Ugh, Morris Yachts sells to Hinkley

[msinn]

There goes another US boat company!

I know Morris boats are high end and not so mainstream due to their cost, but it still hurts to see them sell.

Morris sold to Hinkley, which is owned by a private equity firm, Scout Partners LLC.

Hinckley acquires Morris Yachts — Business — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine

[icedog11]

if the companies are healthier as a single entity then its a good thing. Lets hope the debt level has not increased to a point that will sink both.

[Polux]

How are the new Hinkley 50ft selling? Did they made more than one boat? I see always photos from the same one.

Like Morris, Hinkley has been sailing mostly daysailers ...and motorboats.

Difficult for companies the size of Hinkley and Morris to be living on the small de lux daysailers market, but with the exception of the new 50ft Hinkley (and daysailers) they don't have a new design for many years and the ones they have are outdated.

I saw Morris guys on one or two occasions, some years ago on Dusseldorf, with no boat to show and only proposing outdated designs while other brands were showing new boats and designs, on the same Morris market niche.

Hard to understand the Hinckley 50 Bermuda as a project to bring the brand back to its glory days. I love the boat but I don't understand to what market it is pointed too. It seems to me that American sailors are too conservative to like that boat (I hope I am wrong).

The real problem is to try to understand what is the American market and what wants the american sailor. It seems most want Jeanneaus and Beneteaus and the group Beneteau factories on US seem to be a big success, but outside that, regarding the market the Europeans call Luxury cruisers, what do the Americans want?

That is a more conservative market, even on Europe, and I would say much more conservative on the US. The problem seems to find a common denominator, a type of boat that would be consensual to all and personally I don't have a clue. I thought that something like the Bluejacket 40 could fill the bill but apparently not.

Maybe there is not a meaningful American market for a single type of Luxury boat, I see old designs like the Outbound 44/46 continuing to be sold on small numbers while Bob Perry is designing and supervising the building of three full keel boats, a brand new design with a carbon hull.

Maybe regarding that more conservative taste it is not possible to find a common denominator, being the dispersion of tastes so vast that there is no meaningful market for an American production luxurious cruiser.

There are several brands in Europe on that market niche but even if there is a distinction between more sportive and less sportive models, the common denominator in what regards contemporary design and types of boats is evident.