Brunswick Acquires Cabo

Definitely a sad day in the boating world.

Not a suprise, though.

Makes you wonder what Henry and Mike will do next, assuming they are not bound by the terms of the sales contract.

Maybe Cat Harbor II.....

Now if only I could win the lottery to come up with enough for a 35. But then the 35 would be a transition boat the the 48. What's $1.4 million between friends.



Shad
Rise and Dine
Edgewater 265CC

I agree that it's a sad day just because Cabo was such a great independent company in this business. But this is inevitable. And who can fault Henry and Mike (who are, from my limited dealings with them, very nice guys) for making this decision after all those years of building this business from scratch. I'm happy for them as well as the other Cabo founders who helped build the company. And they have built a truly great company in every respect. You'd have to spend some time at the factory to see how the employees are and how the operation works to really understand it.

In the "hopeful" category, most recent Hatteras owners I know feel that the brand has been improved both in product and service in the past few years and feel good about Brunswick's ownership of that brand. It would seem that Cabo, which builds to 52', will fill the high-end sub-50' sportfisher slot for Brunswick with Hatteras filling the larger 50+ SF slot and some small crossover between them.

Our local Cabo dealer here in SoCal (Stan Miller Yachts) reps both Cabo and Hatteras so that will work well for them as well as buyers.

As for the future, who knows? If it's a typical kind of deal, then you'd guess that there's some kind of contract obligation (i.e. a employment commitment for some period of time plus probably a convenant not to compete) but the Cabo founders must have boat-building in their blood having now successfully built and sold two companies in very different segments (sailboats and sportfishers). Who knows what the future may bring?

Shad...sadly for both of us...$1.4 million will only pay for a 43' rigged including taxes (at least the way you'd want to rig it). A 48' rigged...I don't even want to think about it! Still recovering from the sticker shock on my 35 . But, I LOVE my boat!! And the experience I had buying from Cabo and Stan Miller has been amazing (yes - that's a plug and one that both deserve based on my experiences with them).

I hope Brunswick can keep that customer service intact - it's a big part of the goodwill of the business they just bought.

Yea, keep laughing Rob...

Your next Cabo jacket will show a nice Cabo yacht... right next to the bowling pin and ball logo... LOL!!!

Cheers, Bill




â??If your not part of the solution... you're part of the problem"

Here's a pic of Rob on his day off......boy does he look Charp!

Rob,

If the $1.4M isn't going to cut it, I guess I will need to "brown-bag" it more often during the week in order to make up the difference.

Well, in the mean time, if you decide to move up, let me know. I'm sure we could agree on a fair price without all those brokerage commissions.


Shad
Rise and Dine
Edgewater 265CC


P.S. As a side note, anybody interested in heading out to Havasu for Spring Break (March 16 to March 19th), drop me a note. I will be dragging mine out for a little fun in the sun, not to mention a little freshwater tuna trolling. I hear it wide open, really wide open. Bring your camera.