Cougar Marine at the helm of construction

Bill Gagan started a fiberglass and composite fabrication company in a 600-square–foot shop in the Dallas area. Business boomed and his company became one of the largest fiberglass and composite fabrication companies in the world, operating out of a 115,000-square-foot building.

Gagan holds several patents and copyrights and has fabricated high-speed racing boats, race car parts, components for Disney attractions, signs for franchise businesses and special orders too long to list. Today, he builds custom fishing boats, one at a time.

“Once I figured out how much fun you could have with fiberglass and composites, I discovered I could make anything and everything,” Gagan said. A defense contractor once approached him with a design for a military jet part. He made it, but to this day he has no idea what it was used for since it was classified.

At the top of his game a serious bout with cancer knocked the wind from his sails.  He sold his business to shed the stress and get treatment. He beat the cancer and he and his wife Gladys moved to the Rio Grande Valley where they owned a second home.

“I didn’t owe anything to anybody but when we got down here we were broke,” he said. “Medical bills just took everything.”

A boating enthusiast for as long as he can remember, Gagan and his wife borrowed $1,500 and they opened Cougar Marine in 2000 as a boat service and repair shop just off Business 77 between Harlingen and San Benito. As he got the business off the ground, he began shopping for a fishing boat, but didn’t care for the models he saw. So he designed a composite jon boat for himself.

Boats Made to Order

Today, Cougar Marine offers a variety of boat designs to meet the demands of all kinds of water conditions, from shallow draft flats models to ones that can cut through choppy bay waters. All are constructed from composite and carbon fiber materials. No wood is used in Cougar boats.

All Cougar boats are custom built from the hull up and rigged to fit the boater’s needs. Once a customer decides on a model and the rigging, Gagan and his crew can typically finish the craft in four to six weeks. “When I am back-ordered like I am right now, you might have to wait 90 days,” he said.

Cougar models start with jon boat designs that sell for around $12,000. They go up from there. “Depending on the model and what options you want on it, we can hit $80,000. My personal demo boat would sell for $73,000,” Gagan said.

While Cougar services and repairs any make or model of boat, it is rare to find one of Gagan’s boats on site unless it is under construction or there for routine maintenance. “The warranty on my boats is 50 years and I’ve never had a warranty claim,” he said.

Gagan remains fascinated by all the things that can be fabricated using composite materials and loves a good challenge.

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University in San Marcos, popularly known as Aquarena Springs, is famous for its glass-bottom boats that give visitors underwater views of Spring Lake. As the 8,000-pound wooden-hulled boats began to age and rot, a designer came up with the idea to replace the fleet with a composite hull craft, but finding a fabricator proved difficult.

Gagan was approached about the project and decided to take it on. He designed a series of molds that fit together to shape the 28-foot-long hull. The result was a boat that was 6,000 pounds lighter than the wooden ones, and will require little to no maintenance other than cleaning.

“We have made two so far,” Gagan said. “It was going to be five, but now it’s seven.”