Along with others, he was sitting in long gas station lines worrying about rising pump prices and fuel shortages. The story was no different for boaters.

Gas cost a fortune and was hard to find. Many boats simply sat parked while the politics of petroleum threatened to cripple the nation.

Sorting through the issues, Husted concluded that powerboaters needed a vessel that wouldn’t cost a fortune to buy and operate. Husted did more than dream. He built a spunky craft that looked a lot like a tugboat and introduced it to the boating community in January 1980 at the Seattle Boat Show. It was called the Nordic Tug.

The show price was $29,900. The 26-footer was powered by a three-cylinder, 36hp Volvo diesel so efficient that Husted bragged it could run the 600 miles from Seattle to Ketchikan, Alaska, without stopping to refill its 50-gallon fuel tank. It cruised at about 6-1/2 knots, using about 2 quarts of fuel an hour.

At a marketing consultant’s urging, Husted set a sales goal for the boat show: he would sell three of his new tug yachts.

What happened was something Hollywood might contrive. The first boat sold minutes after the show opened, and by the conclusion of the 10-day event, he had sold 33.

As January ended, Husted had orders for 54 boats, even though the price was bumped to $39,900 after the boat show. His huge worry was how to build them all.

The guys coming to the boat show liked the macho styling of the raised pilothouse and the fake smokestack, Husted remembers. And all the ladies were charmed by the cozy interior, including a tiny wood-burning stove in the pilothouse. No wonder they sold like crazy.

Since then, Nordic Tugs has built over 900 tugs, ranging in size from the original 26 to a 54-footer.

Husted remained with the company nearly four decades and is probably best remembered for having conducted sea trials for all but a handful of about 800 boats built during his tenure with the company.

Jerry finally retired from Nordic Tugs at the age of 80 in 2012. Three days before his 80th birthday and his last day at Nordic Tugs, company founder Jerry Husted was at sea, shaking down a boat for the last sea-trial of his career before handing the new Tug over to her new owners.

If Jerry was feeling sentimental about his last voyage before retiring from his long career, building and testing Nordic Tugs, Mother Nature was to deliver him a heavy dose of reality with driving rain, stiff winds and a bitter cold afternoon to help him move on.

He told the crew, “My God, the wind blew so hard. I was so glad to get off that boat and get dry and be warm again. What a day!”

For those of us at the factory, Jerry was a joy to work with.   His wisdom and his cheery disposition have been missed. He leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and a spirit that will forever be a part of each Nordic Tug on the water today.