Minute Drain Makes Waves

Most kids get the keys to a car when they turn 16. Randy Myers got the keys to the family Cobalt.

Twenty-eight years later, he’s turned his love for boating into a new motor accessory business that he expects to gross $1 million by year’s end. Myers, founder and president of Minute Drain, is launching a nationwide marketing campaign for a new product that can drain the water from inboard and stern-drive engines in 55 to 70 seconds.

The Minute Drain system, which retails for $399, is designed to give boaters who get seasick at the thought of docking their boats every winter a new lease on lakes.

A typical stern-drive boat, Myers said, holds 4-6 gallons of water in its engine. Boats in Northwest Arkansas must be drained by about Thanksgiving, when the weather typically turns cold and a hard freeze can crack an engine block.

Mechanics charge $250-$300 to winterize a boat. So most local inboard and stern-drive boat owners wind up docking their watercraft from November until spring arrives in late March. Myers said his Minute Drain product — which consists of proprietary brass block fittings and extruded aircraft aluminum drain rails — makes inboard boats usable year-round.

“All you have to do is open up a couple of valves, and it drains all of the water out of the engine,” Myers said. “First-time boat buyers who get caught with their pants down and let their engine block freeze will pay $3,000 to $6,000 for repairs.

“That gives people a bad taste in their mouth, and there’s no question the sport is on the decline because of the costs and maintenance. But this is a product that absolutely will promote boating.”

The engine automatically refills with water during its next use. Minute Drain is compatible with Mercruiser and Indmar, the industry’s dominant engine manufacturers. Myers said he is also “tooling” the product for Volvo engines.

All necessary components for installation are included in Minute Drain’s do-it-yourself kit. No drilling or rethreading of the engine block or its components is required, and the product comes with a one-year warranty. For an additional $350, the company will install the system in a customer’s boat.

Five years of private testing on Beaver Lake has netted Minute Drain about 200 local customers, including 86 in the Prairie Creek Marina alone. A random sampling of 12 new and multiyear Minute Drain users yielded nothing but glowing feedback.

Kerry Jensen of Rogers bought a Minute Drain for his 20-foot stern-drive Cobalt about a year ago. He said the device has protected his investment.

“I live on the lake, and before I had a Minute Drain I basically put the boat away for six months,” Jensen said. “Now my kids fight for the opportunity to be the one who turns the knobs to let the water run out. I would not own another boat without one.”

Minute Drain was founded in July as a subsidiary of Beaver Lake Maine Center in Rogers, a licensed Cobalt dealer that does business as “The Marine Center.” Betty Launius, Myers’ mother, is owner and a partner of the store, which also sells all types boating equipment. Myers is its general manager and a partner.

Myers said he expects Minute Drain sales to help drive the dealership’s revenue up 44 percent from $2.7 million to $3.9 million by the end of this year. Sales at The Marine Center were down about $200,000 in 2001, hurt like most in the recreation industry by the terrorist attacks of September 11. Momentum from Minute Drain sales, he said, should help the dealership rebound by at least $200,000 this year.

Minute Fulfillment

Since launching the product in July, Minute Drain has brought in about $40,000 worth of business with basically no promotions. Myers said he expects to install 225 more Minute Drains locally by December.

He estimated there are 3,500-4,000 boats sitting at commercial or private docks on Beaver Lake alone. About 2,000 of those, he said, are inboard.

But the real opportunities lie with the 502,000 registered Mercruiser owners and 3,500 dealerships nationwide with which Minute Drain plans to do business. Myers said the company was set to ship 2,000 Minute Drain kits in mid-October. (See story here.)

“We originally thought we’d sell $150,000 to $200,000 worth in the first year,” Myers said. “But we’ve already got 25 dealers on board. I introduced this product to the Cobalt dealer network at a recent meeting, and their response is what has me so charged up.”

Myers said the company’s biggest concern at present is order fulfillment. With nine employees on hand, the company can ship up to 150 orders per day. In the past, it took about five hours to assemble every kit by hand.

But Minute Drain has lined up several manufacturing sources — including Jim Nance Machines of Siloam Springs, which is making Minute Drain’s engine block fittings — and reduced its labor time by 30 percent. The cost is also now down about 70 percent, Myers said.

Dick Rowe is chairman of Indmar Products in Memphis, the largest privately owned inboard manufacturer in the world. His company’s products include Malibu and Mastercraft engines. Rowe’s only concern is that boaters might skip needed annual maintenance just because the hassle of draining the engine is eliminated.

“There are a lot of other things that need to be done every year,” Rowe said. “You’ve got to change your oil and filters, lube the propeller with Vaseline, and if you don’t get grease under your own fingernails you need to take it to a garage. I haven’t seen a [Minute Drain] yet, but I would just tell people to make sure to get their annual maintenance done, too.”

Myers said The Marine Center goes so far as to include first-year maintenance costs in the price of its boats to make sure it’s done properly. And, he admits, Minute Drain does not eliminate about $189 worth of annual maintenance that includes changing filters.

The Marine Center was named Cobalt’s No. 1 service dealer in the world for 2001. It was the first time any of Cobalt’s dealers received a perfect service rating. The Marine Center has also received an Outstanding Customer Service Award from Mercruiser for six consecutive years.

Water People

During the fourth quarter, The Marine Center typically does between $500,000 and $700,000 worth of business, Myers said. That includes nearly $60,000 worth of winterizing boats.

But after the September 11 attacks in 2001, fourth-quarter business fell to less than $100,000. Rather than cutting back like hundreds of boating stores did nationwide, Myers said, The Marine Center treated the lull as a blessing in disguise.

“Finishing development on the Minute Drain was something I had wanted to do for a couple of years, but we stay so busy,” Myers said. “So after 9/11, we didn’t reel in. We expanded and remodeled our showroom. And I concentrated on getting this product ready for market.

“There are a lot of pluses coming out of that climate last year, too. People have rethought their traveling. Boat sales nationwide were down 8 percent last year, but they’re already picking up. People have decided to stay closer to home.”

Myers said the current trend is for families to get away from personal watercraft such as jet skis. Parents have realized kids only reappear when they need gas money, and the fun of piling everyone into a boat together is lost.

Numerous families using the Minute Drain said they couldn’t be happier with the product. From Mary Umbarger of Rogers to Jerry Lowderman of Wichita, Kan., who has a vacation home on Beaver Lake, customers agree the freedom to boat anytime has renewed their interest in the sport.

Mike and Tricia Necessary of Rogers, two-time Minute Drain owners, even found an additional passion. In late 2000, they were able to take their children out to the remote Big Clifty area of Beaver Lake where bald eagles nest at that time of the year.

“Our children saw their first eagle as a result of us being able to get out in the water,” Tricia Necessary said. “We are very happy customers of The Marine Center in general because of their level of customer service, but this was special.”

That’s the kind of experience Launius, The Marine Center’s owner, said she wants every customer to enjoy. Having grown up on Beaver Lake herself, Launius said she and Myers are interested in anything that gets people to enjoy the water as a family.

“We’re just water people through and through,” Launius said. “I don’t think you ever outgrow it. I’m as big of a water rat today as I was when I was five years old. It gets in your blood and stays.”

(Click here to see how rising costs are affecting the boating industry.)