Gunboat 55 for sale so quickly?

[Symphony]

Yachtworld listing just came up for a 2015 Gunboat 55.

here's the link

pictures are mega boat porn.

anyway, why would someone wait two years to get their dream cruising yacht then sell almost immediately? is there something wrong with these yachts?
I guess the owner may have sudden financial problems given the situation of the world markets. Maybe the owner was an oil baron now oil beggar...

the company is in liquidation bankruptcy proceedings after the infamous capsize in the Caribbean.
just dreaming i guess.

[MarkJ]

The company has gone bust so in a few years time the boats will be worth nothing.

Better to flick it now


Sad story

[Imprezza72]

According to the owners it wasn't the experience they wanted. Opting for power over sail.

[Symphony]

pictures look gorgeous.
they are fast as hell.

the current owner was not a sailor and ordered it?

wow.

[estarzinger]

They are buying one of the Dashew power boats. They were sailors (good ones) but were "sold" that the gunboat was a great 2 handed cruising boat . . . And they discovered that it is not. It is too much work and too sensitive to sail/wind conditions and needs a pro captain and crew.

And if you have been following the gunboat experience . . . There are some unanswered engineering questions about the 55 model, which made them uncomfortable about it as a real ocean crosser.

[Svanen]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

The company has gone bust so in a few years time the boats will be worth nothing.

Seriously? While 'orphan' status is certainly not a selling feature, it doesn't tend to have substantial adverse impact on selling prices of quality used boats (do you think a Southerly 49 is now "worth nothing"?).

There is a long line of boat manufacturers who went into receivership and/or ceased production: e.g., Canadian Sailcraft, Tanzer, Sabre, Bayfield, Pearson, C&C, Marieholm, Ontario, Abbott, etc. etc. This often reflects poor management, deteriorating market conditions, or some catastrophic event (fire, founder's death), rather than any deficiencies with the actual boats. Knowledgeable second/third/fourthhand buyers understand that, which supports sale prices.

[neilpride]

If GB is out of bussines, what happen with the builder support , warranty?

[44'cruisingcat]

Why do people sell things? The reasons are infinite.

[estarzinger]

They are in Chapter 11. They hope to come out of Chapter 11 still operating still building boats, just having shed all their back debts, which includes quite a bit of back warranty work.

It is not clear if they will be able to do that or not, because they appear to have been selling these boats quite a bit under their actual building cost (we know this from the chapter 11 documents), and if they price them to have a margin above their cost there may be no buyers (this is speculation).

In any case, today, you might or might not be able to get factory support if you pay for T&M but it will not (almost certainly) be free/warranty covered. If they come out of 11 building boats, legally they will have shed their warranty liability but they could choose to honor those warranty's if they have the funds and think it would benefit their future business (I personally would guess they would not do this because it would be very expensive and is rare after an 11, but it is possible) .

The boats are essentially one-off's, so honestly factory support is really not so critical - except whatever warranty there was is gone for now. Any excellent boat builder will be able to do almost all jobs as well as the factory, except for the few jobs that would require access to the molds.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Symphony

anyway, why would someone wait two years to get their dream cruising yacht then sell almost immediately?

Because the boats apparently are plagued with build problems to the point that it drove Gunboat into bankruptcy and failure.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Svanen

Seriously? While 'orphan' status is certainly not a selling feature, it doesn't tend to have substantial adverse impact on selling prices of quality used boats (do you think a Southerly 49 is now "worth nothing"?).

I contend its different.

Gun boat was a singular company that required a singular client... and that type of client imho wants to be on the winner, not the one just gone bust.

[estarzinger]

Something to realize about the 55's, which the owners did not know when they placed their orders, is that GB was using relatively low paid relatively inexperienced composite workers to build these boats. This was a deal they cut with the state of NC - to train unskilled workers and get the state to pick up part of the wage cost. As a result, these boats had many more hours require to build them than was anticipated (because unskilled people are much less productive than skilled people) and NDA testing has apparently (I am told but have not see with my own eyes) indicated that there are also defects in the build quality. The whole thing seems to have been a bit of a horror show.

[Svanen]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

[T]hey appear to have been selling these boats quite a bit under their actual building cost (we know this from the chapter 11 documents), and if they price them to have a margin above their cost there may be no buyers (this is speculation).

Not a very sustainable business model! I guess they were hoping to initially build a reputation and then eventually transition to higher prices.

IIRC, Nevil Shute (Norway) described something much the same in his autobiography Slide Rule. His fledgling aviation company was selling aircraft for less than the cost of manufacturing and he was approached by a friend asking to buy one "at cost" as a special favour. The friend was of course surprised when informed that Airspeed would be delighted as this would result in an increase rather than a discount!

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I contend it's different. Gunboat was a singular company that required a singular client... and that type of client imho wants to be on the winner, not the one just gone bust.

You could be right.

[Symphony]

I guess the point of this thread is - if you are spending serious money on a boat you would be well advised to get the counsel of someone like Evans Starzinger. Thanks, Estarzinger.

[estarzinger]

If you buy a boat like that, you truly should get an owners representative who knows what is actually going on in the industry but is also truly independent and not beholden to any of the builders. There is truly a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in this industry that owners will not be aware of.

Doing so will inevitably pay for itself and might well prevent an enormous error.

But, while I thank you for the complement, I am not that guy, especially for a high end multihull. I don't know all that much about them and could not properly steer an owner to the best solutions.