Across the Bar: Frank Butler

Issue 137: March/April 2021

Frank Willis Butler, the man who introduced hundreds of thousands of people to sailing during his lifetime as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of Catalina Yachts, died in November 2020. He was 92. At the time of his death, the company he created had launched more than 85,000 Catalina sailboats for sailors to enjoy. And it all started with one boat, and relatively late in one sailor’s life.

Frank took up dinghy sailing at the age of 30. A few years later, in 1962, while running a machine shop in North Hollywood, he decided to buy a bigger boat so his young family could enjoy sailing with him. When the Southern California builder of the 21-foot daysailer he’d ordered failed to deliver, Frank drove to the manufacturer’s shop, found the supervisor absent, and began then and there—using the company’s employees and tooling—to finish his boat himself.

When he found he rather enjoyed the process, he took over the business.

Frank’s tenacity helped him build the company he founded a short time later, Catalina Yachts, into the largest builder of fiberglass production sailboats in the United States—a position it still holds.

Frank was attentive to Catalina owners, and he listened to people. He had a file on every boat the company ever made and handled warranty issues personally. Owners were nearly always surprised and reassured upon receiving a call from Frank to discuss their concerns.

“Family” was the operative word in the corporate culture he instilled, and this extended to the larger Catalina family, including dealers and vendors nationwide. Frank valued his personal relationships with all of them and often attributed Catalina’s success to those connections.

For me, one story that characterizes Frank happened in the late 1980s, after Catalina Yachts bought the Prindle and Nacra catamaran companies. At an industry dinner in Hawaii, Frank approached Hobie Alter and presented him with a dozen black roses. The card read, “From your new competition.”

As a younger man on the tennis court or skeet range, Frank had a reputation for tackling everything with total focus, then moving on to the next challenge. But focus alone can’t explain how a machinist and engineer—with no yacht design experience—could design Catalina’s first boat, the 22, and turn it into one of the company’s best selling products, with over 15,000 sold. Ron Frisosky, who has worked closely with Frank in sales and marketing for 25 years, has an answer.

“Frank has an eye for style,” he says. “I’ve seen him look at a plug that was sanded and ready for gelcoat, shake his head and say, ‘It doesn’t look right, start over.’ ”

Friends, colleagues like myself, and even competitors appreciated Frank as a character.

“When he moved his operation to Florida,” says yacht designer Charlie Morgan, “Frank announced he was going to show Pinellas County boatbuilders how it was done. He saw, he came, and he produced.”

Frank Butler was inducted in the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2013 and awarded the Crimson Blazer by the Long Beach Yacht Club for his longstanding support of the Congressional Cup, the “granddaddy” of world-class match racing.

In addition to 7 children, 20 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and 4 great-great-grandchildren, Frank is survived by his wife, Jean, whom he met at a high school dance and with whom he recently celebrated a 71st wedding anniversary.

Frank was responsible for a lot of boats being built, and a lot of people becoming sailors, but having worked side-by-side with him for decades, I like to remember him as a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Indeed, for all of us who were fortunate enough to have known and worked with Frank, we feel his loss personally. The company he leaves only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Catalina Yachts.