Boat brands you miss

Pacifica and Elliot for the West Coast boats. I miss Cabo, things were never the same after 2/15/06.

Sunrunner


A friend has one...great cruiser in rough weather.

I think you have that switched around, the 35 Fly (a Bill Crealock design, who also designed their sailboats for Pacific Seacraft) came first, although they did have a 31 Fly on the drawing board at some time in the beginning.

They had a relentless passion for fit/finish/details, something that had escaped that era of SF builders (Bertram/Blackfin, etc.) and the difference was so noticeable, the rest, as they say, is history...

Do not be surprised to see them enter the boatbuilding waters in one form or another once again......

35 fly first, followed by the 35 express and shortly after the 31. Then came the 45 express, 47 flybridge, 43 flybridge, 35 hull redesign, 48 fly, 40 express, 40 fly, 32 express, 52 express, 38 express, 38 fly, 52 fly then the brunswick stuff, all in that order.

When we rolled the first big flybridge boat out we had the bridge already on the boat, it was the 47 if I remember correctly. We had a big party at the factory where we were going to roll out the boat to a waiting crowd. As the boat got closer to the bay door, we realized that we were about 3" too tall. We had the bay doors made to match the lowest bridge clearance height to the East coast. That's when we started to put the bridges in the cockpit for shipping. It wasn't much fun putting the bridges on, I did a few and it was always an adventure.

Henry and my dad are still not powerboat guys... They are both great listeners and listened to what people were asking for. One prominent figure on the West coast fishing scene is Mike "Beak" Hurt; he came up at the beginning and told us that a few things should be tweaked on the plug. By the time he returned that day from lunch, the plug was being cut and the changes were being implemented. I think being new to the powerboat world and being receptive to doing something different really had a positive impact on Cabo. As for the stainless tower, it's great on our 40. Not sure who told you otherwise. Yeah the aluminum weighs less and we roll more at anchor, but she still gets up and runs 34 knots no problem. The difference really isn't too much and the stainless really stands out in a crowd. Call it a not so great idea but we're happy with it and we'd do it again.

We thought about building a smaller flybridge but we never had enough interest from the dealers. It would have been awesome to do a little 32 flybridge as the 32 was such a huge improvement over the 31.

As for the new venture, you're headed in the right direction...

Hey you skipped PACEMAKER

Brunswick Ruins

When the ruins of Brunswick are spoken, how deep are they? Slickcraft was a disaster, ultimately bought back and then discontinued by the founder. What are the others?

Slickcraft was in the very infant days of boatbuilder acquisitions for Brunswick, driven into the ground for lack of knowledge. Obviously, SeaRay was not the same disappointment. They learned something significant in between, that put some credibility into their steps. But again, the pressure of trying to get bigger may have caused some mis-steps??

I wouldn't hang the Sealine situation on Brunswick, they gave them a lifeline ($$$) when it was needed. Building in the UK is a different animal, especially with regards to labor. The Sealine product was getting its' a$$ kicked from competitors an all fronts...............

I did not say it was cost of labor, but it would include that and more like their efficiency/output and general HR issues. You can not manage a European mfg like a US, try to fire/terminate a portion of that labor like we see in the US and see how far that takes you overseas, there is a totally different set of rules to play by.

The difference with Sealine is they were not at the top of their game like the other big name brands purchased by Brunswick in that era. They were and still are an underperformer.........