sNor-Tech At 35—The Eliminator Connection

Devout Nor-Tech man that he is, Geoff Tomlinson—the Cape Coral, Fla.-based high-performance center console and catamaran company’s dealer manager—was an Eliminator man long before he joined the Nor-Tech fold in 2017. His father, Mike Tomlinson, owned Dallas-headquartered Eliminator Boats of Texas. It was the Southern California’s sole outpost in the Lone Star State.

Captured here with former Fountain Powerboats chief operating officer Jeff Harris (right), Nor-Tech dealer manager cut his marine industry teeth at his father’s Eliminator dealership. Photo courtesy/copyright Scrapyard Media.

Tomlinson worked in the family business during his college years at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. After graduating, he went to work for Fountain Powerboats.

But his marine industry career began in the family’s Eliminator dealership.

“I thought I was going to start out with this really big office,” Tomlinson recalled, then laughed. “On my first day, my father handed me a blade and a brush and sent me to take the shrink-wrap off boats.”

Tomlinson learned more than the fine arts of shrink-removal while working for the dealership. He sold Eliminator models and created color-renderings for clients. He represented the brand at boat shows in home state. He polished boats when they needed polishing. He swept floors when they needed sweeping.

“If a job needed to be done, it needed to be done,” Tomlinson said. “Everybody was all hands on deck, all the time.”

Another skill he picked up during his Eliminator dealership tenure has proven equally important. It’s something he puts into practice every day in his role at Nor-Tech.

“I learned very quickly not to judge a book by its cover, to treat everyone with the same level of courtesy and respect,” Tomlinson explained. “We had this one customer who would drive up to the dealership in his old Ford F-350. He wore old jeans and old flannel shirt. But man, he loved his Eliminators. He bought four of them from us.”

Tomlinson also reaped a deeply personal, father-and-son bonding benefit from the experience.

“Eliminator also provided a different element to my relationship with my dad,” he said. “We had a lot of fun bonding over the boats and still do. I am forever grateful for that opportunity.”

Though he’s far removed from his Eliminator dealership days, Tomlinson retains a strong connection to it. And not all of it is nostalgia-based.

“Greg and Michelle Olsen, who were longtime Eliminator customers, have a Nor-Tech center console being built,” Tomlinson said with no small amount of joy and pride in his voice. “And some of the customers we once had at Eliminator of Texas are now Nor-Tech owners.”

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