I am glad to see some information coming to light on this matter. I had sailed on a
used boat in Charleston in June with the
marketing group of
Antares. Prepared to send them a $500k deposit for a June 17
delivery for an owner looking to sell his position. Should have alerted me at that juncture that they did not offer any
current owners the option to move forward. Received notice a week after my return and a few days before sending them my deposit check of the financial difficulties. That was too close for comfort, but several folks were caught up in the turmoil and have done what was necessary to protect their interests. Glad to see that a good
boat builder has manged to
work through a difficult process.
I was invited to sail onboard a St. Francis 50 being delivered from
South Africa to the
Annapolis show and boarded her in
St Lucia up to the BVI's and then
Georgetown. Was planning to make an offer when my wife visited
Annapolis show recently.
My wife was ok with the St. Francis and fully supporting my dream, although not 100% sure of this lifestyle. While negotiating with the owner of St. Francis during the opening days, my wife happened on board the newly launched Xquisite X5. She came and grabbed me and said " you have to see this boat". The couple, Sara and Ramas, have exclusive
marketing rights for the
boat manufactured in
South Africa by Phoenix
Marine (took over the assets of Dean Cats). They have brought on the Naval Architect from the former company to oversee the redesign and launch of this new product, Rudolf Jonker.
I had a LOI for
Hull #2 that was showing in Annapolis, when a nice couple from
Florida came on board and wondered if they could
purchase our position as they had a need for tax reasons to
purchase this year. We were happy to comply and took on
Hull 3 which is scheduled to splash in February 2017. The Admiral (she hates that nickname, but hasn't come up with a better one) fell in love with Sara as much as the boat. These are the kind of people you want to be friends with. They have an interesting
concept for avoiding the kind of risk that i am extremely sensitive to regarding boat build progress payments. They have a financial backer that allows them to offer "in-house"
financing with a 5% deposit and payments into an independent escrow account until acceptance. That was a huge reason for me to get comfortable with this structure, given my near miss with
Antares.
They have
sold 3 boats in 3 weeks, one at the Cannes
boat show and two last week in Annapolis. Hull 4 is
sold and I imagine they will have a backlog after the
Miami show in February.
I am not receiving any compensation or otherwise from these nice folks. Just wanted to share my experience over this 8 month journey.
Long time lurker, first time poster. Cheers, jc