Reflections 3

Reflections Business Details Updated 05/14/99 Mail Comments/ Data/ Pictures/Suggestions to: The Victoria 18 Forum

The following Comments were taken off of the Victoria 18 Forum. The comments are from Kemp Howland, an employee of the now defunct Victoria Yachts, and the Sailboat works of DeBary Fl.

From: KEMP_HOWLAND May-13 12:41 pm To: The Victoria 18 Forum #75.7, in reply to 75.1 prev 7 of 12next You might be interested to know that VY played some pretty strange games with serial numbers. Because the floor plan (dealer financing) criteria called for paying off a boat after 3 or four months, it was expedient to finance new inventory to pay off the old inventory. In many cases the boat was taken back to the factory and renumbered, thus allowing the company to retain the financing. The old serial number was marked as sold, the new serial number was submitted for floor plan financing, and noone was the wiser! 79's became 80's. 80's became 81's. Since VY printed its own Certificates of Origin, this was very easy to do. This practice was conducted strictly to facilitate the continued financing of the boats during a period when they were very hard to sell.


From: KEMP_HOWLAND May-13 9:56 pm To: The Victoria 18 Forum #75.9, in reply to 75.8 prev 9 of 12next Sorry to break any bubbles, but the boats were definitely physically renumbered! Then they were shipped out to different dealers as new (or newer) boats. This was not an uncommon practice among small builders. Not ethical, perhaps, but not uncommon.
There is no way to be sure what year the boat was actually built.
VY had two people who did really artistic gelcoat work. You could not tell that the numbers had been ground out and re-stamped.

I think I've got cutter pictures (the cutter was my idea). GWM and I argued about building it and finally built two and took one to the Boston Boat Show. It got rave reviews, but we didn't sell it there. I think that's the hull that wound up in New York. From: KEMP_HOWLAND 9:24 am To: The Victoria 18 Forum #75.12, in reply to 75.11 prev 12 of 12 Toward the end of the Victoria Yachts (VY) life as a corporation, the boats were very hard to sell. Not because they weren’t fine little boats, but because the U.S. economy was sucking eggs. Interest rates were over 20%. People were not making big-ticket recreational purchases.

Dealers would order boats and then have no way to pay for them. VY would ship boats on consignment just to get them out of the factory. Some of these boats came back and were sent to other dealers. It was chaos at the VY factory. Very little money and a huge overhead. GWM was deeply concerned about his employees and did whatever he could to get the boats financed for the dealers which, in turn, kept cash flowing into the company. Since he was also a dealer (he and Vicki owned Strictly Sail, a retail outlet in Sanford, FL.), he had access to some finance options.

This is where the renumbering got started. I seriously doubt that more than 25 0r 30 boats were renumbered. Keep in mind that these were always NEW boats.

Also, remember that a hull laid up in November of 79 might not be completed and shipped until March of 80. So what year was it manufactured? Criteria for lending to dealers and manufacturers changed on a monthly basis. You never knew if the lender would extend credit on your older inventory. So the solution was to keep the inventory fresh. That’s how some boats got renumbered.

Standard hardware changes like port size, lazarette hatch, companionway door construction , etc., were done at the request of dealers and customers. VY was very responsive to suggestions made by customers and sailors. In most instances the design changed when we ran out of the part we were currently installing. So it is difficult to say “all 79 models had portlight configuration “X”. Generally the production runs were not very well defined in terms of “this is a 78 model, and this is a 79”. In many instances the hulls were numbered as the boats were readied for shipping.

I think we built 4 or 5 cutters. I have pictures of the shakedown trials which I will upload this weekend, if time permits. I wanted to show something so different and striking at the boat shows. We needed to get people talking about the Victoria 18. We built the cutters to call attention to VY at a time when The tanbark sails, bronze winches and deck hardware, and the extensive use of teak were a collaborative effort, mostly led by GWM.

The cutters were supposed to be complete, like a Lexus. No options. Everything you could possibly want already built in. The price was right at $10,000 ! That was one expensive 18 foot sailboat! The best thing about the cutter was that, by moving the center of effort forward (with the addition of the flying jib), most of the weather helm disappeared. The cutter was a joy to sail. And a real head-turner. It didn’t catch on with the dealers, as they could not afford the standard 18, let alone the pricey cutter! So, we didn’t make or sell enough to pay for the tooling.

Note: I will also be uploading a few of the pictures of boat # 5 which was used in sea trials. These are pictures of the sea trials which were then used for the early brochure. The wind was blowing HARD and we had to reef the main in order to keep the boat upright. As you can see from the photos, it was an adventure. I have one picture of GWM taken right after a regatta we held on Lake Monroe. I’ll include it, too.

Kemp

Victoria 18 Forum Web Site HOME
Mail Comments/ Data/ Pictures/Suggestions to: The Victoria 18 Forum Copyright © 1999 Victoria 18 Forum, Geocities.com