The Rise and Fall of Fountain Powerboats: A $150M Empire Sold for $8M

This is the full history of Fountain Powerboats and Reggie Fountain: a racing champion who built more than 10,000 boats and set a 171 mph world record at 64, and then saw his company sold in a bankruptcy court for about $8 million. Reggie Fountain started racing at 14, with his first hull slicked in grease from his mother's Christmas ham. He went on to win over 100 professional races and became part of Mercury's factory team, which won every Formula One tunnel boat race from 1974 to 1978. In 1979 he opened Fountain Powerboats in a former used car lot on the Pamlico River in North Carolina. The whole company ran on one rule: win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Every Fountain hull had to prove itself flat out, in public, before a customer could buy one. He roared past Don Johnson's catamaran in New Orleans, won two world championships in one season with the 42 Lightning, and sold boats to the Coast Guard, the DEA and a former President. Then came the 2008 recession. 275 unsold Fountain boats sat in a field, worth about $62 million. A fund bought the company's biggest loan for a third of its face value, and Fountain Powerboats went into Chapter 11. The new owners kept the name but shut down the racing team, the testing and new hull design. One Saturday morning, security guards stopped Reggie at the gate of his own factory. This is the story of how the fastest name on the water was bought by people who switched off the machine that made it fast, and how Reggie Fountain, at 83, ended up back at the wheel of hull number one. If you're into stories like this one, that's exactly what this channel is built around — long-form, documentary-style dives into the history of boats, engines, and the people behind them. Forgotten brand histories, garage-to-empire stories, and the corporate decisions that quietly buried names boating used to run on, sure. But also the badass engines, the bizarre designs, the wild history, the fast chases, and the coolest — or ugliest — vessels that ever hit the water. New episodes go up regularly, each one digging into a brand, a builder, or a story most boaters have never heard the real version of. This video is based on public sources and personal research. Facts, figures, and dates are presented to the best available knowledge, but details — especially prices, valuations, and timelines — can be incomplete, outdated, or vary by source. Brand and model names belong to their owners and appear here for commentary and educational purposes only. Always verify facts yourself before you buy, sell, restore, insure, or use a boat. #FountainPowerboats #BoatHistory #OffshoreRacing #CorporateHistory