The History of Boats By George
Boats By George, Thirty Years Of Love At First Sight
Article thanks to Cobalt Boats eLines (email newsletter)
George Pensel grew up on the east bank of Lake George in upstate New York, where his father ran a marina. A boyhood of picnic baskets and trips out to the islands and hanging around the family business involved water-skiing most of all. Young George just loved to ski and to drive boats. Frustrated at the State of New York's insistence that no one younger than ten might hold a boating license, he took, at the age of eight, a flat-bottomed boat with a three-horse Evinrude on a cruise of ever-smaller concentric circles. He swam in Lake George on his birthday, May 30th, and he froze his little keester off. He paddled a dinghy to see his friends. He slalomed more than he walked in the summertime. He worked around the marina until the age of fifteen when, one morning, his dad announced plans for something else, his father's joy in lakeside retail, lakeside service gone now.
"I grew up a bunch that day," George says, all he ever wanted disappearing before his eyes, that tow boat motoring back into a retreating sky. "But I loved my dad, and I honored his wishes without protest."
Nervous and then some, he approached the buyers of his family's erstwhile marina, and he asked for a summer job that turned into a long-term deal, through the warm months of 1970-1976. Meanwhile, George went to music school, a Gibson guitar, big hair and bigger dreams. "I discovered that I probably wasn't going to be a rock star," George says now, and he became practical, enrolled in courses in hotel-and-restaurant management and in business administration, throwing in some accounting classes. Then the phone rang.
The man who had hired a teenaged George six years before on the line, wondering if George would like to be a partner of sorts in a new boat company. The world changed that day, and George went to work on the bottom half of wooden boats, saws and sandpaper, some bottom paint and some oils. Soon enough, George was doing it all, topsides of course, but also originating a ship's store, the detailing on the new boats, writing the work orders and the invoicing.
By 1981, it became obvious that the company's owner had not been watching his margins and, at 26 years of age, George now an assistant manager --could see trouble coming. Time, he thought, to maybe set out on his own.
So he sat down with an accountant, considered sources of capital, worked out a budget and, advised to specialize, he decided on the canvas business with not much beyond muscle, enthusiasm, and an antique Singer sewing machine. "That old machine took me through $75,000 worth of boat-covers." Then the phone rang again.
A major boat manufacturer wanting George to sell its boats, the company told him to find a retail location, "to sell some boats to your friends," to look for discounts on his inventory identical to the company's oldest and largest dealerships', to attend some boat shows and sell some boats off, the last boats sold.
In 1981, he went to the IMTEC (International Marine Trades and Conference) show in Chicago and, besides the line he was representing, he saw some Cobalts. He thought them, copycats. Copycats but with quality like George had never seen. He went home and became his boatbuilder's ninth-largest dealer.
In 1982, he was "scooped into the Cobalt booth" at IMTEC, and George commenced to inspecting. "I looked at the wiring looms. I looked into the storage spaces and found them finished. I looked at the gel coat. I looked under the seats." Their scooping aside, George found the Cobalt people "friendly and impressive," their boats anything but copies.
He said to the Cobalt folks, "I love your boats, but I'm committed to my current manufacturer. I simply don't have the resources to take on another boat line."
By May of that year, he had sold all of the boats allowed him by the builder, and he called Neodesha, Kansas, asking "Could you send me some boats?" Asking "Could they be in New York by the Fourth of July?' The boats arrived with buyers waiting. "I sold two 22-footers that day. The people on Lake George weren't looking for the lowest price. They wanted the highest quality. They still do."
Invited to Cobalt's dealer meeting in August, held that year in Las Vegas, George remembers a tall, wiry guy Fred Holmes, the eastern regional sales manager asking "Are you George Pensel?" And then Fred proceeds "to pick me up, to lift me off the ground, and I knew I had joined the right boatbuilders at last."
Now thirty years into doing business on a handshake deals done among honorable women and men, George speaks of conversations, long conversations with Pack St. Clair, about ways to make things better. "Pack always wanted to fix the problem," George says, "always looking not to what was but to what might be. Together, we've always tried to the right thing."
And, the best news of all, George Pensel is back in the marina business. He has built again a facility such as his father's "except mine is bigger and better," says a laughing and still dutiful son that had given him such windblown fun and freedom as a little boy, Boats By George on the Lake at 291 Cleverdale Road in Cleverdale, New York. And back at 18 State Route 149 in Lake George, New York the company's showroom stands on the exact location of the little stucco building with the 22-foot frontage, bought on a deferred down payment, where it all began three decades ago.
And still with George and Patty Pensel, still doing it all, is Mr. Rodney Porter, Boats By George's first employee and now the service manager. "He's an amazing guy," George says of his old friend. "Together, he and I can pull rabbits out of a hat."
With 37 employees in the summer months, and ten key employees who have been with the company for years, Boats By George remains what it has always been, people just like you, who find life's greatest joys in, on, and around some big water.
Boats By George is conveniently located near the areas of Albany, Burlington, Queensbury, New York, Saratoga Springs.
Our History
From boyhood dream to 40 year career, a passion for boating has always been at the center of Boats By George's success
Boats By George was born out of a childhood dream. Founder and President George Pensel, who grew up on the east side of Lake George, was the son of Donald and Mary Pensel, owners of Dunhams Bay Boat Company and a dealer of Century and Chris Craft boats from 1948 to 1970. George grew up around the marina, water skiing with family and friends, running around the bay in a small skiff, and working the docks as a teenager. It was there that George's passion for boating and being around Lake George developed.
Donald Pensel, however, had a different passion. While he loved being around the water, the marina business wasn't his true calling. Inventing, designing, and engineering were his passions. And so while running the marina, Don was spending time tinkering in his workshop developing a revolutionary new type of boat hull, which he named the Ski-Hull, in an attempt to create a boat that could handle the rough chop with ease, while also being more fuel efficient and faster than similar sized boats with traditional flat bottomed or V shaped hulls.
