Whats going on at Fountain?
 

Are they building any boats? Whats going on down there??

Yes they are building a few.....things are terribly slow but they do have orders and some decent service work

I called the factory number yesterday and no one was answering the phones!!!!!

We will have them at the Ft. Lauderdale show in the convention center this weekend

I don't know about the Factory, but Shogren, and legend marine seem to have doubled their inventory???? I know dealers are dropping like flies, (not just Fountain) and they are moving inventory around to maybe keep banks off?? Depending on the dealer floor plan (bank loan for inventory) many have buy back clause, like if the dealer goes under the Factory has to buy back unsold inventory, I actually thought that was why Fountain filed for protection, so they could get out of buy back clauses?? But hey I don't know chit, I just read the articles.:eek:

Got any pics?

Good question/topic. I am considering the purchase of a Baja by Fountain, but concerned about the longer term viability of the manufacturer. I was told Fountain had an invester come in and "bail them out" and that they had hired some folks back, and that they were building boats for 2010. Can't seem to find any current info on the state of affairs at Fountain. Any comments/help appreciated. Thanks guys.

Don't know if they had booth at boat show??

No Bail out, but I would dare say they have as good if not better survivability than most other builders of similar boats. All builders are in the bunker just waiting this out.:party-smiley-004:

Fountain is building boats but certainly at no where near the level as in the past.....and they did have a display at the Lauderdale show but it was on the inside under roof not on the water

I would buy a boat from them without concern. I think they will be around for a long time. Call Tony at the factory. He will take care of you.

Thank you all. I appreciate the responses. I have read nothing but positive information about what Reggie has done to the Baja line-up. Thanks again.

Here we go again

Unbelievable, it's like a day time soap.

“This group said they can run the operation better than I can. That’s like me saying I’m flying to the moon in my new rocketship today,” Fountain said.


well..if the operation ran so well, why did the spaceship crash..and Reggie is defending his piloting skills as the craft lay there bent broken and smoldering, and he's pizzed because the scrappers are trying to haul chunks of it away

I think that is a very telling article and interviews, I believe both got into situations neither planned or wanted to be in, I think both Oxford and Reggie tried to pull a fast one, on each other and now their stuck with one another.

I only see two outcomes

1. Reggie Mans up buys debt from Oxford, keeps company runs it like he wants. I am sure they would let note go for the 6.5mil they have in it. I feel confident he has enough investments, property, and savings to cover it. Keep in mind he comes out way ahead this way he will get rid of 19mil in debt for only 6.5:eek: self bailout.

2. Oxford takes ownership of assets and Reggie leaves, (so will sales, lets be honest) resulting in them selling off assets and maybe coming out a little ahead or a little below but at least out.

WOW, what a crappy situation to be in:angry-smiley-038:

"well..if the operation ran so well, why did the spaceship crash..and Reggie is defending his piloting skills as the craft lay there bent broken and smoldering, and he's pizzed because the scrappers are trying to haul chunks of it away"

Why the crash? Not rocket science (no pun intended). Not long ago with fuel at $4-5/gallon, and prices climbing so fast people were worried they'd be seeing $7-10 dollars a gallon soon, coupled with the general sinking state of the economy (housing, jobs, auto makers, etc), it's easy to see what happened. And the Fountain company wasn't hardly alone. Lot's of businesses took a hit, or went under, especially in the areas of recreation vehicles.
And as the saying goes, "In a bad economy, the first thing to go is the yacht."

But IMO Reggie couldn't have gone 30 years in this game if he wasn't an expertly qualified at what he was doing. Personally, as a boat consumer, if a bunch of investors were at the helm of Fountain I'd be seriously worried that the quality of the Fountain product would suffer, for the sake of a better profit margin. I think the smartest thing the investors could do would be to concentrate on expanding sales avenues, and leave Reggie at the helm to run the show. He's the reason Fountain exists.

With the economy starting to show signs of improvement and fuel prices stabilizing I'm betting Reggie will pull a rabbit out of his hat in December, and much like his race history, he'll come out on top (again). Go Reggie go!

SR-71
Belhaven, NC

how maney checks u wrote for offshore racing ! reggie sponsered racing a long time , takes a lot of cash to do that . i doint see anybody elese doing that . shure as hell not you . robbie

I'm curious how many of the people bashing Reggie have ever broken away from the umbilical cord themselves???

I wasn't there everyday anymore than you were but it's just not quite as simple as saying "he ran the company into the ground". Why?

1. Although I'm sure he was not perfect by any means, no one including him could have anticipated how ugly things would get. If NOTHING else, Reg is a very, very proud, vociferous, and reasonably high-profile man in his industry. Regardless of what any of the haters say, there is no way; no way this man would intentionally run his company into the ground when his last name is on several thousand boats out there. Imagine the embarrassment and stroke to the ego. There's more to the story than just to say "he failed".

2. If you know anything at all about marketing and selling a tangible good, then you must admit that taking him out of the picture will be disastrous if not detrimental to the brand that he has created. People / buyers are very sensitive to the standing of a brand when considering a large purchase. The boats sold well because he knew how to promote everywhere he went. Love him or hate him; without his personality behind the brand, it may as well say Bayliner, Sea-Ray, or Oxford on the side of it. People buy Fountain for the same reasons they buy a Cobra or Chevy or BMW. There are lots of black sandwich cookies with vanilla crème in the middle but none of them taste the same as an "Oreo".

