In February 1989, Steve and Dianne Potts started building boats in a rented brick barn in Summerville with one helper.

That September, Hurricane Hugo leveled it.

“We salvaged what we could,” Steve Potts told Soundings Trade Only in 2014. The company moved into a smaller rented building with a dirt floor. That December, a rare snowstorm caved in its roof, Potts told Boating Industry in 2024.

Thirty-seven years later, Scout Boats builds center consoles, dual consoles, bay boats and outboard-powered yachts from 17 to 67 feet long on a campus along U.S. 78. It sells through dealers across the U.S. and in more than two dozen other countries and territories. It is still owned and run by the Potts family.

A name from high school

Potts started early. As a high school student, he built a 14-foot boat called the Scout for The Outboard Shop, a Charleston dealer, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Years later, he negotiated the rights to the name.

He started the company with about $50,000 in savings. He had been working days as plant manager at American Sail and repairing fiberglass bathtubs at night, the NMMA said when it inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2024.

After Hugo, Potts spent the last of his money on a booth at a 1990 boat show in Atlanta. He left with a list of 31 prospective dealers, according to the NMMA.

The big one

In January 2025, Scout unveiled the 670 LXS in Summerville. It measures 66 feet, 9 inches, carries three staterooms and runs on five 600-horsepower Mercury V-12 outboards, 3,000 horsepower in all. Scout calls it the largest outboard-powered yacht in the world.

The project started in 2021 under the code name Project Everest. Designers used virtual reality headsets to walk through the cabin before it was built, Soundings Trade Only reported.

“We’ve poured everything we have into this new flagship,” Potts said in the company’s launch announcement.

Moving it took a police escort. In February 2025, the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office warned drivers of delays while deputies helped the State Transport Police escort the yacht on local roads, Live 5 reported. A statement from Scout sales and marketing director Alan Lang, published by the station, put the boat’s estimated price at $7 million.

A fishing version, the 670 LXF, debuted at the Palm Beach International Boat Show in March 2026. Scout said in March that it had sold every 67-foot boat it had built, including those still in production.

How the boats are made

Scout’s smaller boats are built with hand-laid fiberglass, according to the company. Boats 33 feet and longer are built with epoxy infusion. Technicians feed epoxy into fiberglass and core materials, pull out air pockets under vacuum bags and bake the hulls in their molds at 135 to 140 degrees for eight hours.

Boats from 37 to 67 feet use a hybrid of carbon fiber and E-glass. Scout says that makes the hulls lighter and stiffer than traditional construction.

In late 2021, the company announced a $3 million, 21,000-square-foot product development and engineering building with five-axis routers that carve tooling and foam mock-ups.

“We built it all in-house,” Executive Vice President Courtney Guice told Soundings Trade Only in April, describing the wiring that ties the 670’s systems together.

Growth, without debt

Scout had about 240 employees in 2014, Soundings Trade Only reported. In October 2023, it announced a $10 million expansion that included Plant E, a 37,500-square-foot building for yacht components, along with new offices and an employee cafeteria. The company said then it would grow from 475 to 600 workers. Potts told Boating Industry in May 2024 that Scout had 500 employees and that Plant E was under construction.

The company has long said it pays as it goes.

“We’ve always been a debt-free company with an eye on the future,” Potts said in the 2023 expansion announcement, as reported by SCBIZ. Scout is privately held and does not publish financial results.

A family business, by design

In January 2022, Potts moved to full-time CEO and Dave Wallace was named president. Potts said Wallace had been his right hand for 22 years, running day-to-day operations.

Promotions followed this year. Effective Jan. 1, 2026, the founders’ daughter Sherrie Ferguson became vice president of human resources, and Courtney Guice, with Scout since 2005, became executive vice president. Son Stevie Potts leads product development.

“The great thing is, after all these years, it still is a family,” Ferguson said in the company’s December 2025 announcement of the promotions.

Boats for the world

Scout’s dealer locator lists 42 international dealer locations in 28 countries and territories, from Canada and Mexico to Japan, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Scout has shipped boats overseas through the Port of Charleston, the S.C. Ports Authority said in 2014.

In 2024, Scout began building Honda’s 19.5-foot Seabrook Series boats, sold through Honda Marine dealers.

The 2026 lineup added a 43-foot center console with a lithium battery system in place of a generator, and a 28-foot dual console. Scout is showing boats at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.

Potts told his own story in “Boat Boy,” a memoir published in 2025. In a 2014 interview with Soundings Trade Only, he said what he wanted for the company he started in a barn.

“I want Scout to be successful long after I’m gone,” he said.