ANY UPDATE ON NMI FACTORY FIRE/REOPENING

Great news, both that the factory is back in business very soon--and there will be boats at the Seattle Boat Show! Also I am glad to hear that the capability is there for higher production output.
 
Wow, they have new orders. And they're going to be able to fill them. Now, we can wonder if they're for SeaSport or C-Dory. Hope there's a mix; we need both.

C-Dory has more lives than a cat. But they're using them up. If we count the fire, and why not, there have been 5, maybe 6 different versions of the C-Dory. It gotta be a good boat.

As I remember and obviously not too good:

Marbin, who designed them.
C-Dory Marine Group, including Jeff Messmer who sold us Journey On
2 remarkably similar builders whose names I can remember.
Northwest Marine before fire (BF)
Northwest Marine (AF)

Lets hope for a long untroubled run in the future.

Boris
 
This is good news :thup

journey on":it79fd6i said:
As I remember and obviously not too good:

Marbin, who designed them.
C-Dory Marine Group, including Jeff Messmer who sold us Journey On
2 remarkably similar builders whose names I can remember.
Northwest Marine before fire (BF)
Northwest Marine (AF)

There was also the Tolands (HIN "DOR") in between Marben (I guess, don't know much about Marben myself though) and "CDO" (who built your boat). I believe "DOR" (Tolands) ended in around 2000, when CDO (your era) started. Not sure when it started.
 
From the NMI -> C-Dory web site, a Seattle dealer is listed:

Waypoint Marine
5350 30th Avenue NW
Seattle, WA 98107
US
Tel: 206-284-0200
info@waypointboats.com
waypointboats.com


Good to see that on the site, and from a recent post on this thread:

"Long time reader first time participant. Officially confirmed that it is a fact that NMI is currently setting up shop in a new facility and they expect to be resuming production for C-Dory, SeaSport and Osprey products by Thanksgiving.

We were planning on showing 3 C-Dorys at the 2015 Seattle Boat Show to show that we are committed to being a C-dory dealer before the fire put a glitch in our plan. Current hope and plan is that NMI will be able to get one model done in time for us to proudly display at the show. More to come later on exactly what model will be displayed..."

posted as a first post by "waypoint".

Waypoint, good to see you here, Welcome and by all means best wishes for a successful show in Jan. Sure hope to get to meet up there and to see a new C-Dory in your display. As a long time reader I'm sure you are aware of the level of "interest" (read as something like affinity, love, enthusiasm, passion and some might even include radical promotion) in our C-Dory's. Nobody likes 'em like we like 'em.

Again, nice to see you here, and you are welcome back anytime. Please keep us posted on your progress with the C-Dory line.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Sunbeam":hce0evsj said:
This is good news :thup

journey on":hce0evsj said:
As I remember and obviously not too good:

Marbin, who designed them.
C-Dory Marine Group, including Jeff Messmer who sold us Journey On
2 remarkably similar builders whose names I can remember.
Northwest Marine before fire (BF)
Northwest Marine (AF)

There was also the Tolands (HIN "DOR") in between Marben (I guess, don't know much about Marben myself though) and "CDO" (who built your boat). I believe "DOR" (Tolands) ended in around 2000, when CDO (your era) started. Not sure when it started.

There is still "trition marine" listed as a link on the "About our Boats" page on the current website. Triton was one of the manufactures in that list that goes just above the NMI listing.

"Please visit our website at www.tritonmarineindustries.com, to learn more about us." This link does take you to the right place on the web though.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

3_Bellingham_Line_of_C_D_s_2009_917.highlight.jpg

Maybe this is only a mile from the new factory location now :D :D
 
Hi Pat,

Thanks for posting the link to the FB page. For some of us (OK for me, who does not have FaceBook) it was interesting to get to look it over......and to read the article by George Sass, Sr, "Easy Cruising at 65mph".

As to the NMI website, the only goof I found was the one still holding Triton in the link.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
Also, unless I am mistaken, "Marben" was simply the dealership name the Tollands used to sell their boats. And it survived the sale to the Reynolds, as I recall the actual seller of our 2003 CD22 was Marben Marine.
 
Pat, thanks for the comment. Yes, Marbin Marine was the dealership who sold us Journey On, but I didn't know if that was also the factory name. I thought it was only for retail sales out of the factory. Also, I've seen several 30-31 ft trawlers labeled Marbin, built in the 80's.

If you could elucidate as to who designed the first C-Dorys both by person and company and then trace the manufactures down to the present Northwest Marine, I would appreciate it. You've done it before but I lost that thread.

One of the interesting aspects of the C-Dory is their stable design. As far as I know the hull of the 25 is the same as the original, as is the cockpit and cabin layout. There's been a few changes such as the molded interior (which I like,) and some small cockpit changes ~2005, but that's it. I think the same holds for the 22, with a small hull change in the 80's. And the Tomcat 24 morphed into the 25, by adapting the monohull 25 cabin in 2005. Must drive new boat dealers nuts.

