How are the new 22's?

2

20dauntless

New member
A number of you were at the new factory this weekend for the fiberglass/gelcoat class and have mentioned the exceptional build quality and improvements to the 22. For those of us who couldn't be there and haven't seen Triton's work up close, and for potential new boat buyers, can anyone share some details about the new boats? Any photos would be great, too.

And Triton seems to deserve credit for doing great work. Keep it up!
 
Lots of photos of all boats on the factory site. A dealer in NC said he'd seen a few of the new ones from Triton and they were the best C-Dorys he'd ever seen. I plan to see for myself at SBS 11.

Charlie
 
Very nice quality of fit & finish. They used small items that to me were a vast improvement. For instance; on the rub rail instead of the very cheezy black plastic ends on my '07, they had shiny stainless (?) end fittings; 90 degree elbows at the stern and a nice one piece up front. Overall quality looked great; even in 'hidden' spots the glass layup etc was neat & clean. The roof of the house appeared to have been glassed up even on the exterior. On my '07 it's just sealed with a black sealant and not very neatly either. Just a few quick observations on my part.
 
A few other items I noticed.
1) The water fill has been moved back about 4". Now it is just behind the bulkhead instead of just in front of the little step up on the walkway. The step up is designed so that when water runs back along the edges of the cabin on the walk way, it hit the step up and rolls off the side instead of into the cockpit. With the water fill just in front of it, water could gather there. If the fill tube wasn't sealed properly, water could run inside the cabin. That was the source of a leak on my boat just after delivery and it took me a long time to figure it out. Apparently Scott could see it coming and without ever having been aware of such a problem having occurred, fixed it for all future CD 22 owner.
2) The bilge has been permanently moved to a bilge well in the aft end (where it belongs). The bilge pump has been upgraded to a Rule 2000. Good move.
3) The bottom of the fiberglass below the gunnels and wrapping around to under the transom is now finished with a nice aluminum edge (instead of the black plastic edging. Much nice look.
4) As Mark noted the corners and the termination on all the rub rails are now nice stainless pieces. Very solid and MUCH nicer looking.
5) Under the trademark C-Dory stripe, the factory has added a thin color contrasting pin-stripe. It really brightens up the look. It looked very cool to me.
6) The doors on the cabinetry are now standard as teak doors. Much nicer.
7) The boats are now all equipped with a standard wiring harness that hooks to a "dealer bus". Dealers are now (or soon will be) supplied with a standardized and recommended wiring diagram. That will make the boats more standardized and much easier to trouble shoot in the future.

I'm sure there are dozens of other little things I didn't notice but the key thing to me was that many of the little annoying things that a real BOATER would recognize as a problem or an annoyance are fixed in the newer builds. That's because Scott who oversees the builds IS A REAL BOATER. He's been on boats since he was a kid and spent many years working as a commercial fisherman. So he's not just a boat builder, he's a life long boater and he knows what is right and what will be annoying in the future. He can and does change the designs and builds to take care of all those small things.

I also had a nice talk with Scott after the class. He's acutely aware of the benefits that the factory gets buy selling direct and/or repairing what they built (and what the previous factories built). This allows him and the other builders to see and "own" the problems in the design. This in turn results in design changes to reduce the problems. As long as the factory stays engaged at this level, the designs will rapidly improve and ultimately will approach perfection.

I'm certain there are dozens of other minor changes to the 22 that Scott has made that I didn't notice. However, all the changes that I did notice were quite clever and will only improve the boat. Based on that, I think the line is in good hands.
 
rogerbum":2qveesey said:
... acutely aware of the benefits that the factory gets buy selling direct...
Click to expand...

Are you saying that Triton is selling C-Dory's factory direct? This would be news to us, and would radically change the relationship we hoped to have with Triton.
 
No Matt, we are not selling factory direct. Rogers comment was related to the fact that I find that the quickest way for us to resolve a problem in either the design or our build is for us to do the repairs and for us to have the direct interaction with the boat owners as they are the ones using the boat.

I hope that this clears it up, but if you have concerns please give us a call to discuss further.

Scott
 
Matt Gurnsey":1h3x9mjr said:
rogerbum":1h3x9mjr said:
... acutely aware of the benefits that the factory gets buy selling direct...
Click to expand...

Are you saying that Triton is selling C-Dory's factory direct? This would be news to us, and would radically change the relationship we hoped to have with Triton.
Click to expand...

Matt and Scott,

Sorry for the confusion I created. As Scott points out the factory is not selling direct BUT they are providing repair services AND they are building to order (allowing future owners input into what they want on the boat). By doing repairs on the boats themselves (even if it's only a small number of the total boats sold), the factory guys who do the building get to see the problems with their own eyes. I think this goes a long way to improving the design over time. When repairs are only done at the dealers, the dealers will report problems to a factory liaison, who may report the problem to the manager of the builds, who in turn may report it to the guys who actually do the builds. Doing some repairs right on the factory floor takes a couple of layers of communication out of the process and allows the builders to see the problem first hand. IMHO this can only result in a better boat, especially if the builders' jobs don't turn over too rapidly (e.g. the guys stick around long enough to build some institutional memory).

