Gary's career in boating began in the United Kingdom when he was only 16 years old. He started out as an apprentice carpenter at Birchwood Boats in Derbyshire, England. Before long, he knew he was hooked on the boating world. He worked his way up from apprentice to carpenter to fine finish carpentry. After he had been there for some time, he was offered a job with an Egyptian company, Shama Marine, to travel to Egypt to help form a startup company planning to build 50 to 110 foot yachts. He managed a group of Egyptian employees and taught them carpentry from the basics up. Today Shama is a thriving company with a solid reputation in Europe and the Middle East. Gary is proud to have been a part of this. He left Shama in 1997 to travel to the United States after meeting his new wife who was American. He began working here for Ross Yachts, a company specializing in customization of yachts, as a finish carpenter. Ross Yachts was eventually sold to Quality Boats of Clearwater. Feeling that he was ready to take on a new challenge, and approached Dan and David Bair to ask them for a chance to see what he could do in Sales. They agreed to give him a shot, and he has been there ever since and loves it!
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Byron Hurst
Byron has been boating and fishing his entire life. He has competed in the Professional federated BASS series in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan. He has also raced in the BASS boat class, and helped in the development of high performance propellers for Hydro-Motive Engineering. After moving to Southwest Florida in 2005, he began selling boats. He has attended all required schools including Grady-White, Regal, Volvo and Yamaha. He has also successfully taken additional sales classes such as Revelations ITS. He has the highest rankings in customer satisfaction and prides himself on all his life achievements and personal challenges-such as getting his pilots license at the age of 17. His next challenge will be to fish for "TEAM QUALITY BOATS" in King fish Tournaments. (S.K.A.) Thanks to all of my previous customers and I look forward to selling YOU your next boat!!! |
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Joe Petersen
Joe has been with the Quality Boats team for over 28 years. He has had the pleasure of representing some of the finest boats in the industry. Joe led the nation in Shamrock sales in the 90's. He also has won numerous certifications for manufacture's schooling and sales awards, for companies like Tiara, Boston Whaler, Cobalt, Formula, and Black Fin. He is carrying on that success with Quality Boats current line up of Grady White, Pursuit, Regal and Scout. His love for the water, boating and his years of experience has allowed Joe to really understand his customers needs to best suit the boats of their dreams.
Thanks to all of my past and future customers, may I help you enjoy the memories of what boating is all about.
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John Lilla
Years of owning and operating businesses outside the boating world taught John that the most important part in any business is people and the relationships built with them. For buyers and sellers alike, John has the ability to determine their needs and work with them to facilitate smooth transactions. The 2000 Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show proved these points. It was John's introduction into the boat business, and it was successful. His first sale was a two-year old 54' Neptunus yacht. Born in Boston, John has lived and boated in- Cape Cod - Potomac River at Washington, D.C. - Chesapeake Bay - Lake Superior - Mississippi River at Minneapolis - Clearwater - Ft. Lauderdale, the yacht capital of the world. A home owner in Clearwater for 22 years, John brings a myriad of experience with him to Quality Boats; experience in new yacht and boat sales with Marquis, Carver and Cruisers yachts, Monterey, Pursuit, Jupiter, Wellcraft, Albemarle, Scout, Bayliner and Trophy. As a yacht broker his experience runs through Bertram, Hatteras, Viking, Marquis, Carver, Sunseeker, Neptunus, Regal, Formula, Cruisers, Sea Ray, Maxum, Monte Fino, Cranchi, Silverton among others. He has worked with pleasure cruisers and sport fish boats from 100' to 16'. All this will help him enhance and increase yacht brokerage at Quality Boats while helping with new boat sales. |
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Todd Cook
I have been a lifetime boater including experience boating in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, Florida Keys, Bahamas and the Mississippi River. As a licensed Coast Guard Captain I have owned and operated a fishing charter business in Dunedin, Florida specializing in offshore fishing and tournaments and have traveled countless miles delivering yachts all over Florida. While operating the charter business I also became a licensed Florida Yacht Broker and after selling the charter business have been a fulltime broker of new and used vessel for over 10 years. As a member of the Quality Boats sales staff, I have the ability to help my customers with the purchase of a new, used or brokerage vessel or to market and sell their vessel for them. My goal is to help my customers purchase or sell a vessel and make their experience enjoyable by professionally handling all aspects of the sale from start to finish. Let my experience work for you. |
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Service Team
Ed Myers
Ed was born and raised in St. Petersburg and spent his early days all the way thru his current years on the water fishing and racing boats. Ed started his career in the Marine Industry 22 years ago as a service technician. Over the years, he has made the transition from service technician to warranty facilitator. The past 14 years, Ed has focused on parts management, customer service and service administration. "I look forward to spending the rest of my career here at Quality Boats as YOUR parts, warranty and service administrator" |
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Randy Litchfold
Randy spent his early years in the Tampa Bay area before relocating to Mays Landing, NJ in 1983 with his wife Karen and worked as a marine technician for 10 years at a dealership specializing in servicing Volvo Penta, Mercury/Mercruiser, and the early introduction of Yamaha outboards. Randy re-located back to Florida with his young family in the early 1990's and began with Quality Boats in 1995 as a marine technician. Randy has completed training at its highest level and has attained factory certification for virtually every technical training course offered by Yamaha outboards and Volvo Penta gas stern drives. Additionally, Randy has attained certification by each of our current and past boat suppliers as well as marine electronics installation. Today, Randy acts as Quality Boats' service manager, working closely with our boat and engine suppliers as well as Quality Boats' other 3 factory certified technicians Chris Larrivee, Randy's son Steven and Randy's brother Ron. |
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Administration
Dan Bair
Dan was born outside of Chicago and moved to Clearwater when 3 months old to chase his family's dream of owning a boat dealership and marina in Clearwater, Florida in late 1973. Dan's first job at the age of 7 was at Quality Boats cleaning teak, scraping barnacles, and painting bottoms. In between spending summers with his father learning the back end of the business, Dan spent most of his time fishing and water skiing in Clearwater Harbor. After graduating from Clearwater High School and Florida State University, Dan returned to Quality Boats and was mentored by his father, Ted Bair, in the remaining aspects of the business. Now married with 3 young children, Dan maintains the service department and business administration aspects of Quality Boats.
Melissa Cole
I'm the cheerful voice you usually hear when calling Quality Boats. I have been an avid boater since I was two years old. My parents and I boated on Lake Erie and spent most weekends at Put in bay and Kelly's Island. As a young child I enjoyed the rocking motion in my basinet under the dinette in the galley of our 24ft wooden Chris Craft. As I grew up the boats got bigger, starting with a 28 John Almond (one of my favorites), next was a 32 Flybridge and then a 36 foot Silverton. About the time that my family moved up to a 38 foot Chris Corinthian I got my very first row boat and from there I moved up to 121/2 foot checkmate followed by a 22 foot Steury to take my friends waterskiing. After graduation I was off to Ohio State and my personal boating days were curtailed, but my family went on to a 40 foot Amero Sport. When we moved to Florida we had that boat shipped to Ross Yachts, which was later bought out by Quality Boats.Then there was the 34 foot Wellcraft Gran Sport, and the 52 foot Trawler followed by the 42 foot Fountain! Throughout our boating days, friends and family were always out on the water with us, because boating really is a family affair! Being in Florida for more than 20years now, I have worked for several dealers but none so dedicated to making the buying experience so enjoyable as Quality Boats. So it comes naturally to me to work for the Bair family and Quality Boats as the Office/Finance Manager and to help make your buying experience with us pleasurable. |
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