Boat builder gets new owner, new location

WASHINGTON, N.C. – Pacific Seacraft has a new life – an Atlantic one.

The former California-based sailboat builder was purchased for only $85,000 by Steve Brodie at a bankruptcy auction last month, according to an article today in The News & Observer.

The marine archeologist then loaded the company’s assets – including boat molds, tools and five sailboat hulls – onto 21 tractor trailers and began moving them cross country to Washington, N.C., according to the newspaper. The boats, ranging from 31 to 44 feet in length, typically sport price tags ranging from a quarter of a million to $1 million, the newspaper reported, and despite their name, attract mostly East Coast customers.

While the company employed about 140 people making 120 boats per year at its peak, Brodie told the newspaper the business will relaunch with 12 employees based out of a former textile mill in Washington. Some of those positions may be filled by transfers from the company’s former plant in Fullerton, Calif.

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