The Mission:

Hello, my name is Robert Esper. I live In middle TN with my wife and 3 kids. I’m the owner of Esper Boatworks. There have been two obsessions in my adult life: Fish, and the Pursuit of the perfect vessel to help me reach them. This started when I was in college studying Engineering. At the time I was working in a fabrication shop under an owner who was a great teacher who laid the foundation for my metal working skills. Most importantly though, when I approached him with the idea of building a large jon boat after hours he didn’t hesitate to say yes. There are some things in life that you can only experience once, and one of those is the first time you get a boat on pad that you built with your own two hands. This proved to be a pivotal moment for me. Jump forward a few years and I had started my career as a manufacturing engineer for a Tier 1 automotive supplier. I slowly started accumulating equipment to setup my own shop at the house. This allowed me to get back into making things with my hands again. I ended up building a couple boats for my friends and doing a lot of odd jobs.

 

During this time I discovered fly fishing and was quickly hooked. For me this meant chasing fish in our tailwaters with limited wading access. I built my first outboard jet boat to scratch this itch. After a couple years of exploring the state’s tailwaters we decided we needed to explore some salt water. Instead of hiring a guide for a proper day’s worth of sight fishing we decided to put a poling platform on my jet boat. After one trip I knew two things, 1: saltwater fishing was incredible and opened a whole new world of adventure, and 2: a jon boat wasn’t going to cut it. This started my chase of the perfect craft that could do it all. I needed a boat that was quiet on the pole, forgiving in chop, and made to bounce off rocks in our rivers. A quick search showed me that there were very few commercially available options out there for a boat like this, and none that checked my specific boxes. After a few iterations we finally landed on the design that would become the Pursuit.

 

When all this started there was no intention to bring a boat to market, I just wanted a boat that filled my needs. However, after sharing the project on social media I quickly realized there was a market for such a skiff and it was foolish to try and keep it to myself. This led to the creation of Esper Boatworks and brings us to where we are today.