Gibbs High Speed Amphibian Unveiled – Quadski, a $200 Million Bet on an Unknown Market. Faster Horse or an Incipient Model T?

This is not under-capitalized venture into the unknown.

“Most people wouldn’t be doing what we are doing,” says Alan Gibbs, “because you can’t research the market.” The entrepreneur and multi-multi millionaire Gibbs along with his engineering partner Neil Jenkins are placing a $200 million bet against unknown odds that their jointly-held private company can become a force in what they call the high speed amphibian market. The Quadski is a new form of transportation according to proponents, but a trifle according to critics.

Their product, the $40,000 Gibbs Quadski that goes on sale in November in the U.S., is a part time ATV and part time Jetski, but unlike those market niche products Quadski can traverse both land and water at speeds up to 45 mph. The transition from “rabbit to duck” takes five seconds or so. The 10.5-foot-long amphibian weighs 1,300 pounds, has a 15-gallon fuel tank and will come in five colors – red, yellow, blue, silver and black.

The market for such a thing is indeed unknown. Is this just another toy for wealthy hunters, anglers, divers, and other outdoor types, or is there a much larger global market for the single seat amphibian that comprises these people, as well as law enforcement and rescue agencies and, well, who knows what?

Gibbs has hit shoals before. Quadski, above, was preceded by the Aquada,  promoted as an amphibious three-seat sports car – 100 mph claimed on the road, 30 mph on the water – debuted to much fanfare in 2003. More than 40 were built, but never sold.

“Henry Ford said if you asked most people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse,” the affable Gibbs quips as he shrugs off my question on the sidelines of a luncheon before he took the podium at the unveiling for the Quadski at the Detroit Athletic Club today. He’s a shrewd business man who made his fortune in New Zealand by working with and around a terribly inefficient government-managed economy where political connections – he developed them – determined market access and produced great fortunes, while consumers suffered from the lack of competition and stiflingly high prices for restricted imported goods. Gibbs has manufactured bricks, crockery, television sets, stoves, refrigeration, and automobiles. He is now an unabashed free market advocate.

Gibbs and Jenkins, both with British empire accents, proceed to do a marketing presentation that is short on technical details but full of factoids, the kind used for broadcast media or for the powersport distributors they are now stalking to sell the contraption.

Gibbs’ partner Jenkins – who came on board in 1999 – has a resume that lists British aerospace and automotive sector experience, with involvement in jets, as well as various satellite-communication projects. His career in the auto industry included work on Jaguar’s ill-fated XJ220 super car and several other high-performance projects, including the Aston Martin DB7 Cabriolet, MGRV8, RR Limousines and concepts for DAF Trucks, as well as various military four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Quadski can haul but a single person, isn’t street legal, and has limited storage space – accessory gun and fishing equipment racks are pending.

The somewhat more prosaic Quadski is powered by a 175-horsepower BMW Motorrad engine and transmission – K1300S derived – but uses jet propulsion as well. More than two-million man hours of work are claimed to have gone into its development. The water-cooled engine is said to be the lightest power plant in its segment and has electronic fuel injection, a double-overhead camshaft and dry-sump lubrication. Gibbs spent more than 18 months and 75,000 engineering man hours to pair BMW’s motorcycle powertrain to its amphibian system.

The jet drive system is shorter, lighter and provides much more thrust than a typical personal watercraft, says Jenkins, and holds just one of the more than 300 patents and patents pending the company has on its High Speed Amphibian technology.

There are myriad challenges here, admits Jenkins. Start with corrosion proofing for both fresh, and much more challenging salt water. Traditional automotive test cycles are of little use. Then, there’s durability – off-road durability, and marine durability that can see the hull punching the water (that won’t compress) as the engine is running at much a much higher percentage of output than an ATV. Engine and transmission cooling, exhaust, suspension, fuel system and electronic control durability – all present engineering, design life and manufacturing problems – if not unique ones, individual to what is a unique vehicle.

There are more stickers on the Quadski than on sale at a dollar store, as the company attempts to satisfy NHTSA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission – some of them with the same warnings in different phrasing and formats. The missing one is Buyer Beware.

Gibbs plans on building 1,000 Quadski models during the next 12 months in Michigan. The initial customers might well be doing the final certification tests, I think, as he’s telling the media that this is a technology company – one that is looking to license his competitors, or should he have said tangential competitors? (Privately before the pitch, I asked Gibbs about a public stock offering. He deflects by saying that with stockholders come requirements and impediments, and moves on to other upbeat chit-chat.)

Then there are the very real market challenges. Quadski can haul but a single person, and has limited storage space, but accessory gun and fishing equipment racks are pending. Its owners will likely require both watercraft and ATV registrations to use state trails and parks – at a minimum – and perhaps a license, depending on the state. It is not street legal in Michigan, in fact licensing will be different in every state, which makes the unknown, untested distribution all the more critical. The company expects to have more than 20 dealerships in place within the next 12 months, primarily in the Midwest, New York, Texas and the southeastern United States, but nary a one was announced today. Hum.

This is not under-capitalized venture, though. Gibbs says they have eight amphibians at various stages of development, ranging from one smaller than the Quadski all the way up to a 30-foot 6.5-ton military landing craft. Coming is a Quadski street legal version (SLV?),  a two-seat version, and a three seat, side-by-side model, it’s promised.

However, there have been groundings as Gibbs has hit shoals in the past. The Gibbs Aquada, an amphibious three-seat sports car – 100 mph claimed on the road, 30 mph on the water – was announced in 2003 and more than 40 were built, but never sold.

Now that seems to me the all too familiar result of most transportation technologies that are touted as breakthroughs. Whether the Quadski floats in the marketplace and/or on the stock market remains to be seen.