lifts

• Adjustable bunk boat lifts

• Dock lift systems for waterfront homes

Daily Habits from Bill Golden:

Like many high performers, Bill credits his success to consistency, curiosity, and customer obsession. His daily leadership focuses on innovation, building his team, and listening to clients around the world who challenge Golden Boat Lifts to solve real problems.

"The best part is when I sit in the conference room, watch my team solve problems, and just smile." — Bill Golden

Connect & Share:

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The Tom Rowland Podcast and share this episode with anyone looking for reliable boat lift solutions. Tag @tom_rowland_podcast and @goldenboatlifts on Instagram with your biggest takeaways.

"A boat lift should be something you buy once. Build it right the first time." — Bill Golden

If you have questions or suggestions for the show you can text Tom at 1 305-930-7346 or contact Tom through email: Podcast@saltwaterexperience.com

You can follow Tom Rowland on Instagram @tom_rowland

Learn more about Tom’s Television show http://www.saltwaterexperience.com.

The Tom Rowland Podcast is presented by Star brite!

Clean and protect with Star brite, a leading manufacturer of appearance, maintenance, and performance chemicals and accessories, serving the marine, RV, automotive, powersports, hardware, and home care industries for over 50 years. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and with its manufacturing plant in Montgomery, AL, the company produces “Made In The USA” products, including its flagship ethanol fuel treatment, Star Tron Enzyme Fuel Treatment.

Check out Star brite’s Website Here: https://bit.ly/TomRowlandPodcast

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