SeaSport Out of Business

J

Jazzmanic

New member
I just read this on a fishing site. Now the "Moving" thread by Jeff Lindhout makes sense. I have not verified this or researched the specifics. I'm just passing along the message.

Posted from another website:

Please note that SeaSport is no longer in business and as such they will no longer cover warranty work. They were purchase by Triton Marine Industries along with Osprey, Skagit Orca, C-Dory and Tomcat. Not sure if the other boats will also be on the chopping block in the future so take it for what it is worth.

Hope somebody comes along and decides to pickup the product line.

Here is a response from Triton Marine Industries to our question about warranty work.

“Sea Sports are not being built and Triton has no involvement or control whatsoever. This recession has caused many good businesses to fall by the wayside and it is unfortunate that Sea Sport is yet another.”
 
Looks like we're on our own again, but then that's the way uhuh-uhuh we like it uhuh-uhuh.
Pardon my disco, I'm just so rad, man.
 
Oh my. :cry

If true, I now know how an orphan feels....We may be the owners of exceedingly rare boats.... :shock:

On edit: Looks like it may just be a consolidation under a different name. If so, not much of a change...

Charlie
 
Ouch. But who really is Triton--or if it is a spin off of Sea Sport Principles? The address of Titon is the same as Sea Sport. So is the phone number. Is this just a re-organization to get out of warantee issues?
 
Well let's wait until we hear more from the factory prior to speculating about this. In the past we have had threads drag out for awhile that contained inaccurate or incomplete information on such matters. I won't believe anything until I hear it from the factory guys or some other well informed source.
 
chromer":1bwpj8b4 said:
Might be a + for the Marinaut guys. That's the root of the tree anyway. He's got a plug
Click to expand...

I realize that I have not been around as long as most C-Brats and may be missing something, but I do not see why there is so much allegiance to the "Marinaut guys". Didn't they start this whole thing that has left us orphans? I am very happy with my C-Dory, actually, I LOVE my boat. I can see some ups that the Marinaut has that I applaud, like the location of the gas tanks and the water tank. But I also see some downs. I do not like the idea of having to convert the V-berth into a bed each night, or at least it appears to be that way. I like the idea that in the C-Dory the bed is there all the time and is tucked in and out of the way; no need to move cushions around to do the conversion. Sorry.
 
Ramon Sr":1vno0yjl said:
chromer":1vno0yjl said:
Might be a + for the Marinaut guys. That's the root of the tree anyway. He's got a plug
Click to expand...

I realize that I have not been around as long as most C-Brats and may be missing something, but I do not see why there is so much allegiance to the "Marinaut guys". Didn't they start this whole thing that has left us orphans? <Stuff cliiped>
Click to expand...
NO they didn't. Ben Toland is the designer of the Marinaut and the Toland family was the original owners of C-dory but there's several changes of ownership between then and now.
 
Ramon,

The Toland family is the one that designed the C-Dorys and built them until selling the production company to the Reynolds in the early 2000's.

Ben Toland designed the Cape Cruiser line after that. Then came the lawsuit started by the Reynolds. Cape Cruiser lost and gave the molds of the Cape Cruiser to the Reynolds to settle. The Reynold's C-Dory company built the Cape Cruisers as the Venture model.

The Reynolds owned C-Dory company went under, sold to Fluid Marine, who tried to keep building C-Dorys. That too failed and the molds were sold to Sea Sport.

So here we are today, with Sea Sport undergoing some sort of reorganization. Meanwhile, Ben Toland has designed and he and Dave are building Ben's new design.

So who should anyone be faithful too? The original C-Dory company's owners sold, the next owner sold, the following owner sold, and now Sea Sport is reorganizing.

Ben Toland is a member of the Toland family who has been designing and building boats here in the Northwest since the 1960's or 1970's.

If I was going to be a fan of anyone, it would be the Tolands, who have a proven history of boat designing and building.

This brief history is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.

If I have missed anything, perhaps someone can jump in here with corrections.
 
Just don't sweat the small stuff that comes & goes around. Just enjoy your boats and have a fine time living a wonderful life that the vast majority of people never experience.

Ken..............aka: Wood Duck = 25' Cruiser
 
I bought Adeline from Marben Marine (Mark and Ben Toland) in '89 out on Pacific Highway in Des Moines.

I can still recall my conversations with Ray, the patriarch, on my visits there. I remember him describing a little boat trip he had taken up north in a 22'...to Alaska. It seemed incredible at the time. Now, everyone's doing it.

I believe he was the actual founder.

I'd love to see Tolands building C-Dorys again.

Probably never happen...sigh. :cry
 
I'm waiting for the C-Brat who posted the original "who is my baby/C-Dory daddy" again. Ha!

There were some DJ's in Boston some years ago that joked "this is as confusing as Dorchester on Father's Day".

(A little joke at the expense of my own state - Dorchester is a part of Boston with some very rough areas).
 
