Well, not to knock anybody's boat, but here is how I see it. Sorry it is a bit of an epistle, but this is something few people besides me were in a position to observe over the years.
I don't know about the Tolland era, probably good judging by the number of those boats still around.
The Reynolds era in Kent - excellent, a dedicated small crew of craftsmen building about six boats a month. We saw this first hand with the build of our CD22 in 2003. Buck Smith was in charge of our build, then he went to the ill-fated Cape Cruiser, now he is at Tern Boat Salvage. Watching the build and interacting with the crew was a fantastic experience. We knew we were getting the best.
The Reynolds era in Auburn - I think there was a huge drop-off. Their goal was 60 boats a month, and during the build of our CD25, I vividly recall the sign on the wall "Saturday is a mandatory work day for production workers." The crew was not a small dedicated crew of craftsmen but a nameless, faceless crew with specialized jobs. A lot of them did not speak English. I was there a lot during the build of our CD25, nearly once a week, and it was very frustrating not to be able to speak to the guy doing whatever was being done, and never the same guy the next week. This is the era when a lot of shortcuts were taken, screws that were too long or too short were used, things were not sealed properly, wiring was messy, and so forth - problems that have long been noted here. The SAVING GRACE for us on our build was that Andrew Custis, who is now the customer relations guy with Ranger, was in overall charge of our build, and if we had any questions or comments, we went to Andrew, and he made sure everything we were concerned about was taken care of.
Towards the end of this period, Reynolds brought in a guy named Tom Latham, who came from Bayliner. His vision was to mass produce and mass market C-Dorys like Bayliners. He got rid of good small dealers like EQ Marine and hooked up with Lake Union Sea Ray. I remember how ridiculous it was to see C-Dorys lined up like Bayliners along I-5 in Federal Way. Just not the way C-Dory owners buy C-Dorys. They also cheapened the build - look at the plastic gunwale inserts instead of the molded gunwales earlier boats had, just one example. Latham also was behind the ill-fated C-Dory 29. I think Latham was personally responsible for taking the Reynolds Auburn C-Dory company down the tube.
The bright spots of the Reynolds era in Auburn were Jeff Messmer and Andrew Custis - two gentlemen who truly understood the value of keeping the customer satisfied and how to do it. I remember Jeff Messmer going to the Eastern Shore CBGT in 2005 just to take care of Brady Hill on Minnow, a boat with big problems. Search for Brady Hill or Minnow, and you will see that Brady's posts here were probably a huge part of the reason that Jeff decided it was very important in the long run that they take care of Brady's issues. Jeff Messmer did not survive at C-Dory much after Latham arrived. I remember asking Jeff where he stood with C-Dory, and he answered something like "I wish I knew." Maybe not a literal quote but that was the tenor. Now of course Jeff and Andrew take most excellent care of Ranger customers, and it has paid off extremely well for that company.
I can't comment on Fluid Marine, I think they tried hard but were saddled with too much bad stuff left over from the end of the Reynolds era. It was a short run.
The Lindhouts moved the factory to Whatcom County, first to the Wright Brothers factory, and then to Ferndale, where it still is. The Lindhout era was marked by financial stress, but their builds were excellent due to the production manager, Scott Boysen, who we got to know very well, because our place in Birch Bay is only a few miles from Ferndale and I went down to see Scott every chance I got. Scott paid a lot of attention to feedback, and was always trying to improve little design features - he showed us many of them. Scott also was willing to help owners of boats built by prior incarnations of the company. He installed our Webasto and washdown pump, for a fair price. He fixed my attempt to open up the vee-berth, and refused payment! He was reading C-Brats all the time, and was painfully aware of what we were saying about the Lindhouts shortcomings. Lindhouts went out in a cloud of dust in a lawuit and lost everything. They were very personable, but undercapitalized and bit off more than they could chew with C-Dory, SeaSport and the rest of the boats (Skagit Orca and Osprey).
Then the Wrights, who originally owned Sea Sport, emerged victorious from the lawsuit with all the brands and the factory. For reasons unknown to me, they elected not to keep Scott Boysen, who after Jeff Messmer and Andrew Custis, was a person at C-Dory who actually understood customer service. The Wrights view their factory as a production line, and do not do any service work, even though they are the most knowledgable and best equipped to do it. Their choice, but I say our loss. You may think differently if you have never been close to the factory and had good customer service direct from the factory.
What the future holds, who knows?
