Anniversaries celebrated with Nautique boat owners reunion

WHITE LAKE – Nautique. A name above all other names in boat quality.

If you were in White Lake Saturday you saw a traffic jam of Nautique boats. Antiques, collector items and brand new. Most of them were purchased at White Lake Marine in Bladen County.

The annual Correct Craft/Nautique owners’ reunion was held Saturday at White Lake Marine (WLM) where they were celebrating the 70^th anniversary of WLM along with Nautique’s centennial anniversary.

“We couldn’t have asked for more,” David deAndrade said. “We had beautiful weather, 50 boats and over 100 people. It was amazing. We’ve done this for a number of years, losing only one year to COVID. This has been the biggest one ever.”

From an ancestry that came from the sea and the coast of Portugal, White Lake Marine’s owners Carl (Carlos) deAndrade, Dianne deAndrade and their son, David deAndrade are celebrating their 40^th year in business with their anniversary date in September.

The business itself has been a familiar boat dealership in White Lake for 70 years selling Correct Craft with the Deandrades having taken over in 1985. Correct Craft founded the Correct Craft in 1925 as the Florida Variety Boat Company and they were well-known as talented boat makers that included powerboats, race boats and sailboats. After just over a decade, the demand for the popular powerboats. From an early advertisement that said, “the correct heel for your shoe” caused Meloon to create the correct craft for potential customers. The name was then changed to “Correct Craft.”

“We’re doing a reunion of Nautique owners,” Carl deAndrade said before the event in an interview last month. “We hope it will be packed out.” He got exactly what he wished for as there were over 100 people and boat owners that turned out, not to mention the hundreds of people that viewed the boat parade that include 50 boats that were launched from White Lake Marina.

“We did one last year,” Dianne deAndrade said. “We had a really good turnout. We found out that so many people didn’t come because they did not find out about it until it was too late. This year we sent out ‘save the date’ invitations.”

The owners who came for the reunion found that it was so much more than just a ride in the boat. There was food, ax throwing, corn hole tournaments, prizes and the boat parade around the lake.

Motivational speaker Chad Porter who is a motivational speaker & best selling author also spoke to the crowd of owners.

“There were so many people today,” Dianne deAndrade said. “It was great. We had people coming from Michigan, Ohio, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina as well as those from Bladen County. And there were some awesome boats here today. I’ve seen so many people today that I hadn’t seen in years. I think this was the best one we’ve ever had.”

There were new people that came who had never attended, and according to deAnrade, they said, “This is the first time I’ve come, and I’ll be back.”

The oldest visiting Nautique for the day was captained by Jonathon Crabtree from Michigan. It was a 1964 Nautique. deAndrade’s 1955 which was driven by David and Marcia deAndrade.

“We finally got all the boats launched about 2:18,” Marcia deAndrade said. “It was like herding cats. We had boats lined up to be launched all the way from the marina dock to US 701. What a great time and such great boats were on the lake today.”

White Lake Marine is located on White Lake which has become a booming tourist town and an advantageous area to live year-round. It is the oldest Correct Craft dealership in the world selling boats by the top-end and legendary boat makers of Nautique for 70 years.

The company has evolved with the boat industry and has managed to make a niche’ in the world boat selling market. Once a large seller of outboard motor boats, they have a “unique specialty” in the inboard boat market and stock a large selection of preowned inboards for sale. The also sell inboards on consignment and used boats that they have taken in on trade.

The dealership is more than a “full service” operation with little to no competition in this area from other boat dealers. They do full service on Pleasurecraft Marine Engines and is an Indmar Inboard service center. They stock a full line of Correct Craft parts, Fashion Nautique and PCM parts that can be shipped anywhere in North America.

As far as the many changes that have come in the past 40 years, deAndrade said that the internet was good for them. What it also does is take away the number of sales that they used to see at a boat show. They still do boat shows, but they’ve reduced the number of boat shows which shows a trend to work smarter and not harder – knowing that the sales field has changed. One of their bigger boat shows that still yields some good sales and leads is the Raleigh Boat Show at the convention center each year. They say that one of the biggest changes since they acquired the boat dealership was the fact that most of their sales first came from the White Lake Area and now most of the sales are from all over the world.

One of the surprises that Carl and Dianne had recently experienced was that their son, David found a vintage 1955 Nautique in incredible condition and now sits in their showroom. As incredible as that story is, another White Lake Marine miracle story was finding a 1957 Nautique that was actually sold in the WLM showroom, purchased by a Dr. Abernathy. That boat is still awaiting restoration.

Much has changed and much has been accomplished in the 70 years that this now booming business has been a regular business in White Lake. Their reach has gone global and Saturday some of that global reach came home to WLM.

More pictures can be seen on the Bladen Journal Facebook page dated Sept. 21.