You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s been involved in more aspects of the marine industry than Earle Hall. His resume—spanning more than four decades—includes hydroplane racing champion, tournament winner, and leader of Bluewater Yacht Sales, one of the most successful yacht brokerages in the world. He built, sold and refit countless boats at Bluewater until his departure at the sale of the business; these days, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Denise, and assisting with his son’s auto-racing teams and his daughter’s horse-jumping competitions, all while setting his sights on the next endeavor in an already fulfilling career.
At one time you were a winning hydroplane racer—how did that come about?
That was about a 30-year career that. I started racing little outboard boats at about 14, and I was fortunate to be born in Portsmouth, Virginia, which is the boat-racing equivalent of Palm Beach for sport fishing. I met a man named Henry Lauterbach, and I was a real student of his. He was just a tremendous craftsman and innovator, and an all-around great guy. And so many years later, we started developing the boatyards. The foundation of the mindset was born in that boat race shop of Henry’s: quality, innovation, and finding ways to do things better. That set the stage for my passion. As our racing success grew, we did pretty well. We had a period where we won seven world and national titles within a three-year span, with both speed records and race wins.