It's very, very easy to throw stones when you go to work everyday for that paycheck. Everything looks to be black and white. Perhaps from where you sit, maybe it does look that simple. But rest assured; it’s NOT that simple.

Having said that, start your own company where there is a tangible good involved with inventories, tons of employees, taxes, money on the table that ages while you sleep and have the azz end of it fall out from underneath you. Then, you will realize that you're no different. Things happen. Things go wrong. No one had a problem waiting in line to meet him at the boat shows when the economy was good.

Realize it or not; own a Fountain or not; if you own any offshore performance V boat, you can just about bet that there is something in or on your boat that was copied or influenced by Fountain. Whether or not Fountain is the best boat or not is wide open.

The man has done more for this sport than all others combined. It's my opinion that the industry would miss him (admittedly or not). Fountain did not survive for nearly 30 years by being stupid or irresponsible. He made some significant decisions during very crucial times and he's paying the price like millions of other business owners and CEO's out there. That's it.

Finally, most really sucessful people got it, lost it, and then got it again. Trump (twice), Colonel Sanders etc.

May The Beak Live A Little Longer - - - :ernaehrung004:

For What It's Worth...
 

If Donald Trump called you and gave you a really good real estate tip and if you had the money I bet you'd listen.

Did he run his previous two empires into the ground or is there more to it?

You know the thing I think that's funny is that you do not see anybody asking about DONZI's CEO. Or GENMAR or,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I brought GENMAR up in the general forum and everyone gave me crap.

What seemed to be their problem?

Good point! Goes to show that more people care about the Fountain brand (haters or not)......

More proof to the idea that Fountains marketing and promoting has worked and not failed. No one gets criticism like Fountain. It's because he's always shooting off that name everywhere. Makes a big deal out of everything. Has learned how to keep his name more visible than anyone in the industry.

Needless to say, when you have everyone's attention long enough, it won't always be positive attention but it's still drawing attraction from lots of people. It has worked for 30 years. That's why his VIN schematic has to be able to support thousands and not just hundreds...

I was at Fountain today. They had several boats coming down the line. Service was really busy too. Everybody was friendly and their attitudes were great. Even got to spend some time with Reggie. Brian spent more time with us than he should. I know he must have been glad to see us leave. It was like being a kid in a candy store. I sure wish I had enough money to have a fish boat, sport boat and cruiser.

That's great news. Glad to hear. Hopefully other builders are having a similar month..

I feel the same way :drink:

Fountain Single Engines?
 

Will Fountain make any boats with a single engine - like a 33 with a 700 or bigger?

I just received Poker Runs American in the mail today and there was an artical about Reggie and what the future will be and he mentioned boats coming out but the 33 wasn't in there it started with the 35 and didn't say anything about the performance line of Baja just the outlaws and islanders. Does anyone know did they already drop the 33 Fountain and the performance line of the 278 Baja. He did mention the 40 foot Baja to come which sounds like a great boat in the making. I hope he continues I don't want him or any other company go under. Without compition you won't keep striving to be better.

I bought some things from them today and the customer service I recieved was tops.

I really ejoyed doing business with them

I look forward to taking my boat to them for upgrades

Read the same article and noticed the absence of the 33 Lightning. My guess is it is gone for at least now. Smaller high end boats have been hit harder in these times than the bigger models. If you can buy a 33 now likely you can do a 35 and most seem to be doing just that. I would assume Fountain has looked at the model sales over the last year or so and will stick to the ones that have the best turnover.

My take is they will build anything you want, but your basically going to pay for the 35 or what ever is the minimum "profitable" boat for them to build is. I know of a 2009 27 Performance they built with 600sci went to GA, for what the guy paid he probably could have got a 33 but he wanted a very fast single, each to their own.

But how much is a 35, I don't see to many of the the new ones for sale.
It's the only one at Shogren that doesn't list a price.

I can understand that lower price models will not sale much, that is the hardest hit part of the US.

I think what he is saying is if you can afford $200k for a brand new 33 you probably capable of chipping in another $30-40k for a brand new 35. Is it even that much more for a 35?

These guys have a couple of 33's and a 35.
http://www.boattrader.com/dealers/Ea...Make-FOUNTAIN/
looks like 148,500 for a 2009 33 and 219,999 for a 2008 35. Asking price anyway.

Reason here is some of these boats are bank owned dealer repo inventory not in the yard at East Coast. I believe the 33 and 38 are theirs, so a 35 of their owned stock would be priced someplace in the middle. But way under the 219K on an '08, believe me! They quoted me on one they had in their stock a while back, lots less than that.

I bought my present boat from East Coast Flightcraft, they are super to deal with, and a very strong and financially sound dealership, these guys will be there when things turn around.

Exactly!

I can't say for sure what the diff between a 33 and 35 would be, but you need to remember that 35's are going to be a full staggered set up, most likely 525's vs the 496's, and have XR Sportmaster's as well.