Orin Edson has teamed his luxury megayacht with a Bell LongRanger IV, creating the ideal exploration adventure duo.

Page 1 of 2 » Next

The Inside Passage carves glacial runways along 30,000 miles of remote Pacific Northwest shoreline between Seattle and Alaska. Evviva, a gleaming new 160-foot-plus composite Westport megayacht, nestles in a tiny 2,000-foot-deep cove off the British Columbia coast against a backdrop of towering glaciers, waterfalls, and conifers.

Only the sounds of a waterfall and the random crack of ice break the silence here. No place on earth beckons the tag-team use of a helicopter and megayacht for exploration as much as this defiant undeveloped region, where roads and runways lie thousands of miles apart and some of the most treasured landscape on the planet is a short ascent from the fjord-studded coastline. Orin Edson, the owner of the Evviva and the company that built her, has chosen a Bell LongRanger IV for off-boat adventures.

When Edson and his wife, Charlene, first came to Nimmo Bay more than 20 years ago, Craig Murray, owner of a small helicopter fly-fishing venture lodge, turned them on to the world of heli-ventures.

"Craig convinced us to take our first real exploration by helicopter, and after we landed on the glaciers, cruised past waterfalls, spotted bears, and caught so much fish a world away from civilization we were hooked," recalls Edson, who is one of the most successful marine industrialists of the modern age as well as a pilot enthusiast. He has owned more than 40 aircraft in his lifetime and has been flying fixed wing for decades. Currently his small fleet of private aircraft includes a Falcon 900, Cirrus, Amphibian Cessna, and two Bell LongRangers.

Back home in Arizona after their exhilarating trip to British Columbia, the couple saw 24 R-22s and a JetRanger on the tarmac at the Wing and Rotor Club.

"Both Charlene and I signed up for the JetRanger and after 50 hours we felt pretty good," says Edson. "The Falcon 900 is our magic carpet, but the helicopter on board the Evviva is the best adventure tool we have."

While flying has become Edson's passion, it arrived on the hells of his boat-building career, which began in his garage. He became a boat dealer in 1955 and established Bayliner Marine Corporation in 1961.

"I had a dealership near Boeing Field (King County International Airport], and after having lunch with all those fixed base operators for so long I was finally convinced to start flying," explains Edson. While he was getting started in his first plane, a Piper Tri-Pacer, he was busy transforming boat-building production techniques and producing nearly 50,000 boats per year, making his company the largest boat manufacturer in the world.

"I have spent most of my business career near Arlington Airfield [next to Bayliner Marine headquarters], and could not have made it without the use of aircraft," Edson points out. "between Bayliner's 11 manufacturing plants, a trailer plant, and an outboard motor plant, we had a Baron and two Citation IIs constantly running all over the country."

Edson sold Bayliner to Brunswick Corporation in 1986 for more than $470 million and stayed out of the boar business for a few years, while his son developed Pacific Mariner, which produces yachts up to 85 feet in length. In 2003 Edson purchased sole control of Westport and flied from his Arlington office to the company shipyards located in Westport, Port Angeles, and Hoquiam, Washington, in the Falcon or 206. The company uses a King Air to shuttle prospective clients as well as to get company personnel between plants.

"Our aircraft are an essential tool for us to get the job done effectively," explains Edson. "We can run a much smaller executive staff with the capability of moving the trained personnel around quickly...a few good people who are mobile are better than a lot of mediocre people on-site. If you have a manufacturing problem the head of manufacturing could get on an airplane and be there to straighten out the problem."

Page 1 of 2 » Next

Next article » Potent Profits or Sky-High Hurdles?

Previous article « Yaks & 'Changs