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38 MN May 2011 non-GSA items are permitted. “If you don’t have it on your contract you have to rush out and get it. Unless you can bid that project 100% GSA you can’t bid that contract.” MOOSE BOATS: LAUNCHING INTO MILITARY MARKETS Moose Boats, Inc. officially opened its doors in 2000 with a concept for a consumer vessel, but the impact of government buying after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 turned Moose Boats into a combat craft production yard. Since that time, the company’s president, Roger Fleck, said, “the Navy has been purchasing our boats on an annual basis.” Fleck’s background is in industrial design and he considers himself “a designer with a love for boats. I’ve been involved in boats since I was a kid.” His first concept boat was “motivated by my personal aesthetic for the consumer market, but it ended up being picked up by the Navy.” That concept was for a boat that looked and acted like the Hummer, to be sold to consumers with a taste for size and horsepower. “I had an image that boats could look a lot more aggressive. There were too many plastics boats out there that were all white and looked like bath- tubs,” he said. “I was also intrigued with the cat hull as being a good plat- form to start with.” Fleck’s concept hull was called the M2, like the Hummer’s call sign, the H2. “We took that boat to the WorkBoat show in New Orleans after 9-11.” Fleck said the Navy was at the show looking for a craft with the same type of visual design. “The Navy showed us considerable interest and told us that we had to get onto GSA and were very helpful in that process.” At that time, Fleck said, “we didn’t even know what GSA was. From that point on we started developing a boat that met the requirements the Navy had.” That included upgrading elec- trical components and armaments. “The most significant adjustments were electrical specifications, circuit breakers, wiring, developing gun foundations for weaponry and a boarding collar.” However, Fleck said, “our production Navy boat was not radically different than our pilot.” “Within a year or so after that encounter in 2001 we had a contract RIBS & Combat Craft Moose Boats Roger Fleck “The market we’re probably penetrating a little bit more now is the fire and rescue market with the M2 and M1 platform. Small coastal communities are showing interest in these. Mostly for the rescue or EMS aspect of these boats.”
