Seeds Of The Cigarette Difference

Brand loyalty tends to rule the high-performance powerboating world—that’s a fair and reasonable axiom. For a prime example, look no further than the case of longtime performance-boat owner Gary Seeds.

In advance of his 60th birthday—happening this Sunday if you care to send a card—Seeds, who lives with his wife, Traci, in Cincinnati, Ohio, ordered a Cigarette 42X sportboat powered by dual-calibration Mercury Racing 1350/1100 engines through Performance Boat Center last fall. His former ride, a 2015 model-year 42X powered by Mercury Racing 1100 currently is for sale—he traded it in as part of the deal—by the full-service, multi-brand Osage Beach, Mo., powerboat dealership. Prior to his first 42-footer, Seeds owned another Cigarette—a 2011-built 39 Top Gun Unlimited powered by Mercury Racing 700 SCi engines.

With his second Cigarette 42X slated for completion this spring, an Ohio-based boat owner continues a buying tradition.

“My M.O. is to order a new boat every three years,” said Seeds, who is the vice president of sales for the Hillman Group, a major national hardware supplier and his employer for the past 36 years. “This Cigarette is my 60th birthday present to myself, with full approval from my wife, of course.”

Prior to his love affair with Cigarette, Seeds had a burning passion for Nordic powerboats. He became familiar with the brand shortly after he went to work for the Hillman Group in 1983—the same year he and Traci married—and was transferred to Southern California to manage the company’s West Coast sales territory.

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