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Turbocraft
in business
thunder
When a young, Swiss entrepreneur saw a Buehler Turbocraft in the James Bond
movie Thunderball, he was inspired to revive the defunct American brand of
water jet-powered speedboats.
42
john
clapot
in business
43
J
Justin Ratcliffe
ohn Clapot is a 36-year-old
graduate in international
relations and economics,
who recently gave up his job
as a luxury brand manager with
Ralph Lauren to pursue a full-time
career as an entrepreneur in the
yachting industry. His business
eureka moment came when he was
watching the James Bond movie
Thunderball. There is a scene in
the film where Sean Connery saves
Domino, the villain’s mistress played
by the French actress Claudine
Auger, from drowning. After the
heroic deed they swim back to her
boat, a 19ft Buehler Turbocraft
runabout.
John Clapot
Clip from the James Bond movie Thunderball
44
“I’ve always been passionate about boats,
and when I saw the Turbocraft in the movie
it got it got me thinking,” he recounts. “Why
that brand? Well, for one thing Glastron was
already owned [a Glastron GT150 famously
jumps over a police car in Live And Let Die], but
as I researched Turbocraft I discovered it was
an iconic brand that had pioneered the use of
water jets.”
John Buehler of Indiana Gear Works, an
engineering firm that produced precision
components for the aerospace industry, founded
Buehler Turbocraft in 1954. A keen sports
fisherman, Buehler wanted to set up a marine
division of his company. He turned to the selftaught engineer William Hamilton from New
Zealand and secured the manufacturing rights to
Hamilton’s innovative water jet propulsion unit
for use on his craft, and Buehler Turbocraft was
born.
His first model was a 16ft boat powered by a
107hp six-cylinder Ford engine that, thanks to
the jet pump drive, could run in less than 10cm
of water. As this new form of propulsion began
to catch on with American boaters, bigger and
more powerful models were introduced. In 1960,
four 18ft boats with 185hp V8 engines set out
to run the rapids of the Colorado River through
the Grand Canyon—both ways. The daring
expedition was successful, although one boat
was lost and a team member broke his leg, and
the story was published in the April 1962 edition
of The National Geographic.
Throughout the 1960s, Buehler Turbocraft
attracted some high-profile owners. Jackie
Kennedy, wife of JFK, owned one for waterskiing. Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev
reportedly ordered another, but never took
delivery: the boat was en route to the Soviet
Union on a transport plane in October 1962
The exterior
design
exudes
style and
grace, with a
wraparound
windscreen
and
distinctive
fashion
plates.
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45
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bulwark
when it was called back as the Cuban Missile
Crisis flared up. Following the release of
Thunderball in 1965, the popularity of the
brand reached an all-time high and Buehler
hired Virgil Exner, the famous car designer
who had also collaborated with Italian yacht
builder Riva. But as the decade came to a
close, so too did the fortunes of the brand.
Defence cuts under the Nixon administration
affected Buehler’s aerospace contracts, and
boat production ceased when he sold off the
marine division in May 1971.
Clapot, who keeps a couple of Correct Craft
water-ski boats on Lake Geneva, identifies
the influential heritage of Buehler Turbocraft
as the key ingredient in his strategy to revive
the brand. He quotes Bernard Arnault, CEO
of Louis Vuitton, who once said: “A brand
without a history cannot be a luxury brand.”
Clapot acquired the international rights to the
brand name in 2011 and set about gathering
a design team to produce a concept model
with which to relaunch the company: the
Thunderclap 38.
With a name that recalls the movie that first
inspired Clapot, the 11.5m day boat, which
has been in development for three years,
preserves the retro lines and cold-moulded
wood construction of the past and couples it
with contemporary styling motifs and the latest
engineering. The exterior design exudes style
and grace, with a wraparound windscreen
and distinctive fashion plates. These recall the
intake ducts of an Audi R8 and can be finished
in anything from varnished wood to metallic
copper or carbon fibre. A glass strip on the
foredeck illuminates the day cabin below,
and the cockpit is designed around a central
buffet-bar unit comprising pop-up TV, BBQ,
sink, fridge and icemaker.
The interior design proposes the use of
exotic materials such as Brazilian walnut, used
for high-end furniture, and rubber wood, a
light-coloured tropical hardwood. The aft
section and counter stern is devoted to a large
sunbed and swim platform. In homage to
the fold-down swim ladder of Domino’s 19ft
Turbocraft in Thunderball, the Thunderclap
Turbocraft Thunderclap cabin looking aft
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Thunderclap 38 concept
is equipped with an electric ladder that also
serves as a passerelle. Naturally, the new
design will be fitted with Hamilton water
jets, this time powered by Volvo Penta
engines of up to 435hp for a top speed in
excess of 42 knots.
Clapot has so far invested around 250,000
euros of his own money to acquire the brand
and develop the Thunderclap concept. The
next step is to find a committed investor (or
‘love partner’ as Clapot calls it) to provide
the estimated 1.5 million euros to produce
and market the prototype model. He has
already identified his major suppliers and a
yard on the French Atlantic coast with the
cold-moulding skills to build the first unit.
However, if the concept takes off, the idea
is to eventually set up in the US. Clapot
is in contact with a number of interested
investors and, if all goes according to plan,
he hopes to start production within the next
12 months. The estimated asking price for
the Thunderclap 38 will be between 600,000
and 750,000 euros.
Given the brand’s history and the growing
US economy, America is likely to be the
primary market for the Thunderclap 38.
However, the elegant day boat would also
look perfectly at home in Portofino or St
Tropez, even though Europeans tend to
be less enthusiastic about cold-moulded
construction and water jet propulsion.
“We chose to build using cold-moulding
techniques because wood is light and stiff
with great insulation properties and that’s
how the original boats were built,” he points
out. “Beyond that, it’s a noble material and
48
I want the brand to be about quality design
and craftsmanship.” With rivals such as
Wajer Osprey, J-Craft and VanDutch, the
newborn brand will undoubtedly face some
tough competition, but Clapot believes
the Turbocraft legacy of heritage, style and
craftsmanship will prove a winning formula.
The design team all work in the superyacht
industry (including his brother, Fabrice
Clapot, a designer with Espen Øino
International) and the Thunderclap 38 was
developed with an eye on its potential as
a superyacht tender. In fact, the low-slung
design and shallow 60cm draught mean it
would fit into some existing tender garages
on larger yachts with minimal modifications.
The team are also working on a smaller
model that would be powered by an electric
motor for use as a silent, zero-emissions
runabout in port or on lakes and waterways.
While Clapot might be a born
entrepreneur, he has no business experience
outside the fashion industry. During his
10 years with Ralph Lauren, however, he
was responsible for managing the image,
growth and strategic planning of a portfolio
of brands. This experience has proved
invaluable in allowing him to recognise the
historic brand values of Buehler Turbocraft
(with a little help from James Bond) and
then transferring those values into a concept
design that has contemporary appeal.
“I think I understand the magic involved
in creating a successful brand,” he says. “I
believe we have the ingredients and that
the time is right for such a brand and such
a boat.”
This
experience
has proved
invaluable
in allowing
Clapot to
recognise
the historic
brand values
of Buehler
Turbocraft.