Another Builder Gone

[Tony Meola]

I was on another site and there was a post that said that Viking Yacht has purchased Ocean Yacht, and they were eliminating all the Ocean models except the Billfisher.

Supposedly this was the news out of Ft, Lauderdale boat show. Has anyone heard if this is true?

Not an Ocean fan but every time one goes under, the consumers choices get limited and the competition to keep the prices down goes away.

[Bertramp]

I had heard same thing.
Ocean and Viking are down the road from each other on the Jersey shore and Viking seems to be doing gangbusters.
The middle priced large sportfish market (Ocean) is gone .... those folks now buy a 35' center console with triple 300s.

[PeterPalmieri]

Cannot confirm or deny the rumor but it makes sense. The Billfisher is the only boat that doesn't overlap the Viking line up. Is there any word on if the Billfisher is a decent boat I've never heard from anyone who's peeked around one, been on it or owned one?

[JP Dalik]

Bill fisher is bad ass, great ride and decent layout. Ocean went out of house for the hull design. On my short list of future boats , worked on a fe of the first ones doing installs. It's still an Ocean yacht in places but rides like a much bigger boat. Problem was most were yanmar powered

[Bertramp]

When they first came out, somehow I was contacted to testride one .... it was many years ago, but I remember it as being a pretty nice boat !!
Four on the market, the older ones (2008) have Yanmars .... the newer ones have Cummins

[PeterPalmieri]

That's great to hear. Seems like a great layout!

[Kevin]

What is wrong with yanmar in that boat? Too much power for engine size?

[Bruce]

My guess would be the boat was under powered when the proper props were put on. Luhrs went thru the same issue and got sued. While I sold and serviced yanmars and generally had good service with them, their people who work with oem are dumber than a box of rocks. If it was the folks out of Georgia, that would explain it.

[Bertramp]

That's great to hear. Seems like a great layout!

From the look and open bulkhead, I think they were shooting for a 37 Merritt feel.
I remember it a being a pretty nice boat .... I was on hull 1 or 2

[PeterPalmieri]

From the look and open bulkhead, I think they were shooting for a 37 Merritt feel.
I remember it a being a pretty nice boat .... I was on hull 1 or 2

Very cool Steve, I am a bit of a classic boat geek as most of us are. I can't spend enough time looking at an old Rybovich, Merritt or Whiticar. When I bought my 31 there was a pretty nice Cubavich for sale within the same price range. I did decide that all the wood would end up pricing me out on maintenance. That being said I am not in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars on a boat club but if I was from a pretty standpoint the 40' Gamefisherman is just all kinds of sexy.

It's rare these days that you can find an open bulkhead layout and a real glass windshield. So the billfisher really is the only fiberglass production boat out there as an option. I do prefer the salon to be level with the cockpit and the lower station to be in the cockpit like the merritt. But only out of guessing and dreaming as I never have done serious fishing on one...

[Bertramp]

There is Cubavich that I saw for sale recently. Pretty boat, but an old GLASS boat is tough upkeep, the wood would do me in .... I aint a carpenter.
I tried posting the link, but it didn't take.

In FL, I'm just south of the Merritt factory, where there is always 8 - 10 Merrits "just hangin' out" ........... talk about leaving snail marks with my tongue !! :-)

[PeterPalmieri]

Is it Salty tiger?

[waggles02673]

I heard Viking will be coming out with some smaller models as well down the road.

[PeterPalmieri]

I was reading rumors on another board so take it for what it's worth. Viking needs the space to build smaller boats hence buying Ocean and their facility, keep their workers. They'll be keeping the 37 but bring it up to Viking specs and scraping the rest of the line up, but will be coming out with new boats smaller than the current Viking line up, all branded Viking.

[Tony Meola]

Thinking about all the NJ builders that are now gone. What a shame.

[Bertramp]

Ocean,Pacemaker,Luhrs,Viking,Silverton. That's who comes to mind as past and present Jersey boats. Who did I forget? .......and not positive on Silverton.

I've also seen "Bay head skiff" which reminded me of a lapstrake looking B31.

