Okay Folks - Called Broward today only to be told that the company no longer exists. Has my head been in the sand. How did I miss this ??
Broward's gone, but not really. Broward Marine has scaled down to renting office space on the property and stopped all building of yachts. But Broward Shipyard just opened. Butch Risker, former employee at Broward Marine and with many years in the marine biz, is general manager of the new operation. The yard is now open as a yard for repairs.
They closed their doors weeks ago. IIRC, the TX money behind the ex-owner (Tom) still owns the name and the previous owner (Glen) still retains ownership of the property.
Broward I heard someone tied to Carnival Cruise Lines was $$$ behind opening on a 1 year deal. Hope they can keep the yard going
The real question is how Browards built in Broward could ever continue. The smart money would have the operation move to AL, SC, or even North FL to take advantage of lower labor costs and more favorable taxing jurisdictions...that's why BMW & MB built automobile manufacturing plants north of Sawgrass Mills.
Mac McLaughlin, who was CFO at Broward during the Tom Lewis tenure, reiterated the same. Broward had a Broward problem. No matter how smart Mac was, he couldn't compensate for the lack of skilled (dare I say 'caring') craftsmen that Broward had to choose from. Certainly there were a few good guys in this latest resurrection, with experience dating back to Frank's reign, but there were too many who could care less, or worse... looking for a good workers comp claim.
I had known some of the construction workers during the last of the Broward campaign. I asked them what there feelings were of there job and how they felt about the company, so on. The answers were all similar. They felt they were not guided and managed properly to give there best on the job, either being mis guided or not guided at all. An example story of misguided; a mechanic was told to install a piece of equipment by the project engineer. Then it was realized that some thing else needed be installed first which meant that the mechanic had to un-install every thing that he just did and then re do it all over again. They told me that would happen over and over again in all kinds of different situations and the supervisors were not interested in listening to any advise from the working yard crew. And that would cause a lot of less than respectable feelings for there supervisors and people were quickly loosing interest and patience as they knew the company could not survive with that sort of lead. I was very disappointed when I heard this from the people as I was really hoping for Broward to be a success.
Loren makes a great point. And, Broward may have suffered from poor management and process engineering. However, when we think of superyachts, their design, engineering and craftsmanship we naturally gravitate to the German or Italian yards. Yet with Blohm + Voss struggling and for sale and the foundering French and Italians it gives you pause and pride when considering that Trinity right here on the U.S. gulf coast may be the finest managed operation in the industry. Combine that with the revelation that over 25% of 30 meter+ yachts were delivered to American citizens in the past 12 months. Humm... Interesting, concept management as a craft.
Hi, You will probably find that most if not all the contracts to build these were struck and running well before the current financial stagnation began to befall the industry. There was from what I have seen already a move afoot for those buying with USD to find a deal where they were not dealt a blow by the then punitive exchange rates. There is also some pretty interesting behind the scenes issues that have caused B & V to be put to market. Least of which was a shortage of customers. Also, I wouldn't put the Italian yards anywhere high up on the quality table, some give good bang for the buck but you get what you pay for everywhere.
Sounds like you are putting in a plug for Trinity Don't forget the NW has some great builders also. I own a Burger and have looked at alot of older used Browards but never really seen or liked the inside layout-decor of Browards. just my 2 cents
Scott, You are correct, the Northwest has some very good builders. You have Delta, Westport, Christensen and Pacific Mariner. North of the border it would be Richmond Yachts, Crescent Custom Yachts, Rayburn and I am sure I missed a few. This would be a good visit for anyone considering a purchase.
