2024 Top 100 Dealer of the Year: Nautical Ventures Group

Fort Lauderdale’s Nautical Ventures made its Top 100: Top Dealers debut in 2016, with three locations and a handful of unique business ventures. With consistent growth year after year and after breaking into the Top 20 dealers, Nautical Ventures quickly climbed the ranks of the Top Dealers with impressive results again and again, paired with goals and ambitions for continuous improvement in all areas of its business.

With an unofficial tagline like “we sell everything from kayaks to cruise ships,” you know something different is happening within the Nautical Ventures Group.

Included under the Nautical Ventures banner today are eight retail dealerships, one rental operation, two full-service marinas, one rigging facility, one warehouse, a Cruise Ship division, The Weekly Fisherman Radio Show, Northstar Americas RIB Distribution, an Electric Boat Division, a Yacht Division, a Watersports Division, and a Sailboat Division. All working in harmony to provide a unique, single-source recreational marine supplier to the Florida marine marketplace, as well as to North, Central & South America, and to the Caribbean.

“We play a pivotal role in a variety of enterprises with global business experience,” CEO Roger Moore said. “Nautical Ventures Group’s primary goal is to build companies that, when combined into a synergistic whole, will more effectively sell, service, support and develop the marine market across the board. We are the number one dealership for almost all of boat and watersport brands that we stock and carry.”

Nautical Ventures’ flagship location in Fort Lauderdale covers three city blocks of frontage on U.S. Highway 1, in the heart of Fort Lauderdale and its active boating community. This location offers Nautical Ventures 12,000 square-feet of showroom space to show off the latest and greatest, with a separate 2,500 square-foot showroom building next door just for watersports, featuring tenders, kayaks, standup paddleboards, yacht toys and so much more.

Taking a chance on the different

A quick conversation with Nautical Ventures Group CEO Roger Moore (a.k.a. 007) will tell you he’s not afraid to take risks. Moore embraces the chance to fail and passes that mindset onto his entire team. And with that mindset, customers have the opportunity to discover some of the newest technologies, boats and water toys on the market when walking through the Nautical Ventures doors.

“Rather than poke holes in an idea and talk about how it won’t work, we take an idea and figure out ways that it will work,” Moore told Boating Industry back in 2016, a sentiment he and the team still very much carry today.

Moore, a lifelong boater, a circumnavigator having tacked more than 42,000 nautical miles over a span of 13 years around the world, has lived only on a boat since 1986 and currently lives on an 84-foot expedition yacht. Each decision he makes for Nautical Ventures comes from the heart and soul of a boater. The outcome of those decisions is for the betterment of the organization and its customers, who can have the best experience in any Nautical Ventures stores and on the water.

“Florida is homeport to more big yachts than any other place in the world,” Chief Marketing Officer Frank Ferraro said. “As a result, Nautical Ventures proactively seeks out innovative boat brands and emerging marine technologies and is the first to introduce them to the Florida market.”

On top of carrying some of the newest products to the marine industry, Nautical Ventures Group takes another chance in the form of different marketing and events tactics in the various boating communities the business serves.

From boat show displays to owning its own radio show, there isn’t a channel that Nautical Ventures misses, and often, creates a new channel entirely.

Hosted by well-known South Florida radio personality, Eric Brandon, and joined by co-host Joe Hector of the Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament fame, The Weekly Fisherman, broadcasting at 50,000 watts, the station reaches from the upper keys to Jupiter, Florida. Now in its 16th year on the air, The Weekly Fisherman is the bible for local fishermen looking to get on the bite. It features on-air guests like Bouncer Smith, George Povoromo, Deb Dayo, George Clark, CNN National Weather Person Jennifer Gray Warren, and many more.

Yet another place Nautical Ventures is paving the way in being different? Boat shows. Along with their “try before you buy” mentality, Nautical Ventures often teams up with the show promoters to showcase their AquaZone. The AquaZone offers a hotspot to show goers to see/demo some of the more unique products Nautical Ventures offers, like small hovercraft and Flyboards.

“The AquaZone serves as almost a centerpiece of a show,” Ferraro said. “It’s brought interest to some of our more unique products and earned the attention of local media outlets, giving more exposure to Nautical Ventures as a whole.”

Whether building on ideas they’ve already implemented, or trying something completely new, the sky is the limit for Nautical Ventures as they continue to pave the way to continued success and setting a new bar for dealerships to reach.

One speed and it’s GO!

There is no resting on laurels for the entire team at Nautical Ventures, regardless of how many industry accolades the team stacks in its trophy case. Team Orange is dedicated to continuous improvement and
unparalleled customer experience across any market they touch. And their results show that over and over, including an almost 18% year over year revenue increase in 2023 and perfect CSI scores across all of its 20-plus brands.

“What really sets us apart from our competition and other top dealers is our unique and true entrepreneurial spirit and the benefit that is derived to our customers, our employees, and even to our industry as a result,” Ferraro said. “Our customers simply have a great experience when doing business with Nautical Ventures. We deliver on the promise of selling fun. From the moment one walks into our dealership and sees all the really cool boats and water toys, they know they’re about to experience a whole new level of boat buying. We call our customers, Nautical Adventurers.”

Through their dedication and passion for boating – and all of the activities surrounding it – and a consistent dare to be different and the confidence to give something new a chance, the team at Nautical Ventures has been labeled ‘Industry Disrupters’ and it’s clear that the disruption is working as shown in their results year after year.

Simply put, the Nautical Ventures team are “The Go-To People for Fun on the Water.” And with their plans for the future of the business, that’s a title they very much intend to keep and bring to further reaches across North America.