01-23-2010
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 1
Rep Power: 0
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My wife and I were the "importers" referred to at the Wisteria Lane address. To make a long story short, Bryan Moffat owned Northshore Yacht Yards Limited in Itchenor, Sussex, Great Britain. They acquired the molds for the Fisher line of motorsailers from the orginal designer/builders and built Fishers for many years. They also built the Southerly line of swing-keeled sailing yachts. There was a 28, 37 a 46 if I remember right, and a 51 footer. All of them were very well built with hydraulicly raised cast iron swing keels, perfect for shallow water sailing as well as deep. In 1983, Moffat had been approached by an American who had grandiose ideas of selling British yachts in the U.S.. The exchange rate was excellent at the time. I moved to Florida in '84 and met this same guy who convinced me to be his "dealer sales manager". After a few months, during which time I met Moffat and a couple of other builders who came over for a business "conference", I realized the guy was conning the builders and quit. At this point no builder had provided any demo boats. Months later, Bryan Moffat contacted me and told me that the guy had talked him into shipping a Fisher, two Southerlies and another Brit built sailboat to Florida. No funds were ever sent in payment. Bryan and an associate came to Apollo Beach and, over the course of several days, we literally hijacked most of the boats back to Bryan, the rightful owner. Subsequently, the 37' Southerly was sold, the 28' Southerly was given in settlement to an old man in Maine who sued claiming he should have had the sole U.S. distributor rights, and the Fisher was eventually sent back to England after sitting at my dock for two years or so. I don't know what ever became of the other sailboat. The exchange rate started to drastically change about this time and Bryan Moffat was, to say the least, put off about doing business with Americans. He sold the business many years ago. As LiamM says, both the Southerly and the Fisher are great boats, but very different boats. Fishers belong in the Northwest or the Northeast, Southerlies in the shallow waters of coastal Florida, the Keys and the Caribbean.
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