www.iFourWinns.com

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

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Hmmm. Seems like multiple messages in there to me. Meanwhile, U.S. banks now own a greater value of residential real estate than all U.S. homeowners combined, for the first time in history. But at least we've put a complete halt to all drilling, so it's all good.

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

Interesting to say the least.

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

Well I'd have to say that they certainly are steering the brands in new direction, and more's the pity. Great products, excellent customer service, and brand loyalty only goes so far I guess.

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2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

This is a really interesting change. We had a chance to meet Jeff when we did the plant tour. He's got a ton of history and experience in the boating industry. Rick, apparently, had been with Four Winns for a VERY long time. Both seemed to be postitive forces for the company.

During a tremendous enconomic downshift, Four Winns managed to scale back and maintain profitable operations (at the FW level, not Genmar). I would love to know the reasoning behind these changes.

One can only imagine that the new owners just wanted to bring in their own 'blood' to run the show. Time will tell if this is a good move, or is detrimental to the future of FW.

I'm still getting warranty work here and there -- but man, they keep making changes, but not updating the systems. Whether is carpeting,or steering wheel trim rings.

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

To me, this is great news. Platinum Equity doesn't just want "their" people in the mix, they want to fix what is broken (and those that left had a long time to try and turn things around). I have a little background with PE, but with that aside, I'll put my money and faith in a company that's worth $28 Billion and a CEO that came from Michigan and owns a FW's himself! If anyone is actually concerned now, they should check out the portfolio and see that they own dozens of companies, some acquired at over $2 Billion. I would much rather be floating in the waters that we are now in, than the waters we were sinking in a short while ago. Just my $.02...............

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2011 Four Winns H260 Frenzy $ea Note
VP 8.1GXi/DP EVC 420HP
2007 Silverado 1500 CrewCab 4x4
Previous:
2002 Four Winns H200
5.0GXI 270HP

Yes he was. He was a neighbor of mine when I was growing up in Cadillac. I believed he and his family moved in about 1979 or 1980. Great man and family. I still saw him and said hello about once a month during my weekly visit to Four Winns.

Today's announcement. New VP @ Four Winns. Not a PE guy either.

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

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

So, the current President of Four Winns and now the VP of Sales and Marketing are both former BRP guys. They both also get credit in the press releases for bringing back the Evinrude brand after OMC.

I'm a fan of BRP. I'm a huge fan of Evinrude.

I have a many thoughts on this. Not the least of which is that I expect to see an outboard powered Four Winns on the market in the near future.

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Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

This is an interesting little article:

http://www.boats.com/blog/2010/07/glast ... -michigan/

This last quote is the most interesting to me.

“A big change that’s just around the corner will come when we can no longer sell entry-level boats powered by affordable sterndrive engines with carburetors,” said Lambert. “This is coming in 2011, when we will have to start building all of these boats with engines equipped with fuel injection and exhaust catalysts, which will add $4,000 to $4,500 to the retail cost of the boat, which is huge on a 17-foot runabout. When that happens, I think a used boat becomes the new entry-level boat until all the good used boats are gone. The alternative is to switch to outboard power on these smaller family boats. With an outboard, you can get the same performance with less power. We need to convince the customer that’s OK, and to design new runabouts that handle and perform well with a smaller outboard.”

To me it would seem that they brought in this new VP of Sales/Marketing to begin working on convincing the customer that it't OK to have outboards again.

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Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

Good observations. These guys are the bang for your buck, small, affordable boat guru's in todays' world.
OB powered boats are in the mix soon for Four Winns. They are getting killed on entry level boats by
Bayliner with there 160 OB and 175 OB models. People are snapping them up, as it allows the average
Joe to get into boating for little cash, and still have fun on the water. $23K for an 18 foot bowrider with
I/O power is ridiculous, and the price will just go up in the next few years for that boat. They are on the right
track I think, only time will tell.

Maybe Lou C will finally not have to "wish" Four Winns would begin making outboard powered boats again.

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

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

I love my 170 Freedom with Johnson 115 HP OB. More room in the boat without the I/O taking up room. I would much rather work on an OB than I/O.

I have always thought Four Winns made a mistake when they quit making boats with OBs.

I agree with riptide as I also love my 1997 horixon QX w a 115 johnson. It still runs great and I
actually enjoy the ease of working on it, the boat really gets up on plane quickly. I frequently
get comments on it from people with other 16-19 foot bowriders with I/O's that they wish that
they had an outboard option. Paying attention new FW management? Bring them back!!!

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2011 Bennington 2075 GLi
2012 Key West 211 DC
2005 Four winns 180 Horizon LE
1997 Horizon QXsold
2000 248 Vistasold
2002 Key West 2020WA sold

Having the right product in the right price range is very important, but so is reputation and brand loyalty. These last are hard to come by without great customer service. Not sure we've seen much in the way of great customer service from FW lately. To be fair, there's been a lot of slash and burn in corporations across the nation due to the economy. I know the remaining customer service folks want to help, but how much can you do when parts inventories are not replenished and the volume of service requests only increases? I'm hearing of great support from remaining Dealers, but not direct from FW. The recent news of declining FW support of/for Dealers doesn't help. I really hope the House Cleaning includes stepping up service as part of their 10,000 foot strategy. So far we've seen the recent shake up of management, decreases in the employee base, and a drop in service, and allusions to future changes in the low end product offerings. Clearly the end goal of any corporation is to increase profitability. I just worry that the 'symptoms' we've seen above are more indicative of a shrinking business.

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2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

I've heard of problems with Four Winns CS...but I have not seen it. All my parts being dropped shipped from Cadillac are shipped out ASAP. Granted I haven't had any since I ordered my rub rail for the swim platform a few months back. My emails are being replied to, I was given a great tour. These are VERY tough times, especially for boat builders. I will say this, I was VERY impressed with how many boats were in production. The only cruisers they were making were headed overseas though. I am happy to hear they are not just selling in the US...they are diversifying into Canada and Internationally as well. It will only help them keep going and hopefully expand the business.

The V475 is ENORMOUS! I saw the hull and deck separate and wow. If only my pockets were that deep!

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