Company Makes Boat Travel More Comfortable

Peter Burer projects his Seaspension shock-absorbing boat seats will generate sales of $1 million this year.

For most boaters, there are two choices when the waters get rough: Stay seated and feel the pounding that comes through the bottom of the boat and up the seat, or stand up and hold on tight, letting your legs act as shock absorbers. Peter Burer, president of Largo-based Seaspension thought that there must be a better way. “It always bewildered me that you spend so much money on boats and when you wake up in the morning you’re sore,” says Burer. “It’s supposed to be fun, not painful.”

Burer came up with the idea of adding a shock absorber to seats. He studied the mechanism that Sea Doo used to cushion riders, lengthened it and incorporated it into the boat seat pedestal. Working with Greg Roberts, a metallurgical engineer who at the time worked for defense contractor L-3 Communications, Burer came up with a design. He patented the product in the late 1990s, and after several business starts and stops, he began production in 2001.

Seaspension’s boat seat shock-absorbing posts sell for $795 each or about $1,200 for both the seat and the post. It takes only a screwdriver to retrofit an old boat seat with the shock-absorbing post, says Burer. The one caveat is that the post must be at least 16 inches high or 18 inches for bench seats. The company projects sales of $1 million in 2009.

Only a year after the company began production, Fountain Powerboats purchased Seaspension’s products for a boat the company was building for a high-profile customer. “It turned out to be President Bush’s boat,” says Burer — George H.W. Bush.

The shock-absorbing posts sell for $795 each or about $1,200 for both the seat and the post.

Last year, Burer says that Fountain called again, ordering Seaspension posts for Bush’s new 38-foot boat named Fidelity IV.

So far, though, Burer has had better luck tapping into the military market than the splintered recreational market. In October, the company landed a $700,000, five-year contract with Midwest Rescue Airboats, a Kansas company that is building 35 ice rescue boats for the U.S. Coast Guard. The first seats, which cushion the ride over solid and jagged ice, were delivered this spring. At the same time, Seaspension was finishing up work on seats for 12 boats that Edgewater-based EdgeWater Power Boats was building for the Coast Guard of Trinidad, in part for the protection of dignitaries at last month’s Summit of the Americas.

Burer says he’s been getting creative in targeting the recreational market — under stress because of the poor economy. He’s going after boat owners who may be spending more time on the family boat as an alternative to an expensive vacation. Owners of Parker boats, which Burer says are known for their rough ride, are a particular target. He’s blogging on sites for Parker owners, trying to interest them in retrofitting their seats. He says, “We’re not leaving any stones unturned with the recreational market.”