SLT Collection Offers New Airship RIBs, SportChassis And More
A couple of months back—the day before the Miami International Boat Show opened to be specific—Matt Trulio and I paid a visit to the new SLT Collection in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which was officially open but still a work in progress.
A SportChassis and Airship RIBs dealer, SLT Collection in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has a variety of pre-owned boats and automobiles for sale. Photos courtesy Scot Conrad
Last week I checked in with SLT’s Scot Conrad, the main man behind the impressive South Florida facility dedicated to offering new and pre-owned boats, a luxury watch and fine jewelry boutique by Watch Expo, and an 8,000-square-foot climate controlled exotic car storage area located on the second floor, to see how he, his longtime significant other and business partner, Dustin Simon, and the rest of the SLT crew were weathering the COVID-19 storm. Busy as usual, Conrad said he’s been taking advantage of the forced slowdown of business interaction to focus on the next steps for SLT, which stands for Sea, Land, Time, and getting the word out about the new company.
“We’ve been staying busy with the boats, the cars, the watches and the storage,” Conrad said. “There’s a lot going on even though we don’t have face-to-face customer interaction thanks to online communication. We’ve been working on some deals we hope to announce soon, too.”
Conrad informed me about the two new Airship RIBs models SLT currently has in stock—an Airship 310 powered by a single Mercury Marine Verado 300 outboard engine and an Airship 340 with a pair of the 300-hp Verado engines from Mercury on the back.
“We’ve owned several Airship models over the years as a tender to Last Call,” said Conrad, referring to the family’s luxurious yacht. “They’re great boats, which is why we’re a dealer. They’re solid, well-built, vacuum-bag-infused, stepped-bottom boats that are a blast drive. The new V8 Mercury Verados have so much torque that even with 300-hp engines the Airships really get up and go.
“What I like best is that they fit a lot of people on them, they run really flat and you can pull into shallow areas easily to explore or hang out at a sandbar,” he continued. “They have an SUV aspect to them because you can load them up with all kinds of gear. They’re also easy to tow behind a big cruiser because they have zero drag. My friend has a 50-foot Sea Ray and he has a 28-foot Airship he tows behind at speed and you barely even know it’s there.”
Check out the slideshow above for additional images of the Airship RIBs 310 and 340 models and the SportChassis trucks at SLT.
Conrad said the 310 with the single 300-hp engine tops out in the upper 60-mph range, while the twin-engine 340 can run in the mid 70s. He doesn’t expect to have either model available for long, but as a dealer for the Ohio boatbuilder he plans to keep models in stock and even custom order them for customers.
SLT also is a dealer for the Oklahoma-based SportChassis, and Conrad said they have a couple of trucks in stock at the moment and the ability to special order limited-edition truck models.
“There’s nothing like a SportChassis in my opinion,” Conrad expressed. “We can help you get into a new or used one. Give us a call and let us find you the perfect model to fit your needs.”
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