February Nor'Westing Magazine

Pat Anderson":2ou4ki25 said:
Where the heck is Triton on all of this?
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It sounds to me that they are doing what needs to be done right now. BUILDING BOATS !!!!!
 
Dave S. can't find a link for the article. Do your Montana buddy a favor a mail me a copy: John Dracon, Box 948, W.S.S., Mt. 59645. Thanks. John
 
Seems to me if we want to be an effective "pep squad" we should be vocal about the product attributes and quality. Comments about their business/marketing plan etc. are speculation and opinion. Some of which can surely not be helpful to the cause.

They are good boats, lets stick to that. Business appears to be picking up, that is a good sign. I know Port Boat House is selling new C-Dories.

GO Triton!

Stefan
 
Pat Anderson":20dvziom said:
So, Peter, what did you see yesterday?

The one thing that seems most strange to me is that Scott Boysen has not weighed in here at all, or emailed or PM'd me, and I have had a few exchanges of ideas with Scott...

Where the heck is Triton on all of this?
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I posted my experience at the factory in another thread the other day. Basically I said that they seemed pretty busy. I took C-Dancer in for bottom painting and Greg at Triton showed me the shop where three C-Dories were being built, one 22' Cruiser and two Ventures. In the first shop they were rigging a just completed 22' Cruiser. I don't know how much more room they have at the factory but they seem to have their hands full right now. Along with bottom painting our boat, they were also working on a SeaSport I believe. So I didn't witness any idle hands during my visit the other day, a good sign I would say. Greg did say that business is picking up for them and that all the C-Dories they were building were ordered.

Peter
 
Yellowstone":258kx0ac said:
Dave S. can't find a link for the article. Do your Montana buddy a favor a mail me a copy: John Dracon, Box 948, W.S.S., Mt. 59645. Thanks. John
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John, I'll be glad to. I haven't been to Everett in the past couple of weeks so I haven't picked one up yet. Now I'll be sure to pick up "2".
 
There's an interesting point here-

Peter has brought his boat in for bottom paint, which is a task any competent boat yard can accomplish, and notes that the factory is busy enough to be almost out of space.

So what happens when sales finally do start taking off? Based on their 4-6 boats a month plant size, it seems that Triton would at some point have to stop doing side work and focus on building boats.

The side work is probably keeping them afloat financially right now, but takes space and personel that will eventually be needed for boat building.

So how will people here feel when Triton reaches a point that they can't do work on boats?
 
Matt Gurnsey":3c3f6asd said:
There's an interesting point here-

Peter has brought his boat in for bottom paint, which is a task any competent boat yard can accomplish, and notes that the factory is busy enough to be almost out of space.

So what happens when sales finally do start taking off? Based on their 4-6 boats a month plant size, it seems that Triton would at some point have to stop doing side work and focus on building boats.

The side work is probably keeping them afloat financially right now, but takes space and personel that will eventually be needed for boat building.

So how will people here feel when Triton reaches a point that they can't do work on boats?
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I agree with you Matt that bottom painting can be done anywhere. I also agree with you that (with a little luck) Triton may soon be so busy building boats that they can't take on such work. At that point, I'll be happy for them. HOWEVER, one thing I think the factory should ALWAYS do, is take on at least some warranty work. E.g. almost anything related to rigging and repairs related to that should be done at a dealer but things relating to repairing work done at the factory should be done at least partially at the factory. By that I mean the factory needs to see at least a certain percentage of that kind of repair work so that those who build the boats can make changes to their processes and design when necessary.

I think there's some real benefit to the factory seeing at least a portion of their boats for return visits. For example:
1) Common modifications made by owners may suggest needed design changes.
2) Common problems created by dealer riggers may suggest either needed design changes or needed guidelines for dealers.
3) Common problems created at the factory may suggest needed design or manufacturing changes.

When the factory does some of this work, the guys doing the building and design personally see the issues. When this information is communicated via phone and email from dealers through someone at the factory who is typically fairly disconnected from the manufacturing process, a lot of information is lost. So while I agree that the factory should ultimately focus on building boats and leave rigging and most repair to dealers, I also feel that the factory needs to be involved in some of the repair.
 
Matt

My boat is scheduled for routine service in a few weeks at the factory, if at some time they are unable to perform this service then the closest dealer to me would be Master Marine or Performance marine in Everett, I would take it to you, but it is a 3 hour drive from Camano Island.
 
Larry,
Thanks for the link--and it allows us who are "remote" from the PNW to read Pat's excellent article. (Page 20 is where it starts). I generally agree with the article--and glad that Pat (an Attorney) wrote it. I agree that advertising in may ways is essential to compete in the current market. If the C Dory is to remain only in the PNW, then the factory dealer option may be viable. But you do have good and reliable dealers such as Wefing's--who basically have to buy a boat and sustain the flooring costs to have any stock to sell. Seeing, riding in the boat is what sells them. Sure I bought one sight unseen, with only the "sea trial" on Elephant Butte Lake--but I already knew a lot about the boats having seen them many times over a peroid of about 25 years. So I feel that they do have to show up at boat shows in other parts of the country as well as Seattle.

