Cape Cruiser out of business?

It appears true. I called the factory and nobody answered.

This is a real loss. Whether you are for or against CC, I think everyone would agree that competition is a good thing. Because of CC, CD has and is making many improvements to their boats. Or at least they are looking at ways to improve their boat.

Bill
 
This is what the website says:

"Thanks everyone who helped make Cape Cruiser Boats a part of their boating experience. We are sorry to say that Cape Cruiser Boats Works, LLC is no longer in business.
God Bless You All!"
 
Does something not smell quite right or am I just being cynical?

Cape Cruiser LLC

Limited Liability Corporation.

According to the CC dealer here in So Cal, the factory couldn't keep up with the orders, so it wasn't likely sales.

Same old Same old management. so the bane of all businesses, poor management, doesn't seem likely.

What could bring on a sudden cessation? Gak, I smell lawyers.

Sorry nephew Pat, very few are as good looking, laid back, honest and brew knowledgable as you are. The smell of hops is far more pleasant than the smell of Armani suits....

Don
 
Hi

Now i understand the strange behavior to us..... :shock:

now things are very clear to us... :roll:

Thank god we don't bought a boat for 50K from them...

I think we are very lucky that we bought a C-Dory.... :D

Regards Chris
 
Well, we should have some interesting follow up post start showing up shortly! :cry
I wonder if the factory has any unused parts lying around that could be purchased reasonably? I could be in the market for one of them Anchor Wenches!
Mike on Huda Thunkit
 
After a bit of searching on the court's website I came up with the following:

The case cited above by Bill involves a suit filed in June of 2005 by C-Dory Marine, Inc. against:

C-Dory, Inc.
Cape Cruiser Boat Works
The Farm Company
Barry, Chantel, and Gene Sterner
Ben, Dana, Dawn, Mack, Mark and Roy Toland.

I found no mention of the plaintiff's plea nor any details of the suit and it appears that it is still in court.

Jim
 
I can't say for sure,,,, :? but it looks like someone ticked off somebody or something at C Dory :crook
It would be interesting to find out the straight skinny :wink
 
flapbreaker":3kdruyi3 said:
You must have some inside info because I can't make any sense of the king county record or what it means?

Don't know about anyone else having "inside info", but from what I glean from the court docket, it appears that there has been some ongoing court proceedings for sometime between Cape Cruiser and C-Dory as there is mention of Cape Cruiser and Scot Reynolds. I'm certainly not in the law profession, but when I read between the lines, I would suspect that there was some kind of agreement before the sale that the former owners were not to compete with C-Dory for either some length of time or in a certain location proximity. Then again, what do I know about the situation as an outsider......I'm probably all wrong.....therefore consider this only an assumption. Obviously, something significant has occurred and the courts have entered into the situation and must have come up with a decision which appears to be not favorable to Cape Cruiser.
 
This is very sad. CCs are great boats and can (could ?) only be a positive presence in the marketplace. More competition means lower prices, innovation, and greater customer service. To me CCs mean better CDs.
 
flapbreaker":j1tdox04 said:
You must have some inside info because I can't make any sense of the king county record or what it means?

Many folks here are aware that Cape Cruiser and C-Dory have been involved in a legal dispute, almost since the day Cape Cruiser opened their doors.

Knowing the above, I simply searched the court records a while back, and found the link I posted. I've been watching things as they progress, but the details on the court web site are very minimal. Still, I recognize many of the names mentioned, so I'm pretty certain the link is for the court case many of us know has been ongoing.

I was told earlier today, that in a recent 2 week jury trial, the case was settled in C-Dory's favor. The status of the Cape Cruiser web site seems to confirm this, but I've seen no official court documents regarding the case. However, the case is now presumably a matter of public record - anyone wanting the gory details could certainly obtain them if interested.
 
Because of CC, CD has and is making many improvements to their boats.

There may be a great deal more truth to that than we realize. I have no inside information - only public knowledge - but one of the issues before the court between the two companies was the fact that the C-Dory shop foreman was working on building the Cape Cruiser for up to a year while still employed at CD. C-Dory won that round.

I am of the belief that many of the things we here at C-Brats inspired the CD shop to try were not done right away because there was dissent in the shop. Take the reversible seat for instance - many of us were flat told that it couldn't be done. Until some of us did it. Bang - there went the dissent.

The only other thing I know with a high degree of certainty is that the new CD25 is not being built "without license". Or so said the court.
 
So if I'm reading right, the next evolution of the CD (paid for by CD) could have simpy up and walked out the door and opened up shop as CC . . .

Possible -- and would definately be a source of bad blood.
 
One thing for sure, any remaining CC boats are gonna be deeply discounted according to my CC dealer friend. The one he has will be sold AS IS, no warranty whatsoever. The folks who already own them are now instant orphans, stuck with checkbook warranties. (got a problem? pull out the checkbook.)

I assume those CC prospective owners with custom orders paid a hefty deposit. If I were one of those unfortunates, I'd be a tad stressed out about now....

Don
 
It's too bad considerable litigation was necessary to resolve this.

No doubt there were issues of design rights, licensing, intellectual property of an employer vs an employee, infringement of contrats, perhaps a non competition agreement, etc., etc., involved.

Some of the above may seem like it could be spelled out in black and white, but a great deal of gray areas exist in practice.

You may remember that Mark Toland was very specific in saying that in his mind he had sold the rights to certain C-Dory models specifically, and that he was still president of C-Dory, Inc. and owned the rest of the C-Dory legacy.

What specifically that meant in terms of competing with a similar type of boat obviously became the subject of the lawsuit.

Who owns the rights to new ideas and improvements is another issue. When you work for an employer, new ideas that you develop as part of your job become the property of your employer, and you can't go out and sell them on the open market or start your own company, usually. I'd liike to have been the employee of DuPont who developed nylon (can't think of his name right now) if the reverse were true. But in the world of ideas, there will be a lot of gray areas where it might be hard to determine when or where a new idea was developed, etc,

There's obviously a decision that has been reached, and it would seem that there were financial damages accessed or at least the rights thereto reserved.

Kinda unfortunate in many ways...................

Joe.
 
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