PSC Bankruptcy - The Auction

[ragamuffin]

Just Curious if any one knows what will happen now that Pacific Sea Craft has filed chapter 11 and has sold off most of it's assets, what will or has happened to all of the designs, drawings molds etc... Are they gone for ever poof!!! Will someone buy them and resurrect this a few boats or will the 381 be the last of the Ericson's?

[HGSail]

They Thru out everything a couple of years ago from what I hear.

Pat
E29
'73
#224
Holy Guacamole

[bigtyme805]

They are selling all the molds, big article in the Log. Everything must go is what I hear.

[ragamuffin]

Do you have a link to the article?

[Sean Engle]

The auction is next week in California. Among the stuff being sold off is the mold to the E38. The Ericson name and logo are probably assets held within the general assets (with the PSC logo and name).

If any of you guys in SoCal (or others in the area) are interested in trying to secure some of the Ericson documentation for our archives, it would be most appreciated. I've just received 15 binders and a bunch of other doxs of stuff we'll be scanning and uploading - however - some models are missing - among them the E23, E31 and a few others.

If anyone is interested in attending, please contact me. It would be nice to have a (reasonably) happy ending to this sad story....



//sse

[Andy Rogers]

I wonder what this means for Saga, too. Nothing mentioned in the bankruptcy notice but apparently PSC was building the Saga models since 2006.

Sad news all around.

http://www.sagayachts.com/main.html

[bigtyme805]

Auction set for Sept. 18 at company's Fullerton facility.



LOG NEWS SERVICE - A federal bankruptcy judge has authorized the public auction of the assets of financially troubled Pacific Seacraft Corporation.

It was the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the Fullerton-based sailboat manufacturer since it filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors in May.

In a motion filed July 3 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, U.S. Trustee Peter C. Anderson asked the court to convert the case to one under Chapter 7 "for cause" - or, as an alternative, appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to oversee the operation of the firm during the Chapter 11 reorganization.

The motion said "cause" existed for several reasons, including the failure of the debtor, Pacific Seacraft, to list one of its largest unsecured creditors, to whom it owed $775,000.

The bankruptcy judge chose the alternative and ordered the appointment of a trustee to oversee the operation of Pacific Seacraft.

Anderson, who as a Justice Department official monitors bankruptcy cases for the federal government, chose James J. Joseph as the Chapter 11 trustee to oversea Pacific Seacraft.

Based on his assessment that Pacific Seacraft had effectively ceased to operate after filing Chapter 11 in May, Joseph subsequently filed a motion in bankruptcy court for authority to sell the firm's assets.

Joseph, a member of a Los Angeles-based law firm, told The Log News Service Aug. 30 that the court had approved his motion and that he would employee an auctioneer to proceed with the sale of the firm's assets. The sale is currently scheduled to be held Sept. 18 at the firm's former location in Fullerton, Joseph said.

Jerrold "Jerry" Cann, the firm's director of marketing, said in a July 16 release that the firm's management had been focusing on discussions with several parties interested in seeing "this powerful brand name continue." A source said Aug. 29 that those "parties" had been unsuccessful in their efforts to raise money.

Calls to the telephone number listed on Pacific Seacraft's Web site for its Fullerton plant and office were answered with a recorded message that the number had been disconnected.

[Chris Miller]

Originally Posted by Andy Rogers

I wonder what this means for Saga, too. Nothing mentioned in the bankruptcy notice but apparently PSC was building the Saga models since 2006.

http://www.sagayachts.com/main.html

Not to be a gossip , but the rumor mill at SA (with a pretty heavy hitter in the naval architect realm) had Saga going away with PSC. I would guess there will be some new agreement with a new builder... but who knows. Tough time to be building and trying to sell yachts these days.

[noproblemo2]

WOW, we're all family here, would love to hear from Bruce right about now........

[Tom Plummer]

The Ericson logo appears to be in group A of the auction which requires a $50 K cashiers check on deposit before you can bid. I am thinking that we are going to need to figure out who gets the Logo and if we can't buy the logo outright from them at least get a limited use agreement with them so we don't find ourselves being sued for logo infringement.

[tenders]

Interesting the way they've bundled all the intellectual property into one lump. Clearly they expect somebody to be bidding on it. I wonder who it is.

Sounds like they were negotiating with another boatbuilder, they couldn't agree on a price, time ran out and they expect that entity to end up with the assets. But they don't want just anybody to bid: a $50k cashier's check is a pretty high barrier to entry, so it probably hasn't been a contentious discussion.

My guess: Catalina. PS would be a nice high-end complement to their existing line, and they could probably run it more profitably with their existing shop than PS could do on a standalone basis. Probably little to no need for the Ericson marque.

The name of the game now for PS is to get as many other similar bidders interested. Ideally they'd like to get somebody else in to bid the price above whatever they wanted before the auction--how about Hunter?!--but that almost never happens.

[MarkA]

Please don't talk about Catalina or Hunter taking over PSC. It's making me sea sick. I'd rather see them die with dignity, than that.

[tenders]

It's making me sea sick. I'd rather see them die with dignity, than that.

I know what you mean, but we're talkin' business here and the reality is that profits in US sailboat building have been dead in the water for decades. PSC has been out of the Ericson business for a while and it must be because they weren't making any money on it.

Just walk down your dock: Ericson, Cal, Pearson, Columbia, Bristol, Islander, Morgan, Ranger. All better boats than their builders were businessmen. Who's a more likely buyer than Catalina and Hunter? Island Packet, Tartan/C&C, Hinckley, and J don't need premium cruising entries like PSC in their lineups.

(Well, maybe J Boats. Will people who are raced out press their J's a little less hard, or will they want to trade into a nice phat PS cruiser? The latter seems like a stretch, but if it makes you feel better until tomorrow evening's denouement, enjoy!)

I guess there's Macgregor...wouldn't that be nice?!? (Sorry. That makes me queasy too.)

[Loren Beach]

Quite a few years ago Catalina acquired the Morgan name, and then produced some large boats under that name.
Also back in the 80's Catalina bought the tooling for the Yankee 38 and with a new deck and interior moldings it became the Catalina 38.
Catalina is also in California... Kinda makes ya wonder...

So perhaps it's not that much of a stretch to believe that tomorrow they will pick up one or two of the PSC molds for a penny on the dollar. IMO there is no future for the Ericson name in this scenerio, as the only three E models that PSC was producing have been languishing since the late 90's.

Remember that when Ericson had all the tooling and patterns for the three Olsons, PSC wanted nothing to do with those when they picked the bones of Ericson Yachts.
It wiil ever be thus - carrion birds can afford to be choosy since the corpse can't complain.

As another sign of the way the industry has moved away from Blue Water Cruising boats, word is that Willard is finally going to chain-saw the molds they have on their back lot for their legendary 30 foot double-ender... and perhaps all their trawlers -- leaving them to focus on their successful line of military hulls.

Darned good thing we E's and O's have this little corner of the Web!


Enjoy your boat, share your dreams and adventures, and keep posting.

LB

[noproblemo2]

Whatever happens, long live us Ericson "best boat ever built" owners & "prior" owners...