What's going on at Discovery yachts?

[Seven Spades]

Yesterday there was a strange article in The Times say thing the "Holding" company is seeking protection from creditors and that operations are unaffected. Does this mean that the holding company bought the assets for Southerly and hasn't paid for them?

Crowdfunders’ stake at risk as Discovery Yachts heads for rocks

 

[guardian]

FWIW i was offered a bench joinery job via a recruiter there beginning of the year, long story short i could earn more stacking shelves at my local Lidi's, "must supply all your own power tools" in the job description, & all for £9-12 ph. Oh yeah and 20 days holiday a year going up to a whopping 25 days a year after 3 years,..............i mean really?

Actual conversation i had with the recruiter:

Recruiter: "are you interested?"

Me: "err no thanks."

Recruiter: "are you sure, they've got plenty of vacancies you know"

Me: "yeah, no sh*t?!"

 

[XDC]

How's the Centaur progressing Roger? I've lost the links.

 

[guardian]

How's the Centaur progressing Roger? I've lost the links.

Started back a few weeks ago after a 2.5 year hiatus, so in between work i rebuilt my old sprinter van instead, i'll put some links in my signature.
*EDIT* turns out i can only put one link in but all the links to other projects and follys are in the right hand margin at agentlemansyacht.com, i'll leave the blog up as i've been told its a good reference for information but will continue on facebook with it.

cheers

 

[XDC]

 

[Wansworth]

From past features in magazines the Discovery yachts are very high end,maybe there aren’t that number of people in terested in such a yacht and sales are falling off

 

[Bathdave]

There’s a strong order book of southerlys I understand

 

[guardian]

From past features in magazines the Discovery yachts are very high end,maybe there aren’t that number of people in terested in such a yacht and sales are falling off

Might well be they're not attracting enough buyers in that part of the market or could be good old fashioned cash flow problems which beset most builders and usually proves fatal in most cases. Hope they can find a way through althoughI read somewhere else on the forum that french builder RM yachts are in trouble. Had a look at Oysters site earlier today and their range consists of just four boats 56 -75 ft, thats changed alot since their self-inflicted implosion, interesting times................

What i've always found odd about the boat industry, its not as if these things rot away, neglected yes - but they dont disappear so its hard to see how boat builders - long term - keep going knowing the numbers of seconhand boats that exist.

 

[Bathdave]

I’ve read the ST article which makes it clear a customer of a company they bought in 2017(southerly ? They only bought the moulds brand and IP) is suing the holding company presumably for a very substantial sum

Looks like could be a re run of the litigation on a faulty boat which brought down Oyster?

 

[Wansworth]

I would imagine yachts in this category are incredibly complex and completion to exacting standards calls for dedicated craftsmen mainly in cabinate work and installation o services who will be in demand in other industries paying higher rates.And normally owners paying for such quality and size already have ideas of exacting standards and of course wish to suggest change to the plan to suit themselves ,disvergence from plan costs money ,very difficult things to build ,luxury’s yachts.

 

[Old Harry]

FWIW i was offered a bench joinery job via a recruiter there beginning of the year, long story short i could earn more stacking shelves at my local Lidi's, "must supply all your own power tools" in the job description, & all for £9-12 ph. Oh yeah and 20 days holiday a year going up to a whopping 25 days a year after 3 years,..............i mean really?

Actual conversation i had with the recruiter:

Recruiter: "are you interested?"

Me: "err no thanks."

Recruiter: "are you sure, they've got plenty of vacancies you know"

Me: "yeah, no sh*t?!"

Welcome to Wrexitshire ( USA Version 1.0 )

 

[Old Harry]

I’ve read the ST article which makes it clear a customer of a company they bought in 2017(southerly ? They only bought the moulds brand and IP) is suing the holding company presumably for a very substantial sum

Looks like could be a re run of the litigation on a faulty boat which brought down Oyster?

It was i believe far more complex, than what you have stated. Many new models to finance & that is very expensive

 

[guardian]

I would imagine yachts in this category are incredibly complex and completion to exacting standards calls for dedicated craftsmen mainly in cabinet work and installation of services who will be in demand in other industries paying higher rates.And normally owners paying for such quality and size already have ideas of exacting standards and of course wish to suggest change to the plan to suit themselves ,disvergence from plan costs money ,very difficult things to build ,luxury’s yachts.

Based on what i was offered as a bench joiner i can see where the problems may occur in terms of quality of fit & finish. I used to pay my blokes (going back 15 years) a basic of £15ph with plenty of OT at double that to make bespoke cabinets & joinery. God only knows what they've got coming through the door at that rate i was offered? If its fordism-type production techniques, essentially assembling components then yeah £10 ph is about right but to be expected to supply your own tools is quite frankly a piss take.

From my experience yacht interior fit out is very detailed work where a professional/experienced eye is of the utmost importance plus your hand & power tools need to be very good quality when easing and scribing components to fit precisely especially when pre-finished.

Back in the day we'd always have in bold at the top of every quote, "Changes mean charges."

 

[AndrewfromFal]

Barbican of this parish had a new Southerly 480 built by them which he took delivery of after the Dusseldorf boatshow; - by which time he'd been offered a role as a NED. -It's all on the new build thread he created...judging from the snag list etc the build quality seems to be pretty good.
Last time I looked at their website, I was surprised by the number of different brands they appeared to be offering (no less than 6), - it looked like a very confused / confusing product line, and that they were attempting to build something for every taste.

 

[E39mad]

Agree with the above post about product line up. If they are tooling up that many moulds for new boats then that takes a massive amount of capital and was the downfall of Southerly last time around. Fingers crossed for them.

 

[emandvee44]

This could be part of the problem.
Couple win £1m from a yacht company for selling them a leaky ship

M.

 

[guardian]

This could be part of the problem.
Couple win £1m from a yacht company for selling them a leaky ship

M.

Is this the guy who had the build diary thread on here?

 

[JumbleDuck]

This could be part of the problem.
Couple win £1m from a yacht company for selling them a leaky ship

Ouch. £1.59m plus their own legal costs. What a conveniently timed entry into administration. Curiously reminiscent of Southerly's history.

 

[doris]

Gosh. If that's all true, a big 'If', there's a major problem for Discovery

 

[Resolution]

There is often more than two sides to a story.....
but why did the Discovery companies decide not to appear in court? Internal strife at Discovery?
Why did the purchaser set off from the UK so fast after taking delivery? Had they put Discovery under pressure to meet some customer deadline (such as a Caribbean season)? Any experienced buyer of big yachts would know that a work-up period of several weeks is advisable to learn how to operate the boat systems and to ensure they are working as desired.
At a quick read through, most of the problems would have been easily sorted if in the Solent.
How much was in fact due to operator error?

So Mr Langdon is gone today and a new investor has been found? Cannot wait for the next instalment in this gripping saga.