Gene Kearns wrote:
On Mon, 5 Nov 2007 14:02:00 -0500, " JimH" ask penned the
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

"Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote in message
. ..
HK wrote:
Capt John wrote:
On Nov 3, 6:29 pm, HK wrote:
Just read that Albemarle was bought out by Brunswick. Another famous
line goes in the crapper. Cabo was sold last year. Sad to see the
independents disappearing, since they build the best boats.
I can't say I blame them, with the price of fuel, the future is very
cloudy. Powerboating was very much a middle class activity. Sure, the
really big boats are owned by the wealthy, but the vast majority of
boat owners are middle class. Crazy fuel prices are starting to push
the middle class out of boating.

If I owned a business that was very much dependant on middle class
incomes. And the business started to change, pushing the operating
cost of my product beyond that which my customer base can afford,
driving increasing numbers of those customers away. And someone came
along and offered me a good price for that business, I'd probably take
the money and run.

John

Oh, I don't *blame* Albemarle for selling out, but the likelihood is that
the product that emerges in the years to come will no longer be an
"Albemarle." It'll be the product of the MBAs and accountants, and
therefore the probability is, it will be crap, because that is what MBAs
and accountants produce.

Some decades ago, an ad and pr company I worked for had a client that, at
that time, was the largest and most successful FHA-VA mortgage banker in
the country. We liked the company and its management a lot, so much so
that the owner of the company and I (I was the chief account exec and
writer) bought some stock. It was traded O-T-C at the time, for about
$4.00 a share.

Lo and behold, a giant NY-based financial institution offer the founders
$35 a share for the stock. Too good an offer to turn down. We all cashed
in to the limits of our holdings, of course. I made a few bucks and was
happy to do so.

Well, the new owners simply didn't understand the market for the
acquisition and in a few years, it sold the company off to someone else,
after most of its value (which was mainly in good will and very competent
staff in about 20 U.S. markets). The company disappeared, along with the
service it had provided. The big institution's MBAs turned the mortgage
company into crap.

The family that started the mortgage company, the guys who cashed out,
stayed active in business. A large regional bank in our market was about
to be shut down by the FDIC, and the guys, over the course of ONE
weekend, put together enough cash to take over the bank with the FDIC's
blessing. Bank opened Monday with a new name and new management.
No MBAs involved.

Hatteras no longer is a premier manufacturer of top-end sportfishing
boats. Cabo no longer has its edge. Albemarle is going to become just
another nameplate.

Sad to see, whatever the reasons.


Who is the premier mfg'er of top-end sportfishing boats who has retained
it's edge.

Tiara

http://www.tiarayachts.com/Brix?pageID=168


It is sorta hard to take a "sportfisher" made in Michigan
seriously.... and from the number I see around here, I must not be the
only person to have that opinion.

Maybe it does great in Michigan... you just see very few of them
here....

Local boats are favored, because over the decades they have been honed
to perfection for local conditions and uses. Like Albemarle, corporate
boats are homogenized and rendered ho-hum by the bean counters that
are looking for the package most salable to the masses. The boats will
lose their local edge.

Most of us are local boaters or cruisers. If you cruise, you buy a
cruiser. If you trailer, unless you are the nut case that used to post
here that thought trailering 2000 miles each way was cool, you are
probably going to buy with respect to your local conditions.



I have a friend with a large Tiara. Damn nice boat, but not a sportfisher.

My first sailboat on the Bay was from the wonderful folks who brought us
Tiara. S2 9.2. Just under 30', and a wide-bodied slowpoke. But it was
easy to sail.