California Correct Craft » About

The Story of Our Business
(as told by Tim Sherwin)

As a child growing up in Michigan, my parents never had a boat. Our family recreation was motorcycles and snowmobiles. That changed in 1978 when I took a job as mini-bike director at Camp Au Sable in northern Michigan. (You know the old saying, "I wonder what I would have done if I would have turned left instead of right?") That summer, when I wasn't keeping 30 mini-bikes working and teaching kids to ride, I was learning to ski the slalom course behind a 1978 Nautique. That summer had a profound effect upon my life.

I enjoyed driving and skiing behind the boat so much I said, "Some day I'm going to own one of these boats!"

After 4 years of college and two years of graduate school I found myself living in Southern California working as a Marriage and Family Therapist. In 1985 I bought a used 1978 Nautique with 1400 "salt water" hours on it. I worked and worked sanding, buffing, changing carpet, upholstery, refurbishing the motor and trailer, replacing cables and controls....it was my baby.

Two to three times a month during that summer, my family, friends and I would go to "The River". One of those trips to Lake Mojave found us sitting around the camp fire after a great day on the water. We had 4 boats on that trip, mine was the only Nautique and it was the boat that everybody wanted to use. One of my friends asked the magic question that would change my life and profession. "Why isn't there a Nautique dealer in Southern California?"

Long story made short. After several calls and a trip to the warehouse; myself and two friends decided to go into the boat business and made a deal on three Nautique boats. (I actually thought I would just get a deal on a boat and that would be it.) But in the fall of 1986 Correct Craft called and invited me to their dealer meeting in Florida.

There, I put the "cart before the horse", (I had no location, business plan, money or financing) but I committed to buying 7 boats and flew home to California to figure out how I was going to make this work.

After selling our condo in Yorba Linda, my understanding and supportive pregnant wife Jody, my two year old Jason and I moved in with my In-laws to wait for the property I had found in Riverside to close escrow. (Much thanks to my father-in-law Dr. Stew Erhard who loaned me the $30,000 to start CCC. I'm not sure if he really believed in the business or just wanted to get me out of his house, but I couldn't have done it without him).

The original CCC location was a house on W. La Cadena -along the 215/91 freeway with a small garage behind it. We would live and work there for the next 2 years! I parked the boats in around the house in the front yard and sold 21 Nautique boats that first year. I was excited, but I didn't have a clue how to be a boat dealer, let alone a good one.

During those early years, family and friends and the Grace of God are what kept CCC going. Gary Kaiser, Earl Fraiser, and Dave Jones (my brother-in-law) were my original skiing buddy's at lake Mohave'. My first real employee Gary Messer started with me in 1988 and continued until 2002. In 1990 Pete Maley, Scott Gobal, and Sharon Messer all contributed through those early years. There would be many more over the next 18 years.

In 1994 we moved up the road four blocks into a new and larger location at 1689 W. La Cadena Dr. and CCC's new location on the 215/91/60 interchanges shot CCC into a huge growth mode. Previous businesses that had opened and grown at this location were. K & N filters, Ocelot racing, Malcom Smith Motor Sports and Riverside Boat and Marine. We grew from a $2 million dollar company to a $9 million dollar company while at this location.

We continued to grow and in 1998 we started a 5 year relationship with Cobalt Boats. Growth was kept moving by adding additional employees, like Dave Jones, Bill Wilson, Mike Boggs, Tom Nathan, Eddie Zamora, Jeremy Thompson, Dave Gamache, Tommy Powell and Jennifer Stebens.

In 1999 we leased additional space on the opposite side of the freeway on E. La Cadena. Mack Barnett, Ivan Romero, Pete Carrillo, Josh Williford, Jessica Chuchua, Chere Ashmore and Tim Jewitt along with the others all contributed to the continued well being of CCC. We stayed in these two locations until Cal Trans took both properties by Eminent Domain in 2003 and 2004. By this time we had been the number one, largest Correct Craft dealer in the world for 13 out of the last 16 years!

The Dealership, having been through its fair share since 2003, has landed "shiny side up" in what use to be the Garden Center of a Home Base at the 15/91 interchange in Norco. Our Pro Shop is becoming an entity on its own called the "Green House Ride Shop" named after the Greenhouse we currently reside in.

With the blessing of good employees, customers and great products, we look forward to continued growth as we strive to meet the recreational wakeboard and waterskiing needs of families here in Southern California. -Tim Sherwin
Owner