May 2014 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7.
Seventies Memories: Jack Cogswell Waterfront News
By Lee S. Wilbur
Being in boatbuilding for some 30 years, through the golden years of the ‘70s and ‘80s and the ‘90s after Congress tried to put anyone doing “Luxury” goods out of business, I met a lot of fi ne people. People working like we were, simply trying to build businesses, make a secure future for their families, or having reached a modicum of fi nancial success to buy a boat. Jack Cog- swell was one of these individuals. I met Jack in the late seventies when
Eric White, part owner of North End Marine who were doing our Fiberglas layup brought Jack to the shop asking if we’d be interested in fi nishing off what was then called a “North End 42”. This was a powerboat hull which North End had hoped to market, but soon realized were in competition with current clients who were having moulding done there. Jack, through his company, Mariner Yachts wanted to build a “Dive” boat for the Virgin Islands, and could we do it. Wanted the boat to be exceptionally strong, well powered, as well as easily maintained. This was the mid ‘70s. We’d added to our production capacity several times by then as well as crew. And, I was always ready for something a bit different. Having sailed in the Virgins, there was an added impetus to taking on the project and perhaps seeing the boat there after completion. So we agreed on prices, delivery time, etc. and with a handshake as contract, sealed the deal. Jack was a great person to do busi- ness with. He’d been in and around the boat business since a teenager working for Graves Shipyard in Marblehead, Mass where he grew up. Boats were in his blood and it wasn’t long after he’d graduated from Northeastern College in Boston when with a small group of investors bought Marblehead
Marine.
“Stockholders weren’t good,” Jack says, “They didn’t realize you can’t start a business and the fi rst few years start taking money out, declaring dividends when you’re trying to build moulds, and production and a sales force.”
“So I got out of that mess, and went up to Canada, Mahone Bay, to take over as president of Paceship Yachts. That worked out quite well,” he remembers, “ cause after 16 months we put together a presentation package for AMF who as you recall were buying every recreational product they could get their hands on at the time.” Jack walked away from Paceship with a generous severance package and with that and boatbuilding an ingrained part of his psyche, in 1975, started Mariner Yachts in Rochester, New Hampshire, where he was able to build up a successful line of cruising sailboats which included the Mariner 28, 36, 38,42, and 47. “Business was going great, we had 350 employees, largest business in the area until OSHA and the EPA came knocking. EPA said we were bothering the neighborhood. Styrene smelled.” So Jack moved the moulding division outside of town to an abandoned gravel pit and built a facility there. “Then the EPA came after me again for cutting trees down. It was as if they wanted to simply put me out of business. We spent two years in court until I fi nally ran out of money. It was draining all of my working capital paying legal fees and lawyers.” “Then the Carter Administration came
along and interest went to 24%. I thought that was the worst thing that ever happened to this country until this present administra- tion.”
By then, Jack had convinced his wife Marylou it was time to leave cold country
and fi nd something south. Scottie Scofi eld had called and with a little massage “You’ve got one hell of an imagination, Jack, we’d love to have you come down and look at Cabo Rico for the weekend.” Something south turned out to be “way south”, Costa Rica south. Cabo Rico Sailboat company was not doing well. Not doing well at all. Jack and Marylou stayed for three weeks. Said to Jack, “we want to make a deal with you. So, Jack took over the company, found investors, invited Costa Rican Minister of Industry Luis Diego Estalante to have Costa Rica become involved who then loaned the company money at 2%. Within a year’s time, Cabo Rico with Jack at the helm had 180 full time employees, a dealer network, and had begun building some truly gorgeous sailboats. Cabo Rico built a 32, 36, 38, 42, and 45, then went on to have John Deknatel with Hunt Associates design the Chase 40 Sportfi sherman with Eric White and North End Marine doing the tooling.
Once again, business was going great
for Jack. Then war in neighboring Nicarauga and the Sandanistas broke out and the US State Dept. began to put the heat on Costa Rica. To compound matters even more, businesses located in Singapore and Hong Kong were leaving there with the takeover
by Mainland China and moving to areas such as Costa Rica who welcomed them with open arms.
“They’d built a huge Industrial Park where over 150 new businesses moved in. Costa Rica soon became overemployed and the labor rate doubled. We couldn’t raise our prices so after being there 10 years we put the company up for sale.”
In 1990, Cabo Rico was sold to a Cana-
dian company. “I stayed a short while,” Jack said, “But they wouldn’t listen to anyone. Wasting too much money. Marylou and I decided to move to Pompano Beach where I tried to buy Kurshaw Marine from Bob Kurshaw but that was really going nowhere so Marylou decided to open a chocolate shop at Atlantic and Ocean Avenue during the winter season and in the summer I started a hot dog stand in Boothbay Harbor. Marylou would get upset cause I would make more money with the dogs than she would with candy.”
Four years later Marylou was brutally murdered. Stabbed to death by a stalker in her chocolate store. “After Marylou’s death, I had to get out of Florida. Had to get into something to stay
Continued on Page 8.
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