St. Clair family enters boat lift business

Renowned marine family, the St. Clair’s, entered the boat lift business through purchase of manufacturer Galva Hoist and local dealer Summerset Boat Lifts, and renamed Galva Hoist, DuraTek Boat Lift.
 
Paxson St. Clair, son of former Cobalt Boats founder Pack St. Clair, along with his sons Pack and Cameron, began this venture in 2021. Together, they purchased Galva Hoist and Summerset Boat Lifts, a local dealership. Since rebranding Galva Hoist to DuraTek Boat Lifts, they are working to grow the brand to national heights, with Paxson St. Clair as president and Pack as director of sales. Cameron has taken on the role of directing retail sales at Summerset Boat Lifts.
 
“I love the marine industry and the boat lift business,” said Paxson St. Clair. “I enjoyed 30 years of working with my father at Cobalt, and this is a great opportunity for me to work with my sons Pack and Cameron. We are excited about the opportunity to grow a small business together. All we needed was to find the right product that we could help expand to a national scale and we found one with DuraTek. We see a lot of room for growth with this already-successful brand.”
 
In addition to his long service as president of Cobalt Boats, Paxson St. Clair was on the board of directors for HydroHoist Boat Lifts for more than five years, where he learned about and enjoyed the boat lift business. Coupled with his sons’ experience working and scaling dealerships, the family is well-positioned to build on DuraTek’s proven reputation for strength and quality. They hope as well to capitalize on the company’s geographical placement, as Lake of the Ozarks is the largest freshwater boat lift market in the world. The St. Clair’s are focused building DuraTek into a national brand, and adding dealers, marinas and customers as they expand to lakes throughout the Midwest and South.
 
“With a proven product line already in place, we are working on a number of new ideas to further improve our lifts, including engineering for even greater durability and technology enhancements, hence the name ‘DuraTek’,” said Pack St. Clair. “DuraTek has strong market share at Lake of the Ozarks. In our short time of taking the brand nationally, we have seen market share gains on other lakes in Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee and are confident in continued success in the region and across the country.”