Heard a terrible rumor

omar174

Is Hurricane going out of business? Please say it isn't so. 

cjjjdeck

Not sure what to tell you, omar.  I have not heard anything along those lines and I subscribe to marine trade newspapers.  In fact, Hurricane just finished having their annual dealer meeting and they just introduced the CC19 Center Console model.  From what I recently heard, they are going to eventually revamp the entire center console line and create it's own series.

For the record, my dealer is way ahead of his last year sales for Hurricane and Godfrey pontoon boat lines and last year was way ahead of the previous year.

With a company as big as the Nautic Global Group, I would think you would hear something more along the lines about "re-structuring" before hearing "going out of business", but who knows?  Maybe you have a source closer to the situation?

omar174

I don't know what to think, but I hope it isn't true. No other company builds a deck boat like Hurricane. And the Godfrey pontoons are top notch. 

Maybe it was just an idiot salesman telling lies. 

cpufixer1

Please, please say it's not so..  I Love this boat and there is nothing else like it on the market. There is not a place I take it that someone does not stop me to ask about it.

cjjjdeck

If this makes anyone feel better, my dealer just ordered over 30 Hurricane boats to start off the 2016 model year (not to mention at least an equal number of Godfrey Pontoons)!

I do know that Hurricane owns the majority of the deck boat by a very wide margin.  Bow rider sales are not what they used to be, due to the increased popularity of deck boats (that's why Bayliner, and others, have been re-introducing them after discontinuing them a number of years ago).  Deck boats are just more versatile than bow riders. Pontoons are the other boating growth market and Godfrey has a huge share when combining all their lines (Sweetwater, Aqua Pation & Sanpan).  Last year they even expanded the Sweetwater line with the "Sweetwater Premium" models, which really did well last season and equally well this season (according to my dealer).  The only line that might, and I mean "might", be down is maybe Rinker, mostly because of the bow rider popularity down turn.

omar174

Here are a couple of links. Seems that the brands are for sale. Which doesn't mean the company is in trouble. 

http://www.boatingindustry.com/news/2015/08/25/nautic-global-group-taking-bids-for-brands/

http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2015/08/nautic-global-group-seeks-ownership/

One of the articles does mention that Hurricane is Nautic Global's most successful brand. 

omar174

One more update. 

Bennington Marine bought Nautic Global

http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2015/09/bennington-marine-acquires-nautic-global-group/

bshippjr

I would like to think that this is a positive for the Hurricane brand.  Around my area, Bennington is the top of the line in  pontoons.  I would hope they would bring that same mindset to Hurricane.  The other pontoon brands enable Bennington to offer lower price points and capture more market share, while keeping the Bennington brand positioned as top tier.

omar174

I'm just glad the brand is going to be around. When I heard they were going out of business, I was shocked. Specially when I look around the are where I boat, the most common brands are Hurricane and Sweetwater. From reading posts in other forums, Hurricane boats are also very popular in many other areas. I'll say it again, in my opinion, NO ONE makes a better deck boat.  

89checkmate

All those brands are very popular on my lake, my neighbour has a sweet water, I got a hurricane, neighbour on the other side has a Aqua patio, father in law also has a Aqua patio, guy across the road has a Bennington, all those pontoons are very popular, only a couple hurricane's tho.

hurrig8r

Don't know how true this is, but when I bought my Hurricane back in March, I was told by a dealer that Hurricane was the best selling boat in FL.

garrett575

Looks like Bennington Marine purchased all of the Nautic Groups brands....

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150922006377/en/#.VggvgMuFO1s

DavidPJ

No doubt there will be changes as Nautic is integrated into Bennington. Bennington makes a fine pontoon boat and if Nautic had to be acquired, Bennington is probably a fine choice. I had a Bennington tri-toon before our Hurricane and it was an excellent pontoon boat.

cjjjdeck

Actually, I think this is great news.  Nautic Global Group has been owned by an investment firm for too long and should have been sold to real "boat people" a long time ago.  Now it looks like they have.  Hurricane and Godfrey own way too big a market share to have gone out of business.  I'm hearing a positive reaction to this change.