Rodale’s Scuba Diving

An Interview with Clay McCardell

Born in Geelong, Australia, in 1963, Clay McCardell lived variously in Germany, upstate New York, and Connecticut. After learning to dive in 1982, he graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1985, with a degree in geology. He then spent two years working on special projects in the oil and mining industries, before founding Explorer Ventures in 1987. Clay moved the business to a rural area southwest of Casper, Wyoming in 1994, and works from his home there, accompanied by four horses, three dogs, and one really loud cat.

RSD Extra: Can you tell us a bit about the history of Explorer Ventures?

Clay: Explorer Ventures actually started as somewhat of an accident in mid-1987. Our family had purchased the 100-foot vessel Surfside Explorer as an investment, but quickly realized when no lease payments were forthcoming that we'd picked the wrong dive operator to do business with. I was camped at 9,000 feet in Montana, researching the economic feasibility of processing tailings piles from some early-1900s lead-zinc-silver mines, when I got an urgent message to call the captain aboard the boat. The crew and insurance hadn't been paid, and he thought we needed to be aware of that fact.

A week later I was aboard the boat in St. Maarten, and not long after made the decision to operate the vessel ourselves. Soon thereafter, the boat was reintroduced to the dive travel industry as the Caribbean Explorer, based in St. Maarten and cruising the Northeastern Caribbean between Saba, St. Kitts and Statia. In 1999 we purchased another liveaboard operation in Australia, Nimrod Explorer is an 18-passenger, 72-foot power catamaran that runs varied itineraries from Cairns up to Lizard Island, out to the Coral Sea, and north towards Papua New Guinea.

We have an office in Cairns that handles day-to-day administration, sales, and logistical support for Nimrod Explorer, a US booking office in Texas that handles reservations for both vessels, and the operations office in Wyoming which is responsible for overall administration, management and shore support for the Caribbean side of the business.

RSD Extra: Your company has won six straight Reader’s Choice awards. What’s your secret?

Clay: No secret--just pay attention! You constantly need to be aware that in running a liveaboard, someone is trusting your company to competently and professionally be their restaurant, hotel, and dive shop combined for what's possibly their only vacation for the year--they're putting a lot of faith in your abilities, and you'd better take that responsibility seriously.

If I could point to one thing that has helped us, it's that we've got an excellent core team of people. We've been working together for over ten years and we enjoy what we do.

RSD Extra: What are the major differences between operating in the Caribbean and operating off Australia?

Clay: Too numerous to list! While Caribbean Explorer caters in large part to North Americans, Nimrod Explorer caters not only to die-hard divers but to casual travelers passing through on extended travels, from all points of the globe. In the two years since we purchased Nimrod, we've been very successful in increasing the number of "inbound" divers from North America, traveling specifically to dive. We're therefore able to concentrate more on the exotic trips-11-day excursions to Ashmore Reef, for instance, just south of PNG, and to other rarely-visited areas of the Great Barrier Reef.

RSD Extra: What do you see for the future of dive travel (and, specifically, liveaboards) in 2002 and onward?

Clay: The world economy wasn't great prior to Sept. 11, and there's no reason to think that it will improve immediately. Security concerns have already affected everyone involved in travel; there's no doubt in my mind that the travel industry in general is in for tougher times, and liveaboard dive travel is no exception. The high capital outlay required to be in this business make liveaboards arguably more susceptible to an economic downturn, and I think the pattern of the past year or two will continue--larger operators buying smaller ones, or forming partnerships to share costs and take advantage of someone else's expertise.

RSD Extra: What would you recommend to dive retailers to increase their live-aboard sales?

Clay: We find that the most successful liveaboard charterers are those that take the lead in organizing activities for their clients, making them into a tight-knit group. Liveaboards are perfect for group or club trips, and a successful initial trip will generate camaraderie and demand for other trips with those people on other liveaboards, all organized by the retailer. You don't have to charter the whole boat, half a boat will do--but you have to add value to the trip in the eyes of your clients, or they'll just hop on the Internet and research their own vacation. It takes more than just displaying a brochure in the store.

RSD Extra: Is the Internet an important part of your business?

Clay: Yes. Aside from the obvious logistical ease of getting information to existing and prospective clients, the ability to link to downloadable forms, boat schedules, special expedition information, and the like saves time and money, and makes our small group more productive. Since we all work in separate offices around the world, it also helps our communication and collaboration. But there's much more that can be done, from online booking systems to passenger comment distribution, and consolidated accounting systems, and we're working on that as we go.