Davis Yachts

Buddy Davis was built by Buddy Davis, then Buddy Davis left the picture, the boats were later produced by the group that owns Egg Harbor under the Davis name. Buddy started building boats under the B&D name for a while, I assume that company closed as well. I'm told that after B&D Buddy had some sort of arrangement with the Egg Harbor people where he was working with them in some capacity and helping out at the shows till his untimely death.

IMO, the boats built by the Egg Harbor group are nothing but big Egg Harbors, same fit & finish, same woodwork, etc. I can't speak to the quality of the B&D boats as I've never seen one in person.

I feel like the only good Davis yacht is the classic Buddy Davis 61'. But to be honest I've never been aboard a B&D. The Davis built by egg harbor was nice inside but Ive heard mediocre things about performance.

Amazing how people were nuts over those boats. Remember when that was "the" boat to have in PR?

I've run the 58' Davis and with C32's it cruises at 33-34knots. Spacious for a 58'. It's built like a big Egg Harbor and by Egg Harbor, has a nice interior, ETC. It's a not over-complicated SF. They're still being built I believe.

It's correct that Buddy Davis started/built the B&D's after he sold Buddy Davis and the molds to Egg Harbor.

The origional Buddy Davis were either built extremely well with great craftsmanship when they had money, or slapped together with whatever scraps were laying around in the boat yard so they could get paid (when they were on the verge of bankruptcy numerous times). I happened to run a 1995 38' Buddy SF that was origionally built for Manuel Noriega, it had a phenominal build quality and was a perfect little SF, probably the best one I've seen come out of that yard.

I don't think Buddy had anything to do with selling those molds, from what I remember his partner at the time who kicked him out of the company sold them directly to the Egg Harbor group.

While I don't doubt what you're saying, I don't understand how the boat was built for Noriega five or six years after he was jailed.

You may be right and it was Buddy's partner or whoever that owned Buddy Davis at the time sold it to Egg Harbor. All I know is they sold the molds and business to Egg Harbor, then Buddy went on to produce similar boats named "B+D".

He ordered the boat, it was a 38' Buddy Davis SF, he got extradited while the boat was in the build process, then eventually Buddy Davis found someone else to buy the boat and finish it. That is the story the person who owned the boat from 1997-2010 told me.

We had the big Buddy Davis 76 Enclosed Flybridge cold molded one here the past Winter, which has real residency in Monaco. The crew told me it was US owned.

Nice boat, ok on a head sea, and not so good down winds due to very flat stern. Seems a recurrance in all Buddy Davis reviews....