As for factory repair--even as they become busier--any major failure, should be done at the factory--if it involves recorring, major laminations etc. Yes, there are some people who are capable of doing this type of work, but the average owner is not able to sort out which repair person really has that expertise (and some do not) to make the boat equal or better than new.

Thanks, Pat.
 
Pat-

Nicely written article!

While there may be a few others who will have minor differences of opinion about how to interpret all the history and facts, or who disagree about how the future model for business for C-Dory should proceed, you've done an excellent job of summarizing the past half decade (and more) with our various C-Dory factory owners.


The link to the magazine article will probably expire in another few weeks when the next issue replaces the one linked. Someone needs to copy the article and then enter it here on the site as a permanent feature/document. It would also be nice to simply imbed it at the front of this thread, or at least a link to it. The whole discussion seems much more meaningful once one has also read the story itself.

Thanks, again, for your excellent job, Pat!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
I agree whole heartedly that the factory should do warranty work.

And I have no problem with them doing service work right now, I was just curious as to how others felt about the future when they may not be able to do retail service work.
 
Matt Gurnsey":28l5ihbi said:
I agree whole heartedly that the factory should do warranty work.

And I have no problem with them doing service work right now, I was just curious as to how others felt about the future when they may not be able to do retail service work.
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I'm not at all concerned if the factory doesn't do retail service work. I'm happy to go to EQ marine for that (and I do). I did have some fiberglass work done on my 22 at the factory but I don't expect them to be able to do that kind of stuff forever. However, even that kind of work (on a 2003 boat) I think teaches the guys at the factory something as if you look at almost all of the 22's more than a few years old, they have gel coat and fiberglass cracks right where the bulkhead meets the gunwales. This suggests that this area should be beefed up a bit in future models.
 
I always thought that taking the boat back to the factory for warranty work was good for the factory. They would learn first hand what was wrong and fix it on the production line.

When Journey On had leaks due to the anchor locker sealing, I took it back to the factory in Kent. When they knew the problems and didn't fix them on production boats, you knew they were in trouble. They were more interested in pushing them out the door than building them correctly.

If you had warranty issues with Catalina sailboats, you dealt directly with Frank Butler, the prez. And that was at the time when they advertised as "the worlds largest sailboat mfg." He wanted to know what was wrong and to make sure you were happy. They're still in business and I think that policy helped.

Boris
 
Hello again all, and Pat nice article. You wrote it from a perspective that I think was very beneficial to any and all manufacturers, not just us. When the manufacturer loses sight of its vision,(Business Plan) the results can and obviously have been, detrimental to the whole. You clearly stated facts that you had seen and I appreciate your candid remarks, however as the majority of the comments were not necessarily directed at us as a manufacturer I did not feel the need to respond. Frankly speaking as I have no true knowledge of the events leading up to the demise of both the Reynolds arrangement or the Fluid Marine arrangements I didn't feel comfortable chiming in. Hopefully everybody understands that and as always I do truly appreciate everybody's input and constructive criticisms alike as it is a necessary tool for our continued growth and resurrection.

Side note I am posting new photo's of our Rigging and Service departments today. We feel that no matter how busy we get building new boats, our main method to minimize building issues is for us to be able to do the warranty repairs whenever possible, so we will always offer this service. We are also very comfortable with the servicing and rigging of old and new boats alike, and will be continuing to offer this service as well. Our service department is VERY knowledgable and we welcome all of you to utilize our knowledge and expertise at any time.

Thanks again for all of your support and Pat keep up the good work, you never cease to surprise me with all the "Irons in the fire" that you have.

Sincerely,

Scott Boysen
 
Yellowstone":2hrlai7t said:
Dave S. can't find a link for the article. Do your Montana buddy a favor a mail me a copy: John Dracon, Box 948, W.S.S., Mt. 59645. Thanks. John
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John, thanks for prompting me to get in to West Marine in Everett. Your copy of Norwesting is now in the mail to you. (I now have a copy as well). Now to get our dear friend Mr. Pat Anderson to sign this edition of the magazine for me. :wink
 
Awesome article, Pat. I hope our server can handle the load from the multitude of incoming buyers responding to your C-Brat praises. :mrgreen:
 
I have a PDF of the article that I would upload except at 4.7 mb it exceeds the allowable file size...

And since the date I wrote the article C-Brats has gained 57 new registered users - up from 4,344 to 4,401...not claiming any causal connection of course, just noting the fact!
 
Pat

I wonder if those 57 new members will translate into a few new orders at the factory! Matt may have a better handle on those numbers.
 
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