What's concerning to me is all of these Fountains and Donzis I see being built for spec or inventory.
Are any of them actually sold?
Is there a market for a dozen new Classics?
I saw what happened to Donzi in 2008/09 when they floor planned a ton of boats, lost all their dealers, had to eat the boats and then went bankrupt.

From what I was told is everything was build to order type deal. So they was being built for a individual not a floor plan.

Yes good luck to them. It kills me that I may never see a new Velocity.

Padraig

That's cool! With a fountain involved in building Fountains. There will be a demand for the brand again. imo

I think that ship has sailed......It isn't the "who" is involved but rather the product line! Fountains are like VCR's, everyone had one in the 80's and 90's but that doesn't make them relevant in 2016. I like Fountains, I have met Reggie at boat shows/poker runs and the guy is certainly a legend who built more powerboats and won more races than anyone but the fact is the industry has changed. Sunsation has been around as long as Fountain and their bread and butter was sport boats, now they only make center consoles due to the market demand and I think it was reported that Nortech was heading in the same direction.

The buying public isn't interested in buying 200-300K performance boats that are essentially 10-15 year old designs. Short warranties on I/O combined with the hassle of maintenance has made the OB's dominant with offering 5-8 year warranties and less maintenance combined with similar performance capabilities.

I would bet even if they had a crazy promotion for new 42 Fountains with 565's for 250K that they would have a tough time selling a dozen of them.

Because everyone is buying $300k to$450k center consoles?

No but those 300-450K CC's are stealing former I/O customers quickly! :evilb:

Look at OSO members as examples:

Bob the builder.....owned dozens of new boats. Hasn't bought an I/O boat since his last 50 NT (guessing 2008) and it is a diesel. 3-4 OB boats have been purchased since.

Bob Christie from NJ (Matt Trulio just wrote an article on his new OB Cigarette). Multiple go fast cats/vees and just ordered a new Cig OB boat.

Bill63 from Michigan that had a 42 Fountain, bought a new 39 NT, then recently took delivery of another 39 NT CC with Mitcher T paint. Fountain is long gone now.


I can't think of a single person that has had OB powered stuff that went back and bought a new I/O powered boat after owning OB's......Ron Szolack doesn't count as he is more of a boat dealer than a boat owner! :D Boat manufacturing is dependent on NEW boat sales. I just think Baja, Fountain, Donzi are selling boat lines that simply aren't in demand (like VCRs or DVD players).

Fountain makes a great center console. Great boat for old lazy men or avid fishermen.; I am not going to bash the center console . It looks like a really fun boat to go out on. But you are missing something. Would you rather have a 700 HP Hellcat, Shelby or Vette? Or a cadillac.? I like the cadillacs cause they are rockets nowadays and cool looking. We need to look at the auto industry and what they are building. They are building muscle cars. Not fishing boats.. :)

The 38 CC from Fountain is an awesome boat, but in reality it was brought out in 2002/2003 so that is soon to be a 15+ year old design. The interiors are certainly more fish than fancy and honestly compare them to a Statement or Nortech or Cigarette and the Fountain isn't going to sell many. Go off the fishing aspect and compare them to a Yellowfin or Contender or SeaVee and once again the Fountain won't sell many. It is a boat with a lost audience.....not nice enough for cruiser buyer, not fishy enough for hard core fisherman buyer.

I get the car analogy but that doesn't compare to boats. Cars can be leased easily and disposed of in less than an hour if you have a Carmax nearby......boats not so much.
Your wife could borrow one of those cars to run errands, a boat not so much. I think your car/boat analogy would be better if you compared CC's to SUV's. They used to be solely purpose driven haulers, now they can be and often are performance haulers!

I recently attended a Cadillac Performance Driving event and I love the new CTS-V but at 100K MSRP there are a lot of alternatives. I got to drive the ATS-V on a road course and it was fast, not sure I would write the check for 75K to buy one.

do you yourself believe the crap you type?

[QUOTE=Jupiter Sunsation;4508372]I think that ship has sailed......It isn't the "who" is involved but rather the product line! Fountains are like VCR's, everyone had one in the 80's and 90's but that doesn't make them relevant in 2016. I like Fountains, I have met Reggie at boat shows/poker runs and the guy is certainly a legend who built more powerboats and won more races than anyone but the fact is the industry has changed. Sunsation has been around as long as Fountain and their bread and butter was sport boats, now they only make center consoles due to the market demand and I think it was reported that Nortech was heading in the same direction.

The buying public isn't interested in buying 200