So when a buyer for the marina came knocking in 1970, while Don's project was in full swing, the decision to sell the business was made. Losing the family marina and the freedom that came with it was devastating to George, but ultimately that loss was the spark that would change the course of his life a decade later.
Don, now freed up to put his full attention into his passion, developed two models of his Ski-Hull boat - a 14' outboard, and an 18' sterndrive. Filing a US Patent for his invention, he went to work marketing the ski hull. This lead him to a feature on the cover of Popular Science Magazine in 1977, and a visit by the US Navy to see if his hull was a fit for their fleet.
George may have not known it at the time, but witnessing his father successfully chase his dream would the catalyst that gave him the confidence he needed later to go out on his own and find his way back to a marina on Lake George.
Pictured Above: Donald Pensel in his Ski Hull Boat on the cover of Popular Science Magazine, February 1977
Don rebuilt the marina better than before, utilizing surplus US Army quonset huts as part of the structure, which were supposed to be incredibly strong and cost effective following WW2. However, in 1958, the huts collapsed under snow load, forcing Don to rebuild again.
George Pensel standing next to his first ever sign at Boat Cover's By George.
George Pensel standing in front of his canvas shop on the beach of the Gilchrist Marina, 1980.
George Pensel's original location of Boats By George at 18 State Route 149, taken around 1983.
Boats By George shortly after the addition that closed in the shop, and added rack storage to the south of the main building, 1985.
Boats By George in 1985, after the 2nd and final rack building at this location was completed.
In 2001, George renovated the route 149 location in preparation for a new showroom addition. The renovation refinished the exterior, added more shop space for service, added parts storage, and added additional sales offices for his growing staff.
In 2001, George renovated the route 149 location in preparation for a new showroom addition. The renovation refinished the exterior, added more shop space for service, added parts storage, and added additional sales offices for his growing staff.
In 2005, after building Boats By George for 23 years, George finally achieves his ultimate dream - owning a marina on Lake George. With the purchase of the former Mooring Post Marina, Boats By George 'On The Lake' was born.
The addition of a marina and showroom rapidly expanded Boats By George's growth, and it quickly became apparent that additional boat storage space would be needed. In 2008, Boats By George purchased an 8 acre lot off of Route 149 5 miles down the road from the flagship location.
In 2016, construction of a brand new state of the art boat service facility was completed at the site of the storage lot. This included 3 indoor rack buildings and an 8-bay indoor shop. An additional detailing shop and rack building have since been added to this location.
In 2018, Boats By George acquired Warner Bay Docks, a 55 slip marina on the same Cleverdale peninsula that Boats By George on the Lake is located, giving our customers even greater access to Lake George.
In the late 1970s, George had been working as an Assistant GM at Pilot Knob Marina, learning how to run a marine dealership. Sensing some trouble with the future of the company, George decided it was finally time to go out on his own. But after meeting with an accountant, reality set in that he didn't have the finances to open a full fledged marina.
The accountant recommended that George start small and specialize. Seeing a need in the market for someone who made quality canvas, George armed himself with a small Singer Sewing Machine, and began to sew boat covers. He took so many orders that he burnt out his machine, and with the help of his mother, Mary, who took a loan taken against her life insurance policy, he was able to upgrade that singer into a commercial grade Rex Walking Foot machine. George sewed himself through $200,000.00 in boat canvas in 2 years, and in 1982, with just enough saved to start a boat dealership, Boats By George was born.
To read more about our history, click here for a story written for Cobalt Boats' eLines Newsletter on our 30th anniversary!
Learn What We're Up To Today
Over the last 40 years, Boats By George has grown from a single location, land locked boat dealership, to a multi-location, industry-leading Marina and Dealership. We offer two marinas on Lake George, a state of the art service center and storage facility on 8 acres, a flagship 8,000 square foot showroom and storage facility on Route 149, and coming soon, a 50,000 square foot showroom, retail, and meeting space at the former location of the Lake George Forum.
The purchase of the Lake George Forum in August of 2021 marks a monumental step in the growth of our company. The facility will be one of a kind - a 30,000 square foot showroom space housing up to 60 new boats at time. This space will rival the size of most regional boat shows, and make Lake George a destination location for boat shoppers from all over the northeast.
Boats By George has been one of the top 10 dealers of Cobalt Boats in the world for nearly 10 years in a row, and one of the top 10 dealers of Chris Craft boats for 3 years in a row. We are also a dealer of Barletta Pontoon Boats, and Malibu and Axis Wake Research tow boats.
Pictured Above: Exterior design previews of the new 50,000 square foot showroom, retail, and meeting space at the former site of the Lake George Forum.
Pictured Above: George, Patty, Adam, and Andrew Pensel in 1992 and today.The Future
Learn About Our Long Term Vision
As a multigenerational business, Boats By George is positioned to continue serving boaters well into the future. Not only are George's sons, Adam and Andrew Pensel, key employees with the company, but our entire staff has grown tremendously over the last 5 years with experienced veterans and young newcomers breaking into the marine industry alike.
Many of our employees have decades of experience in the marine industry, and are multiyear mainstays.
We continue to be focused on old school, quality customer service, while also utilizing modern technology to make boat ownership more convenient and more fun.
In the coming years, we're excited to continue our growth into new boating markets while also finding ways to continue supporting organizations that protect Lake George and other bodies of water in the Adirondacks and Capital Region that our communities are so fortunate to enjoy. We are eager to participate in the electrification of recreational boating, whenever that happens, and to continue to find ways to make boating accessible for everyone.
Explore them below!
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