Fleming, Marlow, Hampton, and Outer Reef,

PM me on here.

Regarding cavitation in general, does that occur at high power settings?

We had cavitation on a seatrial trying to get on plane, one of the trim tabs was stuck in down position. Had to abort seatrial. Boat was kept at Marlow marina under their care.
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That's what they blamed it on. We never got up on plane. We backed out when Marlow charged us too much for an inspection haul-out that was ordered by the seller. The boat was not ready for sea trial.

We did, also did not want to be stuck dealing with them to solve proprietary design/construction issues. Personally think they have issues with the underwater exhaust location, especially with stabilizer fins operating. Not to mention the velocijet strut keels located in the prop tunnels. There is a lot going on with the design.

New member... first post... we were going through a similar search (Fleming, Grand Banks, Krogen Express) and came across Marlow along the way. I had thought that a Fleming 55 was THE yacht for us having briefly been aboard a couple of 55s at boat shows and studied all Tony's videos. However, after spending some time on a few down at Burr we came away dissatisfied for what we we looking for. The forward main cabin and heads were much too small, the steps too steep, the engine room too cramped, and the boat too slow. We just couldn't get excited by the Krogen Express and the Grand Banks didn't fit either. Along the way we came across a Marlow 53E and were immediately impressed with the quality and layout. Some purists will argue against the open plan pilothouse but we found it perfect for the type of cruising and living we plan to be doing. This led to a month of research into Marlow and the 49E/53E models eventually bringing us full circle back to buy the one we originally looked at. We had an intensive survey conducted by a forensic marine surveyor who declared her to be remarkably good. We have not spend too much time on her yet, but so far we are completely happy and looking forward to the journeys ahead. In my opinion, Marlow and Fleming are both great examples of quality execution with different objectives in mind. It just depends on what you are looking for. I've read of issues with Marlows, and learned from others of things to look out for. But I also know of issues that some Flemings have suffered with so it pays to do plenty of research with any potential purchase.

The reply I received to my sincere first post on the forum reminded me of the thread I’d read during my research which included a post from an apparently happy Marlow owner (his last post copied above). I’m sure like me (and him) there are plenty of lurkers out there interested in hearing about different experiences with the boats that would be under consideration in this range. It’s a shame that apparently he never posted again as I’m sure folks like me would have liked to hear more about his experiences. No boat or manufacturer is perfect, and when doing due diligence it’s good to have as much information as possible. Forums like this should be a great place to learn from others. I’m certainly not going to claim that Marlows are perfect, or are completely free of issues. In fact, it it because of the numerous issues reported that I did as much due diligence as I could and was completely prepared to walk away if something like the vibration had occurred during sea trial. I’d read about that, and been warned about it from 2 other folks with experience in shopping for Marlows. Fortunately, ours did not have that issue. Having lurked during my due diligence, the value that I believe I am providing here is to let anyone else interested in a Marlow know that there are good ones out there, but you need to be careful and persevere with your search if other aspects of their design appeal to you. The original owners of ours built a larger one after many happy years on their 53E. A friend of ours has a 49E and is very happy with it but had also walked from some along the way. Another person I know had similar experience and walked from 2 or 3 of them before finding one they liked and were comfortable with. My assessment is that Marlow does push the underwater design and it is perhaps on the limit - when the tolerances stack up in one direction you get vibration, when they stack up in the other direction it’s okay (good, in fact). It is maybe fair to say that such variation is unacceptable in a production unit, but it is what it is and the savvy shopper will know this and will keep searching until finding a good one, and hence enjoy the benefits of the design.

Some other info that folks might be interested in: we really loved everything about the whole Fleming experience. Their sales folks are not pushy at all and let the boats speak for themselves. The community is awesome. But as I mentioned in my post, when we actually got to spend time on the 55 (which is all we could afford) it just didn’t check all our boxes for what we were looking for. We were very disappointed as we’d got ourselves convinced it would be the perfect option. We know a Fleming owner that had serious problems with the deck teak and ended up ripping it all out. They’re great yachts but not perfect. There are some years of manufacture that had some quality issues I think. As with any significant purchase, it is wise to do complete due diligence and not fall in love with a specific example until everything checks out.

As we start our Marlow ownership experience, I hope to see a place like this forum where other Marlow owners would feel comfortable in sharing their experiences (good and bad) so we might learn from each other. Obviously some folks like what Marlow sets out to offer. But precisely because of the various issues reported on some (many?) of them, our duty to our fellow yachtsman is to help them in their due diligence.

I hope someone out there finds this information useful.

There are to many good boat builders to choose from to have to pick through multiple Marlows until you find a good one. Lots of experienced people here with sometimes very harsh things to say about Marlows that cannot be ignored. Ripping up a teak deck isn't an issue compared to significant driveline problems that aren't fixable. A company that repeatedly fights their customers in court over known issues is not a company many of us would do business with.
Selling the Marlow will be more difficult then competing brands.

Sincere in your sharing. Let’s have more about your experience when the honeymoon is over. Congratulations and all the best. Sincerely.

Well said. Obviously, all Marlow's are not bad builds, or they would be out of business. We had problems during a survey and sea trial plus we came away from the experience thinking some at Marlow are arrogant and think they have a boat superior to all others. The survey/sea trial problems were caused by Marlow not having the boat ready for survey's even after I had told the Marlow broker the trim tab needed fixed after a personal walk- thru inspection 30 days prior. It had been at their Palmetto, Fl dock under their care for several years. After a couple of trips to Palmetto to look at their boats and try to do an unsuccessful sea trial due to their negligence, they had the gall to charge us double the going rate for a haul-out hull inspection after we rejected the boat. They wanted to fix the boat and do another sea trial which would have been another trip and expense to us. We had the feeling they thought it was our first rodeo. Hey, just give us our deposit back so we can move on, it took weeks to get the deposit refunded. This is a short version of dealing with Marlow, there was more to the story but no need to rehash everything. We still have a large file on this endeavor to remind us to move on early when things are not being handled properly.
My advice to Marlow buyers is save all correspondence in writing and ask cost of everything they provide in writing.

Goes along with your comment about not being the company you want to do business with. I think they were insulted that we rejected their boat after wasting our time and money to maybe buy one of their boats and not be compensated in some way for their lack of not following through with their job to have a boat ready for surveys/sea trials. This has been discussed several times before here at Yachtforms, which reflects badly on the broker and owner. In our case, I have an email copy sent to Marlow from the owner to haul out the boat and perform a list of things to ready the boat, so can't blame the owner this time. I've often wondered if they charged us and the owner for the haul-out requested by the owner. I have never paid $15 per ft for a hull inspection haul-out, maybe $7 per ft., and this was back in early 2017. Also, they hauled it out on a Thursday and left it blocked up until Monday survey day. The hull surveyor wanted to decline to do the survey because not seeing it wet for possible blisters, what a cluster...we went ahead because of having to reschedule again and another trip. There is more but enough said.

Any boatbuilder who creates an LLC for each boat and insulates themselves from litigation and warranty issues is suspect in my book. It's just a deal breaker. Maybe the brokerage boats are removed from this. But for a new build you have to be nuts to absorb that liability. What more do you need to know?