The Viking Marine Group has been a big player on the powerboat scene for decades, particularly the luxury sportfishing market. A world leader in semicustom yachts with 4,000 boats delivered to date, few competitors can match its pace of innovation. And now, with the growth of the company’s line of center consoles, Valhalla Boatworks, some industry watchers continue to contemplate how the New Jersey-based builder reached this level of success.
It wasn’t by accident. The drive to build the business probably began around the dinner table of the company’s cofounder, a strong-willed entrepreneur who raised his son to work harder than he did, and to make the time to find joy in boats. And that son, in turn, raised his children to do the same. As a result, three generations have taken this family-owned company to impressive heights. Here are some of the work and life lessons this clan learned from each other.
WORK ETHIC
Bill Healey bought Peterson/Viking— a struggling builder of wooden boats—in 1964, along with his brother, Bob. The siblings had visions of making cruisers for the growing recreational boat market. Bob, who died in 2021, was an attorney and financial whiz, while Bill was the hands-on boat builder who took the reins of the company as president.
“My father is a marine through and through,” says Bill’s son Pat, who
