***URGENT*** Please read!! Need replies, comments concerns!
 

Gaffrig Precision / Livorsi Marine

We need to hear public comments, confusions, and even first hand stories dealing with problems relating to GAFFRIG name confusion ( and what a perfect place to hear the opinions of the performance boating public).

We have seen some of the posts and debates over your concern with another company using Gaffrig name (Gaffrig Performance)

If you have Gaffrig Precision / Livorsi Marine products in your boat we want to hear from you or if you have ever dealt with the other Gaffrig and been misinformed or even if you have just been confused we WANT to hear about it!

Please post any concerns, comments, praises, frustrations that you have realting to this issue.

Thanks for all your help in advance I know what a great group all boaters are and we have seen your opinions and concerns reagrding this CONFUSION!!:)

We sell Formula and Donzi, all are Livorsi I assume. Yes there is some confusion, the average boater has no idea what is going on. The recent Powerboat Mag article didn't help, just made it more confusing. I trust my boat builders so I'm OK there.I remember years ago I had a Gaffrig liquid filled speedo in my old raceboat,years ahead of the old Keller speedo we all used to use. Wonderif John Keller is still around?

Gaffrig/Livorsi is the only way to go. Been using their guages and accessories for years. Any problems I just call Wags and he takes care of it. It's the real thing.

I have heard the story through a couple of sources. The Powerboat article spells it out very well. We will have to wait for thew courts to decide who gets the name. I have Livorsi gauges in my boat. The quality of powder coating wasn't the best. I'm very particular. If I called Wags he would probably take care of it. I just wish they had been more concerned about quality before they shipped the product.

The other "Gaffrig" is supposed to have some very nice stuff. Supposedly you can float a gauge in water and it won't fog or harm the gauge, Waterproof. I have not seen this first hand.

As long as all your gauges match and the company that sold them stays in business and takes care of problems I wouldn't worry. It just means competition, which should increase quality and lower prices.
Dan

Unobloondie,


How about if we start with who you are and what information you need. First off, give us the short version of why there are different versions of “gaffrig”. This forum has beat this topic to death. Tell us your version so we can decide if you are the real deal. Please tell us if you are the “good” gaffrig or the “bad” gaffrig.

We have had a few gauge problems in our Formulas but Formula has always been quick to take care of it I assume thru Livorsi.I'mOK with that,Livorsi seems to respond quickly. I have always wondered over the years though why are marine gauges so unreliable? Formula has used VDO, Teleflex, Gaffrig.Always some problems but easily rectfied. But here is the big question. How many of you have a car or truck with a gauge problem? I never have in 40 years of driving. Have any of you? Don't tell me the marine environment is different, we have new boats come in with gauge problems before the y hit the water.Maybe someone can explain it to me.

I am a Livorsi Marine representitive and the trial regarding the Gaffrifg name begins this month. We (Livorsi Marine) are trying to gather a view of the public's opinion on the subject and we felt the Offshore Only website is a great source to reach the consumers of our products where we could get a feel for the opinions of the boating community.

Of course we feel we are the "good" Gaffrig but it is the consumer whose opinion we value!!

I am posting Mike Livorsi's reply to the Powerboat March 2002 Publisher's Note.

We do see that yes there is confusion and that is what we want to show to the courts this month.

Again thank you all for your votes in the poll and for your replies!!

Gaffrig/Livorsi is a great company to do business with, they try hard to satisfy their customers and have provided a quality product(s) for years. I would like to see them to continue to offer us new and improved products and to grow with the boating industry...a "bad" Gaffrig should go away and stop trying to take away from Mikes hard work and dedication.

Frankly, I really don't care. What I see are two companies that have a very simular line of products, yet there are enough differences that it's worth my time to check out both catalogs. Someday, when this whole mess is done and over, I'd like to hear the real story with the company names and who is who.

Letter sent in response to Powerboat by Michael Livorsi
 

In response to the editorial written by Jerry Nordskog:

Since I have spent the last 14 years building the Gaffrig name in the marine industry, I felt I really needed to respond to Jerry Nordskog's Publisher's Letter in the March 2002 issue. Although Jerry admitted that the "facts" he included came from Michael Schultz ("Michael Schultz told me.." he didn't get my side of the story. Unfortunately, everything after "Here's the background:.." which Jerry got from Mike Schultz is either untrue or twists the truth.

Contrary to what Mike Schultz apparently told Jerry, I never worked for Jimmy Gaffrig. I started my own company Livorsi Marine, back in 1988 when I bought Jimmy Gaffrig's speedo business. I bought the whole speedo business, lock, stock and barrel and Jimmy assisgned the rights in the Gaffrig trademarks to me. We ran our seperate businesses, conflict free, in Chicago until November 1990, when Jimmy's business went under and he had to turn evrything over to creditors.

There was never any "dispute" between Jimmy and me. When Gaffrig Precision Instruments, Inc. went bankrupt and was liquidated, Jimmy was forced to use another name. He called it "Gaffrig Performance Industries". Anyone who knew Jimmy could tell you, he didn't sell speedos, other gauges or anything other than mufflers and flame arrestors between 1988 and his death in December 1992.

Jimmy's widow, Patty, owned the company form 1992-1997. Mike Schultz worked for Patty during that time and the only gauges they sold during that time were Gaffirg Precision Instruments guages they bought from me! Schultz bought the company in 1997 and in 1998 began building his own gauges and throttles with the Gaffrig Performance Industries logo. Oddly enough , the logo, the gauges and the throttles look exactly like ours, therefore confusing the consumer.
We have continuously used GAFFRIG andGAFFRIG PRECISION INSTRUMENTS trademarks on all our gauges (over 2,000 varieties) and on most of our other products since 1988. In 1993, based on our use of the trademarks, we recieved a U.S trademark registration for the GAFFRIG PRECISION INSTRUMENTS trademark. We've also recieved registrations for our GAFFRIG and GAFFRIG II trademarks as well. Mike Schultz never challenged our trademark registrations until I stopped selling him gauges.

I won't bore you with the details of the lawsuit (that's for the lawyers), but based on the facts, I don't understand how Mike Schultz can be saying I don't have the right to use the GAFFRIG and GAFFRIG PRECISION INSTRUMENTS trademarks on our gauges, throttles, and other products when I have spent the last 14 years of my life putting blood, sweat and tears into establishing those trademarks as representing the best products in the business, products that we stand behind 100% without question. We go to trial on March 11. as Jerry wrote in the March
issue of your magazine, "all we can hope for is htat justice will prevail".

Sincerely,

Michael Livorsi
Livorsi Marine, Inc.