Goetz Boats goes into receivership and lays off all 75 workers

by Bruce Burdett www.eastbayri.com on 9 Jan 2009 While the il mostro racing yacht they built for Puma Racing departs from Singapore Saturday on the next stage of its around-the-world race, Goetz Custom Boats of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, is riding out stormy financial seas.

Effective Tuesday, Jan. 6, the company has been petitioned into receivership and all of its 75 workers have been laid off.

'You are talking to one of the guys who is laid off,' said company founder Eric Goetz when contacted at the company’s new Broad Common Road, Bristol, facility Thursday morning. He said he and several 'volunteers' were there that day working on various projects.

He added that he remains hopeful that the company will get back on its feet after the receivership process is figured out.

Mr. Goetz said the inability to obtain refinancing combined with the termination of a construction contract by an international customer precipitated the situation.

That contract is for an 85-foot racing sailboat that is sitting half-finished in the Goetz shop. He said he could not go into more detail on that situation except that work on that major project has come to a halt.

'The company is hopeful that this project will be restarted, however, in order to preserve its assets and to protect its workforce, the company laid off workers on 12/31/08 after having met its payroll and health insurance obligations,' a Goetz statement read.

Another boat is also part way through construction and that customer wants to continue.

Mr. Goetz said he is working with lenders and investors to 'to put together a group and obtain funding to purchase the assets of Eric Goetz Custom Sailboats, Inc. and/or to create a new company to continue in the custom boat market, and to develop other marine related semi-custom projects and high end commercial composite products.'

Business had been reasonably good for Goetz and other high-end boat builders over the past several years thanks in part to a weak US dollar that had helped attract large orders from overseas. But more recently a number of would-be customers have become cautious, he said, and business for the industry as a whole has been hit.

'There are people out there who want to build boats but there are others who are pulling back,' Mr. Goetz said.

'I want to keep going,' he said, adding that he believes things will be sorted out in a way that will enable the company to carry on.

Goetz Custom Boats’ problems affect other local companies. Every time Goetz builds a boat, a number of nearby firms pitch in to provide painting, custom metal and carbon fittings, spars and much more.

'This does have a knock-on effect to our wonderful suppliers and contractors,' Mr. Goetz said.

In September 2007, Goetz opened a new state-of-the-art facility on Broad Common Road a short distance north of its old shop. Not only did it provide more space for large projects and the ovens used to 'cook' and cure the carbon fiber, but it enabled the company to branch out into other fields that could make use of its composite abilities.

Mr. Goetz founded what is now called Goetz Custom Boats in a shed near the Herreshoff Marine Museum in 1975 and has since built over 200 boats. Most are high-end carbon fiber composite racing and cruising sailboats but along the way there have also been large powerboats, rowing shells and even a flat-out offshore racing powerboat.

Goetz boats have been winners at the highest end of international yacht racing. Boats built there have won in the America’s Cup, Admiral’s Cup, and Maxi Worlds and have competed successfully in the TP52 circuit, the Whitbread/Volvo race, Transpac, Kenwood Cup, Southern Cross Series, Sardinia Cup, and countless other regattas around the world.