The hull and cabin molds just go from builder to builder for the last 15 years.

Boris
 
Boris, The couple 25's from the first series, I have been on had a bit different cabin layout, although I agree that the actual hull molding seemed to be the same.

I suspect that an entirely new deck/cabin mold was made for the Tom Cat, although it looks as if the basic 25 cabin was involved. I suspect that a blank 25 cabin was molded, then modified for the Tom Cat.

I had a good look at a fairly original per 1987 boat at Powell, and there seemed to be significant differences in the hull--the bottom of the pre was a true semi dory--with flat sections going all of the way forward. There seemed to be more tumble home at the transom--or it may have been an illusion.
 
Boris, I don't remember that I posted a complete history, I don't think I know it! But maybe it can be pieced together. Here is what I have come up with, mostly by finding C-Brat posts using Google and checking company names on the Washington Secretary of State website! It is a checkered history, with a lot asset sales rather than company sales, so as we all recall, a lot of warranties became worthless along the way.

Roy Tolland started C-Dory in 1979, according to this snippet that DaNag posted in 2007, and it explains how Marben Marine's tooling and the Marbin line was sold to Golden Star Yachts and how Marben Marine became the dealer for C-Dory, Inc.'s boats and Honda engines:


The first C-Dory, a 22' X 7'6" "Flat Bottom" was introduced in late 1979 at the Seattle sportsman show. The new boat was a tiny cousin of the Marben semi-displacement hulls being built at the time by Roy Toland Inc. doing business as Marben Marine. The immediate success of C-Dory's original 22' model led to the development of the line into what it is today. Roy Toland Inc soon formed a new corporation around the new boat line, giving it the C-Dory name. Roy Toland Inc. sold it's tooling for and interests in the Marben line to Golden Star Yachts. C-Dory Inc. acquired the the remaining assets of the Marben Company and its name. Marben Marine operates today as a Dealer for all C-Dory Inc. products as well as Honda Marine Motors within it's sales territory.

Tolland sold to Rich and/or Scott Reynolds, not sure of the ownership interests, in 2000. Rich is the dad and Scott is the son. When I asked Rich if he owned a C-Dory, he replied "I own them all!" Scott was in day to day charge of C-Dory. The Reynoldses moved the factory from Kent (a 6 boat a month facility) to Auburn (a ??? boat a month facility, I think their goal was 50 boats a month but they never came close). Our 2003 CD22 came from Kent, and our 2005 CD25 came from Auburn.

The Reynoldses sold to Fluid Marine LLC - in 2008? Somewhere in the 2007 - 2008 timeframe. I still have the CEO's card somewhere, he came from a background in the healthcare industry as I recall from a few conversations. I checked Fluid Marine LLC on the Secreatry of State website, it was registered in 2004 and went inactive in 2010. The SoS lists the managing member as Jeffery S. Hussey. If you Google Jeffrery S. Hussey, you will find he is or was the principal of Fluid Capital LLC, so there is potential connection in the name, but most amazingly, he is also the founder of F5 Networks. Google that one! The factory remained in Auburn. It did not stay in business long.

Somehow the Triton Marine Industries (the Lindhout brothers), who had acquired SeaSport from the Wrights, acquired the C-Dory line and molds from Fluid Marine in 2009. Not sure about this part, I think they started out in the Wright Brothers factory on Guide Meridian in Bellingham, and then moved operations to Ferndale (the factory that recently burned down).

Somehow the Wrights (now Ron and Mark and son-in'law Ryan Binning) reacquired C-Dory and SeaSport in 2012 when Triton Marine Industries failed, there was a bit about the litigation posted here as I recall, and they are the folks now known as Northwest Marine Industries, and are about to re-open in Fairhaven in Bellingham. The SoS shows the governing persons of NMI as Marine Lenders Services LLC and Sea Sport Boat Company LLC. The Sea Sport Boat Company LLC also shows Ron, Mark and Ryan as the governing persons.

So there you have it, I know Marc Grove or Matt Gurnsey can correct anything I have got wrong or anything I have left out!
 
Pat, that was a heck of a trip through corporate lives. My congratulations. I'm bookmarking this post so it can be run out as needed.

And, Bob, the change you saw in the '87 22 is the only change in the hull shape of which I've heard. I defer to your superior knowledge. I do point out that change was almost 30 years ago. I did visit one of the first series 25's and while the cabin layout wasn't identical to Journey On, I feel the changes were in the class of minor changes to see what was easiest to make and made owners happy. Certainly while the 26 TomKat's cabin has to be different from the 25, they certainly started from there. So the C-Dory line shows a remarkable continuity.

As Pat has pointed out, the changes have mainly been where and who, not what.

Boris
 
Thanks for the reminders and updates. This is worth printing of to put into my onboard boat book.

Thanks again,

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
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