Auto correct kept turning Bay head skiff into Baghdad skirts.......sign of the times

[John F.]

Jersey, Egg Harbor, Post?

[Bertramp]

True .... forgot those guys
Is Post gone too ?
But, when you look at these and those manufacturers, they all made the same type of boat.
The market has gone to the 35' triple outboard center console, which all seem to be manufactured in Florida or the Carolinas.

Regulator, Contender, Intrepid, Invincible, Jupiter, Sea-Vee (had never heard of Sea-Vees until I went to Florida, where they are a big deal).

[CamB25]

John Patnovic at Worton Creek owns all the Post molds.

[Bertramp]

Is it Salty tiger?

yes

[PeterPalmieri]

yes

Love that boat did they add the teak tow rail back ?

[Bertramp]

Not sure about toeraol, but if you like that one, you will like thd Billfish

[Tony Meola]

Steve

Those are the ones from the last 20 years. But, if we go back, you had all the old Jersey Sea Skiffs made up in the Atlantic Highland area. Numerous ones, in fact before the Bert, my dad had an Zoebel Sea Fox. They were great little boats. Rolled like hell but tough. Compared to the Bert, it was always a treat going in and out of Barnegat Inlet in the old days with it. It made your @#! pucker.

Hard to believe how many boats were made in NJ. Not sue how many life guard stations use surf boats anymore, but the majority of them came from Hankins over near Ortley Beach. It may have actually of been Ocean Beach. My wife has a hand made wooden model of one. Built the same way the full scale ones were.

I believe Silverton joined up with someone and they are still around. Built down in Egg Harbor. Might be the same group that builds the Jersey Devil. I thought they had the Post Brand also for a while.

Back in the day, Egg Harbor built a good boat. A little slow but a solid boat. The issue was, Jersey, Post, Egg Harbor and even Ocean to a large degree were based on the old Jersey Sea Skiff/Rum Runner design. Too many of one hull design, with the same type of ride and performance.

I think the trend for boats is starting to move back towards inboards. These young guys are getting older, and the comments I am starting to hear is that they can't take the pounding and no place to hide in bad weather anymore.

Lets see what happens.

[Bertramp]

I think a trip to one of the boat shows might change your thoughts on the outboards. They are going with quad 300s in some cases and the center consoles are now in the 40' range and seriously fast. I told one builder in Lauderdale that I'm old school and if it needs more than 2 outboards it should have inboards. He laughed

[PeterPalmieri]

A 36 yellowfin is a heck of a fishing boat if you want to run and gun, kite fish, anything where you want to cast or even work a fish around the boat in stand up gear and not worry much about having someone at the helm. It's half the price of the new Bertram or an equivilent inboard walk around. L&H, scopinich etc. it can go fast and the outboards are a very expensive disposable item that significantly reduces the resale value when they're out of warranty.

It is what it is and I don't think it's going away. Sea Vee makes a couple of their bigger boats with an onboard option but they don't seem to be as popular. While this doesn't seem to make sense to me, we don't seem to be the norm these days.

[JimmyG]

Ocean,Pacemaker,Luhrs,Viking,Silverton. That's who comes to mind as past and present Jersey boats. Who did I forget? .......and not positive on Silverton.

I've also seen "Bay head skiff" which reminded me of a lapstrake looking B31.

Auto correct kept turning Bay head skiff into Baghdad skirts.......sign of the times

I never gave it much thought, guess you take it for granite but living in Hammonton NJ all these manufactures are literally minutes away from where I live, I winter store my boat at Jersey Cape's boat yard AKA Cavalier yachts and I believe the old Pacemaker plant. Egg Harbor and Ocean Yachts are across the river and another 20 minutes down stream is the Viking factory. A area rich in a boat building heritage

[Bertramp]

I had a 27 Blackfin with 2/.225 optimizes and I would have put it head to head with a 28Bert any day....and it was way faster. But the outboards don't fish as "neatly" as an inboard. I just start to gag when I see the trips and quads.

[PeterPalmieri]

http://m.pressofatlanticcity.com/busine ... l?mode=jqm

Thanks to Charlie F link on Facebook.