Meet the TEAM
AT Montara boats
Legitimacy, passion and experience runs deep through the Montara organization. Generations of watersports lovers working together to redefine the comfort and usability of a watersports boat without compromising wake performance.
chris owen
president
Montara Boats President – Chris Owen is an avid watersports participant (skiing, barefooting, wake surfing and foiling) with over 20 years of experience in the boating Industry. Early in his career, Chris leveraged his considerable experience as an enthusiast to land a job as Regional Manager for MasterCraft Boats where he trained dealer staff, developed marketing programs, and worked closely with the engineering staff on product development. In fact, Chris developed the industries very first Surf Tab System by mounting trim tabs from a MasterCraft 280 onto a 20-foot MasterCraft X2, which forever changed how quickly surf boats could switch between a port and starboard surf wake. This innovation was so influential that it went on to win an Innovation of the Year Award. After 10 years at Mastercraft, Chris joined Harris Pontoons as a Business Account Manager where he worked closely with dealers to develop their territory. He also worked closely with the Harris engineering team to implement product improvements in quality, function and user satisfaction. In 2019, Chris was recruited to Montara to apply his experience in innovation, aluminum boat building and dealer development to help solidify Montara’s position as the most innovative watersports platform on the market. Chris got to work by immediately recruiting the most knowledgeable experts from his collective boat building career to join him at Montara. That team has had great success by creating the Montara Surf Boss 2.0, a boat so revolutionary that Boating Magazine named it their overall Boat of the Year.
Darren Sheedy
Vice President of Engineering & Production
Darren Sheedy has over 31years of boat building and hull shaping experience He spent 26 years at Master Craft where he was responsible for the boat-bottom and systems-control development for many of their most successful models. Mr. Sheedy’s skills include engineering, fabrication, systems integration and documentation. He brings an in-depth understanding and practical experience around the requirements and complexities of water flow across boat hulls, integrating technological advancements into usable innovations, and production-process management. Mr. Sheedy is named on several issued and pending patents. Mr. Sheedy currently applies his considerable experience to managing the build process and systems management for Montara Boats.
Daniel Vieira
Vice President of Design
Daniel Vieira has over 21 years of experience designing award winning products in the consumer and marine industry. He started in design consultancy where he won the prestigious IDEA Gold Award from the Industrial Designer Society of America. He led the development of MasterCraft’s current design language, creating a homogenous, yet distinguishable visual characteristics between all 4 sub-brands. As Lead Designer at MasterCraft, he participated in the inception and execution of Aviara, a category of day yachts built by MasterCraft for distribution through MarineMax. His Aviara design won the coveted Red Dot Design Award. After Aviara, Mr. Vieira joined Hudson Yacht Group, Montara’s parent organization, where he lead concept exploration for HH Catamarans, award winning carbon fiber sailing yachts. Today, Mr.Vieira leads the design and development of Montara and Helios products. Mr. Vieira holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Savannah College of Art and Design as well as an MBA from Florida International University.
Shane Kerr
Plant Manager
Shane Kerr has over 33 years of production and fabrication experience in building boats, 28 of those with Mastercraft. From fabrication to prototyping, to developing innovations, he has been instrumental in the development of the world’s most famous ski and wakeboard boats. At Montara, Shane leads the team that builds all Montara boats. Shane is process driven and won’t let any boat be shipped until it passes a thorough systems check and on-water testing regiment. But unlike many Production Managers, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. Shane leads by example which assures that the team building your boat is focused on delivering the highest possible standard of quality.
MONTARA TEAM
Each Montara comes to life through the hands of dedicated professionals who have devoted decades of their lives to building boats. Montara may be new to you, but the people who build our boats are highly seasoned veterans of the East Tennessee boat building community. Their desire to make a difference shows through in every Montara.
