www.iFourWinns.com

I did a last minute tour of the plant today. I had business in Cadillac this afternoon, so I'm heading up there and it dawns on me that I should have set up a tour. Never been to any of the facilities, so after I was done I located the cruiser division, and stopped and asked about tours. They were awesome, the accommodated me on such short notice.

I didn't get any pics, didn't have a camera with me and not sure they would have let me or not. The floor was pretty full with boats in production on the finish side. The cruiser mold line was dead, nothing in mold production, the H line was fairly busy, with hulls, stringers and floor pans being molded.

On the finish side I seen (from memory) 2 - 278's, 2 - 358's, 3 - 458's, 1 - 288, 4 - 248's, 1 - 258, to many Horizons, a few SL's and several Wellcraft Scarab center consoles. The 458's wow are they huge!! They had one on a trailer ready for delivery and 2 were still being finished. They all had the hydraulic platform with their own zip code...

I was bummed their were no 318's in production.... (my next boat) . He told me they haven't built one in awhile.

They are running at about 25% capacity, and he told me its looking better everyday. This guy (Bill I think) he was in lamination quality control. He has been there since the Winns brothers owned it.

I did ask him about the S series being phased out, he said he hasn't heard the decision had been made yet, I didn't push it having read the post that says it is.

All in all, it was a great experience, its only 1.5 hours away for me, and I might go thru again with a little more preparation and notice to the factory. I really didn't expect to show up a 3 in the afternoon with no notice and expect to take a tour, but they were very accommodating, and very patient with me when I was out in the plant.

Just thought I would share, let me know if you have any questions, be happy to try to answer any.

Thanks......

Edit.... I misstated on the 25% capacity, I have no idea what they are at capacity wise, He told me the are at about 25% staffing from where thy were at full production.

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Jeff

'14 Cruisers 380 Express "Simon Sez"
Merc 8.2 Mag MPI 380
DTS B3X, (x2) Axius Premier


(SOLD)
'08 V318
Merc 350 Mag MPI 300
DTS Seacore, B3 (x2)

It's great to hear so many Horizons are being built. Bread and butter.

Did you happen to tell them how crappy their trailers are?

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Nope.... I am not denying what I have seen from other posts, but I have hauled my 268 all over the state in the last 3 years without any problems.... just changed out the tires that were 7 yrs old by the date on the tire ( no problems with them, just trying to stay ahead of the problems)

Having said that, i am going to store my boat off the trailer this winter to rebuild the trailer. I dont want to have an axle to come loose like I seen on one of the posts.... wouldnt be good!!

_________________
Jeff

'14 Cruisers 380 Express "Simon Sez"
Merc 8.2 Mag MPI 380
DTS B3X, (x2) Axius Premier


(SOLD)
'08 V318
Merc 350 Mag MPI 300
DTS Seacore, B3 (x2)

Thanks for the write up, it's good to hear some actual facts about what you saw in production.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

I was kidding about the trailers. While I agree with many of the complaints here, I've actually been pretty happy with mine. It's maintenance intensive, but I figure any boat trailer, properly maintained, will be. (Those side guides annoy the hell out of me, though.)

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Cool. I hope to tour the plant some day when we are up in that area.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

Their picture policy is 'keep them to yourselves'. ha ha. which is why I have yet to post mine from the tour I went through.

Not surprised about the Vista molds being empty... it's the end of summer and dealers aren't ordering Vista's to keep in inventory as near as much as they do Horizons.

I do know dealers are ordering boats though... a 288 is en route to Seattle for inventory, and I know a particular dealer on the east coast just dropped an order for 25 boats for inventory...

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

Edit

_________________
Jeff

'14 Cruisers 380 Express "Simon Sez"
Merc 8.2 Mag MPI 380
DTS B3X, (x2) Axius Premier


(SOLD)
'08 V318
Merc 350 Mag MPI 300
DTS Seacore, B3 (x2)

Maybe we can get a group of us from the message board to do a tour together. FW might actually like to get a bunch of us from around the country together for a tour and a Q&A. We're a marketing, R&D, and Senior Managements dream group. Start throwing out dates and someone (maybe even me) can make some calls to the PR dept to see if they want some scummy folks walking their plant...

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2001 Horizon 260 - 7.4 Volvo GSI DP