Marlow anxious to get Hunter, Mainship going

Posted on 03 August 2012

David Marlow didn’t sit still for very long Thursday after completing the purchase of Hunter Marine and selected assets of Mainship and Luhrs.

See Related Articles

Instead, he spent the day assessing Hunter’s Alachua, Fla., facility.

“I am seated at Hunter-Alachua for the first day after funds were transferred to complete the purchase,” Marlow told Soundings Trade Only in an email. “I am not sure how long I can be seated, as there is much to be done, from temporary duct tape to extensive renovations and remodeling of the physical facility, including tools, roofs and lawn.”

And those are the easy fixes, the owner of Marlow Acquisitions wrote.

Essentially, Marlow is “planning to burn the midnight oil” in order to get production of Hunter and Mainship — referred to by Marlow as Marlow Hunter and Marlow Mainship — up and running.

Morgan Industries and its related eight companies went into Chapter 11 restructuring April 30 and has sold off or reorganized all of its boatbuilding entities and two of its property entities. Remaining assets include its property and factories in Millville, N.J., and St. Augustine, Fla.

Marlow is the majority owner of Palmetto, Fla.-based Marlow Yachts — builder of Explorer and Voyager passagemakers, Prowler express cruisers, Sprite tenders and Gypsy classic wooden dinghies — as well as Marlow Marine Sales of Sarasota, Fla. The boats are built at Norsemen-Marlow Shipyard in Xiamen, China. He bought the Miami’s 126-year-old Merrill-Stevens Drydock Co. last year.

— Reagan Haynes

Comments

I own a Mainship Pilot 30. There are some faults with fit/finish but, overall, it is a fine boat. I am anxious to see what Mr. Marlow and staff will do to enhance this basically fine vessel. Would love to have a chance to show/tell him things (good and not so good) about my boat, but I suspect he is already a step ahead in that regard. Best wishes to all responsible for this Mainship rebirth!

#2---Silverton molds/tooling/name bought out by Egg Harbor Yachts and moved. Machinery/assets bought by non-marine company, and being re-sold.

#4---Hunter Marine has a 3.5 year contract with Gemini---look for surprise @ Annapolis Show from Gemini.

#3---Throughout America there was over-production in almost every industry when the recession hit. Hunter never stopped building boats (although at a reduced rate to match the marketplace)---currently we are way under-supplied in the market---only 46 keel boats unsold in dealer inventory @ 140 authorizied dealers world wide.

Looking to the future as Jeanneau did after they went thru insolvency and became part of the Beneteau Group.

This question is for Mr. Marlow. This article indicates that you intend to re-introduce the Mainship brand to the boating public. Do yo have any plans, now or in the near future, to bring back the once very popular Luhrs Sportfish brand? Best of luck to you and your associates moving forward with these iconic brands.

Hunter didn't go bankrupt, its parent Luhrs did and took all the brands with it. It was such a convoluted arrangement that it appeared to self implode and tumble like a house of cards. Hunter and Mainship are in a good place with David Marlow, and Silverton and Ovation will land on their feet under the ownership of Dr. Trocki and his Egg Harbor company. I wish both gentlemen and their organizations much luck....boating will come back and these 2 guys are keeping brands alive and skilled workers employed. In my book, that's all good.

Do they plan to continue with Gemini catamaran production?

Some people just can't keep cheap, sarcastic and politically ignorant comments to themselves and out of this situation. No wonder everyone is tearing at each other's throats in this country.

If Hunter had built such a great business, why did they go bankrupt? Everyone knows Hunters weren't the best built boats and the worst in quality of the top three. They are also the only company that went bankrupt of the three. They are as much at fault as anyone out there in creating a bubble that caused the economy to crash. They overbuilt and sold as many boats as they could to someone, as long as the bank approved it. How many boats did they sell knowing the buyer was shaky, but just wanted to get their money from the bank and not worry about it. How often did Hunter encourage banks to give out more loans so they could sell more boats? Banks that built their own businesses - banks that failed.

What has happened to the Silverton brand?

These well-respected names in the marine industry could not be in better, more capable hands than those of David Marlow. We wish him great success as he does his own version of an economic stimulus. Then again, David knows that it is small businessmen and not the Feds that build a business, so maybe we should send him the DC next.

Add your comment

Your name:	Required, screen names acceptable
Your email:	Required, will not be published
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our Comments Policy.:

Word verification:

yvComment v.1.21.1

Facebook	RSS
Twitter	LinkedIn
Daily E-newsletter