Meridian Yachts Gone?

Brunswick have closed four factories, no mention of dropping brands at this time.
Part of the press release mentioned that equipment was to be moved to other sites.
I suspect that their factories will now turn out several brands from one site.
 
quote:
Originally posted by HOGAN

Why would anyone go on THT???

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For amusement and a good laugh. I love the keyboard warriors over there that are always looking for a fight. [:-banghead]
 
I;m telling you- they just need to come out with a new consolidated line and call it Seabayidianum.
Looks like a far # of people are loosing their jobs.
 
I hope the line survives as I'm reasonably confident it will. Meridian has a decent name and has worked hard for many years to there. It's very much a line worth continuing.

As to THT. Hogan, I find the Marine Electronics forum on THT to be very useful and often informative. I usually only visit the electronics and boating forums. Some threads are argumentative which are easy to spot and best ignored. THT has a broad stripe of large and small boat owners participating which I like. Accurate or not the impression is that BE participants are generally larger boat owners and cruiser oriented. THT paricipants seem more fishing oriented. I like both, so here I am.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Butch Davis

As to THT. THT has a broad stripe of large and small boat owners participating which I like. I like both, so here I am.

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I agree :D
 
When Pete and I were at the US Marine Media Event last spring we visited the Navassa plant outside of Southport, NC where the large Maxiums are built. They told us then that they were already preparing to move Meridian manufacturing to that facility. Its a huge place, very modern and has on-site launch facilities in a river that leads directly to the ICW. I'm surprised its being "mothballed".
 
The brand will report under Sea Ray as opposed to US Marine and the tooling will be moved to East Coast plants where other brands are manufactured. They will continue selling boats under the Meridian brand.
 
quote:
Originally posted by DarinSchmidtMN

The Meridian brand has been discontinued. Too bad, it was a nice line of boats at a decent price.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_meridian_yachts.html

The link above is a news story I found on Google News.

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Where do you get that from the linked story? It talks about closing a plant. I did not see anything in the article about discontinuing the brand.

Did I miss something?

A former inlaw just lost his job at the Arlington plant. I got to tour the plant a few years ago, just after they started using the Meridian badge over Bayliner. It was a pretty impressive facility, but I'm sure that the People's Republic of Washington is just about the worst place to be building anything anymore. Labor costs are sky high, so are taxes.
 
Brunswick made a bad decision to dump the lower priced, mainly diesel powered Bayliner motor yachts in 2002. They should have tooled Maxum up to compete with the Carvers and Silvertons instead of dumping the successful Bayliner line to build Meridian.
 
ronlord,

How could you say that? Meridian has been very succesful. I'm sure it will continue to be once the economy recovers. Meridians are very good boats and a very good value. Service has been excellent. The new products keep getting better. I don't see it as a mistake at all.
 
Consolidating production to just a few plants IMHO, is a very smart move in today’s economic climate.” Mothballing” the other plants leaves the door open to expand production when the economy turns around.

The only other option would have been to eliminate some of the brands, which may eventually happen if the economy does not turn around soon.

Brunswick made a bad decision to dump the lower priced, mainly diesel powered Bayliner motor yachts in 2002. They should have tooled Maxum up to compete with the Carvers and Silvertons instead of dumping the successful Bayliner line to build Meridian.”

In my neck of the woods, the Meridian competes very well with Silverton. Maxium does not compete at all, because they are cruisers, not MY or Convertibles. Meridians price point makes it attractive especially when you factor in their appointments and detail. Bayliner has always been known as a “entry level” boat, although their larger boats were not “entry level”, they were grouped in to that. Changing the name to Meridian and making the boat more cosmetically appealing IMO was another smart move.

Just my 2C Ron
 
back then, Maxum had two very good Sedans, the 41 and 46 which offered tremendous value. you basically got Sea Ray quality at Bayliner prices...

there was no way that brunswick could undermine SR so that's why the larger Maxums were incorporated into the new Meridian brand.

i don't see how Meridian was a mistake, it's been pretty successful, offering a good product at a somewhat competitive price without the "bayliner" label.
 
Maxum = Sea Ray??? OMG NO!!!!!!! The Maxum "yachts" we sold barely held together. The fit and finish were horrible and the materials for seating and bedding started unravelling before the boat was delivered. Let's not even bring up stringer problems.
 
Kenny,
I am no expert, but the Maxum boats that I have seen were not so bad, actually I liked them. Not sure what years or models you are speaking of. Maxum IMO, was a pretty silent brand, closer to a Searay than a Bayliner and IMO, very close to Searay, but much less money.
 
well, as a past owner of a 98 3700, i can tell you it was head and shoulder above the rest, even SR in many areas. The 4100 and 4600 were built the same way. i've crawled around that boat enough to know that it was well built... were do i start... the trhubolted deck to hull joint? the thick stringers, with properly sealed limber holes? the heavy reinforcement along the hull side. When i sold it after 6 years in the FLORIDA sun, the seats were still very presentable...

Kenny, frankly, since you work for a carver dealer you shoudl refrain from commenting on other builders product... as to the use the word "yacht", i agree, it's plain silly on anything under 50' although you use that word when it comes to carvers... funny. and btw, the maxums were not called "yachts" but "sport yachts". Equally silly in my opinion but if you want to cut down the competition, at least be accurate.

when i compared boats in the 35/40' range back in late 98, the maxums add actaully better finish than the SR, incl. corian, SS thurhulls above the water line, better ER layout with excellent access, and many more things i forgot. The only other boat on my list back then was the REgal 402...

I do know one thing... in the 6 years i kept that 98, i NEVER had to contact Maxum for ANY issue...
 
Pascal...We sold Maxum boats of all sizes brand new from 1992 until 2004...I know of what I speak. I even owned one for a short time. They are nice looking boats, and under a certain size...built well. Unlike alot of dealers out there, when we stop selling a brand, we don't neglect our customer with them. I can't count how many stringer replacements we have had to do, not to mention the "reworks" of stringers on several models. Don't get me wrong, they aren't bad boats, just not "closer to Sea Ray than Bayliner" as you have stated.
 
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