We can all point fingers, speculate, wonder, worry... but it's a different world these days. I certainly know where to place my loyalities - right here at the C-Brats and to MY boat. 'Cause no one is going to look out for my boat like ME. This forum continues to promote and support the brand... so WE are our boats' baby-daddy.

Would this whole situation have occurred if the Tolands hadn't sold to the Reynolds? Or if the Reynolds hadn't spent a pile of money defending their non-compete? Or if the Reynolds hadn't been led down the path by a mass boat builder who didn't understand this niche? Or if Fluid had had deeper pockets?

Having business debt or liabilities in this down economy is a tough situation. Boat builders, RV manufacturers, home builders, and car manufacturers (all big ticket items) are mostly a shadow of their former selves.

If you have your boat, you are the responsible party. We can watch this soap opera unfold and shake our heads... but we have the boat we want. We know the boats and we understand the market; from the looks of it, much better than the previous several owners. There are still boat manufacturers who have their heads above water... not because they build a better boat, but because they promote TO their market and have adjusted their production to the greatly reduced demand.

I hope SeaSport or Triton or whoever is able to continue producing C-Dorys... not for the sake of the current boat owners ('cause if you haven't gotten the gist of all this, we aren't orphans, we are grown up folks who own these cool boats and have our OWN community of like-minded boat owners right here), but so new folks can have the opportunity to experience this interesting niche boat.

Everyone join hands and sing (cue the music)... "We are the world, we are the C-Brats... :note :note

One very respectful C-Dory guy,
Jim B.
 
I believe it was Roy Toland who founded C-Dory. That is who I made the check out to when I bought my Cape Cruiser after Cape Cruiser went out of business. All any of us can do is hope for the best and to go out and enjoy your boat. Are there going to be warranty problems? Maybe, but in this economic climate it doesn't seem like many boat builders are going to survive. What we have is a very economical well built boat that will last a lifetime if properly maintained. Is the resale value going to fall? Probably, but not as much as some of the other brands. Desirable boats will always be desirable. If you bought a smaller C-Dory with plans to sell and move up at a later date your relative value probably has remained constant versus the larger model. One thing that will remain constant is the camaraderie of this group.
 
Ramon Sr":38j0olwi said:
I realize that I have not been around as long as most C-Brats and may be missing something, but I do not see why there is so much allegiance to the "Marinaut guys".
Click to expand...

What you've already read about the Tolands is correct. Allegiance is a form of respect and overall, most of the brats respect the Toland family influence. But you also said "guys" and I have to add my respect for oldgrowth Dave who partnered with Toland to create the Maraunaut. Prior to the Maraunaut project, Dave extended his personal C-Dory 16 and added saddle tanks to it. A major upgrade feature not many of us could successfully attempt. Heck, our "One True Brat" (OTB) Mike Barber, AKA TyBoo, should also be mentioned in the evolution of C-Dorys. That reverseable passenger seat was his design and idea from the git go and he was the first to implement it. All he got was his name added to the seat because it will forever be the "Barber chair" for old Brats here.

There are and were always key individuals in the development of the boats we all care about. So if two of them are involved in the building of a new boat it's no surprise that we hold allegiance to them.

Don
 
Thank you for setting me straight on this one. I did not know the whole story nor did I mean to show disrespect to anyone. I will continue to enjoy my days on the water in my beautiful C-Dory. Hope to meet some of you down the road.
 
Well-

Triton Marine was (is?) a reorganization of Sea Sport to protect them from creditors. Looks like that may not have worked. The web sites for all the brands are still online, with the new phone numbers that had been created for each brand. So I wouldn't count them out yet, nor do I know how reliable the original post's source on this is. Jeff Lindout is a bright guy, and being a lawyer may know how best to move forward to protect the company and the brands in these tough times.

It is possible that the reorganization will be used to step away from warrantying previous boats. But if Sea Sport is indeed dead, which I find unlikely since Triton came out of Sea Sport, then I'm not sure where that leaves Triton. It is possible that Triton has been sold to someone new in the last few months. I have no idea. We've heard no news from the factory.

Sea Sport / Triton does notown the C-Dory, Skagit Orca or TomCat molds. They were (are) paying a royalty on every boat they build to the owner of the molds. My understanding was that so long as they build boats, they could use the molds. The group that had ownership of the molds has apparantly sold them, and future royalties to another company. I have heard of two different people claiming to own the molds- one of which I beleive based on two sources (one of which would definately be in the know).

So the mold owner could come in, take possession of all the molds, and begin building C-Dory's again. No idea what that would do to quality, or even if they could actually get all the molds returned at this point.

I can say this- there has not been a lot of demand for new C-Dory product. There is still some 2008 / 2009 boats in dealer stock out there, and I don't think the warranty issue is the only reason they are still there. Demand is down.

For those looking for a new boat, this is a great opportunity to own one. If and when production ramps back up on C-Dory's, prices are going to be much higher.

At least that's what I know sitting at this desk.
 
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