Irwin's drops Larson
 

Irwin's of Alton has dropped the Larson boat line and added Monterey boats. Shep Browns is having a blow out sale on their last 5 Monterey's. Shep's still has Boston Whaler and Excursion brands and lists Monterey but I think the Monterey's will be gone soon.
No idea if anyone else has picked up the Larson line. West Shore Marine in Bristol at Newfound Lake sells Larson.
Irwin's said they will still service Larson boats. They have 2 big Monterey's on display and have moved their Lason stock further in from the road and behind the Monterey's.

Wow, surprised that Shep's lost Monterey.

Good move by Irwin, I have to believe they did that because Larson for the most part are junk and Sea Ray... not sure what happened to them but good grief they are nothing other than a re-badged overpriced Bayliner now.

I bought my first boat-a Sea Ray from Irwin's and traded it in at Gillon Marine two years ago for a new Larson. It is a beautiful boat...certainly not junk. Monterey brings good quality and larger price point. Sorry to see the Larson line go but change is ever constant.

Some of the newer Larsons I have seen are gorgeous. They seem to be aiming for a different target audience than the used to when they were marketed as a value boat. I saw a 292 LXI at the Meredith town docks (if memory serves) that was stunning and much more luxurious than my Regal.

The Irwin store in Hudson sell searay and stingray

Just picked up a 2010 1850 Larson Bowrider from Winnisquam. Great experience, fantastic boat, solid, rides great. Wife and I absolutely love it. Turnkey, zero issues, going out weekly on it.

And yet I will never ever buy another Larson again.

Post of the month. What?

Lol....

Well here it goes..

One big reason I purchased a Larson was because of the lifetime hull warranty. Transferable to the second owner. If you look at their site, this is all they push with their VEC hull. http://www.larsonboats.com/warranty.php

So upon purchase of our New to Us boat, I contacted Larson about transferring the warranty to me.

No problem, that will be $500.
What? $500 to transfer a warranty? I can see $100, maybe $200, as most boat brands charge.

Then I found out that the lifetime warranty is not actually lifetime for the second owner. It is 10 years....from date of original purchase! Since it was a 2010 boat, it would only be under warranty until 2020....for $500. So if I purchased this boat 3 years from now, my $500 would only get me 2 years of coverage.

I then noticed that my floor locker ( plastic ) was cracked a week after purchase. I asked if my $500 would cover that. I was told no because it was only covered for 5 years, just out of the 5 year warranty by a month, and the second owner has no coverage for parts like that anyway. Going back to the warranty page I see workmanship is covered with no mention of a time frame. Hmmm....

While the Larson factory rep was detailed, there was no bedside manor. There was no commitment to trying to figure something out. The words "limited" are part of the warranty details, so they use that to screw over the second owner. I found that that even if it was a new purchase or the second owner purchase, you only have 15 days to register new/pay the $500 to actually get the warranty or it is void. That is right, if you purchase a new Larson boat and forget to send the warranty card in, or they lose it, you have zero coverage. Lesson learned. Why would I want to ever do business with a company that treats their customers like second class citizens?

I pocketed my $500, got some boat supplies, a ski tube, and took my wife out to dinner. A much better investment.

Who owns/manufactures what:

Genmar Holdings

"The company's brand names include Aquasport, Carver, Crestliner, Glastron, Larson, Logic Marine, Lund, Ranger, Trojan, Wellcraft, Four Winns, Hydra-Sports, Javelin, Lowe, Seaswirl, and Stratos."

LINK

Brunswick Boat Group:

Aquador, Bayliner, Boston Whaler, Crestliner, Cypress Cay, Harries FloteBote, Lowe Boats, Lund, Princecraft, Quicksilver, Rayglass, Sea Ray, Uttern, Valiant

LINK

Century Boats was purchased by Yamaha - but then sold it.
Chris Craft was purchased by OMC. But OMC went bankrupt. Somehow Rupert Murdoch of Fox News fame got involved.

Not sure who owns Cobalt or Formula - two boat brands whose owners claim that these are upscale brands.

Sorry Professor
 

Wellcraft, Scarab, FourWinns and Glastron have recently been purchased by the Beneteau group. Genmar went bankrupt a few years back...

http://www.boats.com/on-the-water/ne...llcraft-scarab

By the way, Beneteau makes a hell of a boat. They are the largest boat manufacturer in the world. Their sailboats are well known across the world, but their powerboats are just breaking through domestically. I expect that you will see a lot more of their powerboats in the US over the next few years. I'll be interested to see what they do with the four brands mentioned above.

A little history
 

Larson Industries once own Larson boats. They bought out Northland who sold skis. toboggans, hockey sticks etc. Northland also owned Lund Ski factory. Larson decided to phase out the Northland products and turn the factory on Salem Street in Laconia to produced Larson boats. This only lasted a very short time and Larson Industries went bankrupt. Genmar eventually took over the Larson boat line. I think the Lund name was held over from Lund skis. Lund line were aluminum boats and Larson were a combination of aluminum and fiberglass.