Motor Yacht Fleet

For almost 50 Years, Hatteras has led the way in fiberglass Motor Yacht design – and the 2008 line up only builds on that tradition. Still the best Sea boats in the industry, Hatteras also boast a fleet of motor yachts that are second to none in their class – with beautiful and luxury to spare.

Convertible Fleet

For almost 50 Years, Hatteras has led the way in FiberGlass Sportfishing Convertible design – and the 2008 line up only builds on that tradition. Still the best Sea boats in the industry, Hatteras now boast a fleet that not only has strength but speed in its stable.

Capt. Jimmy O'Neill

By Jan Fogt

Hatterascal captains were always good boat handlers who knew how to keep a boat shipshape, but not until the America's Cup, when Parker realized the Hatterascal's potential as a marketing tool, did they possess great people skills.

Jimmy O'Neill, Parker says, was well-spoken. He also conversed easily with the kind of sophisticated buyers Hatteras was starting to attract. "Jimmy defined what a Hatterascal captain could and should be," says Parker, who for more than 20 years oversaw the hiring and firing of factory captains.

O'Neill's vision included a plan and itinerary for marketing the boat. After the 1980 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, O'Neill moved the boat to the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, a base from which customers and factory representatives could come fish and experience the boat. He then headed to the Bahamas for the inaugural Hatteras/Bertram Shootout, after which he campaigned the boat in the remaining Bahamas Billfish Championship schedule. From there, he headed north to fish major mid-Atlantic tournaments all the way to Nantucket.

"I was so excited to be working for Hatteras, and I wanted to show the boat off at every major tournament on the East Coast. For better or worse, it set the standard," says O'Neill, who over the course of the next 10 years burned up the waterways, traveling the boat-show and tournament circuit as if he were commuting on I-95. "It was nothing for me to run from Cape May to North Carolina and back in a week or from Panama City to Rudee Inlet. And when the fishing season was done, the boat-show season started."

The boat was O'Neill's home. "I used to ask people fishing with me to treat it nicely because you never knew who would be coming aboard the next day. We might have celebrities, the company president, potential customers or even royalty like King Hussein of Jordan aboard. I never had to take the boat back to the factory to prepare for a boat show; it was always in showroom condition."

The idea of the Hatterascal operating as "the goodwill ship" at tournaments began with O'Neill, says Capt. Alan Starr, who for 10 years ran the Top Hatt for the Hatteras of Lauderdale dealership. "Jimmy would be helping customers with clogged bilge pumps, lending them parts and doing whatever he could to help them enjoy themselves in the tournaments. He made every owner feel important."