{"id":52320,"date":"2019-04-12T01:08:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T05:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=52320"},"modified":"2023-05-08T08:30:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T12:30:07","slug":"ward-setzer-joins-hatteras-yachts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/ward-setzer-joins-hatteras-yachts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ward Setzer Joins Hatteras Yachts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ward <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Ward Setzer has designed yachts for Christensen, Outer Reef, Hinckley, Delta, Northern Marine, McMullen & Wing and more.<\/span>\n Billy Black<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Yacht designer Ward Setzer, who worked at \u00adHatteras Yachts<\/a> in the mid-1980s before launching his own firm in 1991, returned to the North Carolina builder as chief product officer in January. Setzer<\/a> plans to revamp existing Hatteras models and create new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following are edited excerpts of Setzer\u2019s conversation with Yachting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Hatteras is a real homecoming for you.<\/strong>\nI started with Jack Hargrave right out of school and did big boats with him, and I was there less than two years when I went to Hatteras around 1985 or 1986. Jack was designing the 92 to 130 series for Hatteras, so I ran that program on the production line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made you want to give up your own business at age 58 and go back?<\/strong> I was semiretiring in April of this year. I was going to go off and be artsy and live in the North Carolina mountains \u2014 I was all ready to do it and continue as a consultant on my terms, which is a nice way to end a custom career \u2014 but then I got a call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That must have been one heck of a call.<\/strong> There’s nothing better than a challenge, especially to help your alma mater. I was here in the glory days when \u00adHatteras had 1,500 employees. It’s almost 500 now. They’re well known for their sportfish, but they don’t sell nearly as many boats as a company like Viking does, and there’s also all these companies like Jarrett Bay digging into the custom market. Hatteras needs a top-to-bottom, long-term vision. Because of my 800 \u00advessels on the water built all over the world, I think it’s going to be fun to give a little bit of what I’ve learned back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How will you create that vision?<\/strong> I’m on the shop floor problem-solving. I’m here to look at the product, improve the product line through the motoryachts and the sportfish, expand the product line at a much faster frequency than in the past, and rally the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this mean the end of your firm?<\/strong> Setzer Design is still open for a while, to finish obligations. My one-off and two-off projects, as unique and fun as they are, most of them for the past five or six years, I haven’t been able to show anybody what I’m doing. I have nondisclosure clauses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we expect from Hatteras going forward?<\/strong> We have the motoryacht line and the sportfish line. We’re going to build out those lines, fill in the holes in the strategies to meet each market segment properly. I need to massage every product across the board in different ways so that they all become a family. And then there will be new development from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve designed some big yachts. Is there a 250-\u00adfoot Hatteras in the future?<\/strong> The key is to stay within your boundaries and work within your realm of influence. I’m also going to make sure we look at the history: where this company came from, how it started and where they had the most success with what types of products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think is most \u00adimportant for boaters to know about the history of Hatteras Yachts?<\/strong> It was on the backs of companies like Hatteras in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s that so many other companies got their start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since you can’t divulge upcoming changes in \u00adHatteras models, can you say when we might see them?<\/strong> You’ll start to see things by the Fort Lauderdale show this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s in November \u2014 you mean new features by then, right? Not new models?<\/strong> Noooo \u2014 why would I want to do new \u00adfeatures when I can do a whole new model? We’re going to be coming with surprises in motoryachts and \u00adsportfishers. Our sport-fishing line is going to get even stronger, and with the motoryachts, we are going back to our heritage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superyacht designer Ward Setzer joins Hatteras Yachts as chief product officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kim Kavin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20190412","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Ward Setzer is going to pen new models for Hatteras Yachts' motoryachts and sportfish boats.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Ward Setzer Joins Hattaras Yachts %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"EOKJAFDXLVCIBMEXJV73432IIM","arc_website_url":"ward-setzer-joins-hatteras-yachts","custom_permalink":"ward-setzer-joins-hatteras-yachts\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[455,177,456,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}