Also, seeing several boats a year (both at CBGT's and at the factory) allows the factory to see the common modifications made by the end user. Seeing those mods and understanding the rationale for them also provides good information for future, potential design changes. To my mind, this is also good.

However, probably more important than the mechanism for communicating these kinds of things is who is on the receiving end of the communications. In this case Scott. Since Scott is supervising production directly AND Scott knows how to build himself AND Scott knows a lot about boats and boating from personal experience, he can filter through the ideas and problems and prioritize them appropriately. I've got great confidence in Scott and gained more after taking the gel coat course from him. At the risk of offending either Scott or Jeff Mesmer, I see Scott as the "Jeff equivalent" at Triton (or perhaps a mixture of Jeff Mesmer and Andrew Custis). Those who know Jeff personally, will see this as high praise for Scott. Those who haven't followed this site for a long time won't know what I'm talking about... :)
 
rogerbum":3kz2j0d6 said:
At the risk of offending either Scott or Jeff Mesmer, I see Scott as the "Jeff equivalent" at Triton (or perhaps a mixture of Jeff Mesmer and Andrew Custis). Those who know Jeff personally, will see this as high praise for Scott. Those who haven't followed this site for a long time won't know what I'm talking about... :)
Click to expand...

Roger, I agree with you. I had the same concerns about "factory direct" but both the post by Scott and the question George (Ghone) answered by PM laid that to rest for me.

I know at least one dealer that has recently quit handling Ranger Tugs because of the factory direct issue. He simply cannot make any profit when he can be "undercut" by the factory every time. Not a good thing for boat dealers. This may be one way of getting a person exactly the boat he/she wants (and maybe it works fine for a factory selling 25-29 footers) but it seems as if Triton has come up with another/better (IMO) way to do it that is a win-win for all.

Charlie
 
rogerbum":2jjxrsq9 said:
7) The boats are now all equipped with a standard wiring harness that hooks to a "dealer bus". Dealers are now (or soon will be) supplied with a standardized and recommended wiring diagram. That will make the boats more standardized and much easier to trouble shoot in the future.
Click to expand...

I just talked to Scott and he's working on this and said he'd have it done by end of February, at which point he'd supply a PDF to us.
 
I have been lusting after C-Dorys since the mid 90's and going over them with a fine toothed comb. The new ones are so far above anything that the Tolands, Reynolds, or Fluid Marine ever built, given that I had the resources, I would never buy used over a new Triton built C-Dory. The new ones are that much better.
Forrest
 
Not sure if this will help but FWIW here it is.

I can give only my personal take. We have a 2006 22' cruiser and have been happy with it. But there is evidence of some sloppiness in secondary fit and finish. For example we had to have a repair on a the water tank vent because it was incorrectly placed, not installed properly and led to a minor water leak. Not a crisis, nothing to cause concern over basic structures, just a "care-less" mistake showing lax quality control. We have used the boat a lot and have over 700 hours on the engines and see no cracks, separations etc. Having said that, I've been to the new factory twice and the pride in workmanship is very evident. I have seen several small changes that give evidence of thoughtfulness and high standards. I like what I see. I suspect the new boats are better built than mine is but have no worries about my own boat.
 
I believe my Kerri On to be the first of the 2011 boats. Like Barry said the quality of care is really evident. Very neat workmanship, superior gelcoat finish inside, the fittings are robust all the way around even hinges on cabinet doors are heavy duty. Teak for cabinet doors, all the wiring is very well done.

My 19 was done by Fluid Marine and to a very high standard. The new 22 is several notches above that one. I have been thru the whole boat and it all looks very well done.

Now getting out cruising is in order. George
 
I also have looked and admired C-dorys for many years. I took my first sea trial with Mark Toland and bought our boat from Scot just after the change in ownership in early 2001. I would put the quality of the build up against any C-dory build since. I looked the Triton 22' over pretty well at the SBS and am not knocking their workmanship, but saw nothing that would make me want to change boats. Their are several things that I like about the older C-dorys, like the interior with a larger table and wood cabinets. We have had several upgrades done over the years by the factory that you can see in the Mary Ellen photos. I am very happy for Triton building our fine boats, but am really tired of the slams on the Reynolds era. Scot and crew could not have treated us better.
 
I really shouldn’t post anymore because I can’t seem to do so without offending someone. I didn’t really mean to pick on the Reynolds. I included the Tolands and Fluid Marine. I should have included Cape Cruiser as well because the new C-Dorys are better built than the Cape Cruisers. While I lusted after the C-Dorys, I also lusted after Arimas and SeaSports. By a large margin, in my opinion, the SeaSports had by far, a better fit and finish. The new C-Dorys have that same high quality of fit and finish that the SeaSports had. If you can’t see that by observation then nothing I can say will change your mind. The new C-Dorys are of exceptional quality. If SeaSports were the same price and got the same fuel economy as Arimas and C-Dorys, I would have bought a SeaSport. I didn't mean to disparage anyone's boat. The new C-Dories are just superb!
Forrest
 
I feel so fortunate: to have a great CDory from the past [2005] , to have new CDory's being built to fine specs, and to have the choices of CDory and Ranger Tug from some of the best in the industry - and somehow they've done this during a down turned economy and with a lot of personal energy and commitment. Amazing.

I am grateful

Thanks

Jim
 
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