Performance Cruising Announcement

[trashpad]

This is a repost from the Gemini Forum.




Performance Cruising Announcement
Posted by: "mark_kiehl" mark_kiehl@yahoo.com mark_kiehl
Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:25 pm (PDT)


Tony and Sue Smith are very pleased to announce the
sale of Performance Cruising Inc. to a management
Group led by their daughter, Laura Smith Hershfeld.
Laura Smith Hershfeld has been appointed as President
of Performance Cruising Inc. and will continue to
manage the company where she has worked for the last
16 years.

Performance Cruising Inc. is the oldest, largest and
most successful catamaran builder in the US and has
built more than 1,000 of the highly successful Gemini
34 model over the last 20 years. In what has been a
true family business since it's founding by Tony and
Sue Smith in 1980, PCI now goes forward into the future
under the management of the next generation of
the Smith family.

Tony and Sue will be heading south to Florida and the
Bahamas in the fall aboard their own Gemini 105 upon
the completion of the transition period. "Sue and I are
very happy to have handed over the management of
our family business to our daughter, Laura. She has
inherited an excellent team of craftsmen, many of
whom have been with us for more than a decade and
are personally attached to both the product and the reputation that they have helped us create and build
over the years.

Laura Smith Hershfeld stated that "this is the culmination
of a life's work for my parents and I am looking
forward to continuing the legacy and the product that
they have built."

Tony Smith is also pleased to announce that a longterm
management contract has been signed with The
Annapolis Catamaran Center (ACC), a division of The
Catamaran Company. ACC will be operating the marina
and docks to provide dockage for their current
catamaran clients, and to offer dockage to those catamarans
for sale on the market. The Catamaran Company
currently offers this service at their Ft Lauderdale,
FL and Tortola, BVI locations to their local clients,
and they are very pleased to be able to now offer
this same service to their Mid-Atlantic customers.

For more information please contact Laura Smith
Hershfeld at laura@performancecruising.com

Mark Kiehl, Seas Today, hull #649

[seicam]

I've seen join ads of PCI and Catamaran Company recently in Cruising World magazine. I was wondering what that meant. Does anyone know what that means for Telstar line?

Maciek

[Dan]

Shouldn't change any thing regarding the Telstar.

[Ron]

It sort of surprised me, but Tony has been doing this for a long time and and I completely understand why he's doing it. Hey - I retired at 55 and have never looked back. I'd like to see Neil come back to take over the engineering.

The Telstar complements the Gemini - they don't really compete against each other in sales and it gives them a broader share of the multihull market, so I'd be even more surprised if they drop either one. Some of us are planning on going to the Annapolis boat show next week - maybe we can figure out what's going on there.

[trashpad]

I did talk to them just a few days ago but they did not mention this. They were telling me about the hard work moving the Telstar line into the new building. Having the Telstar assembly line in it's own facility will be a good thing all around.

I second the vote on getting Neal back.

[onremlop]

I guess I am out of the loop. Where is Neal? Where is Will?

[Ron]

Neal must have left over a year ago - heard he's building windmills now. Will is still there, but apparently does not make it into the office too often. Seems to work at home a lot. Laura (his wife) is running the company now and someone has to take care of the kids. They built the new assembly building to house the Telstar production line and would not have done that if they were planning on stopping production.

I'll be there next week and maybe I'll find out what's happening.

[trashpad]

Ron,

Let me know when and I will try to meet up with you.

[Ron]

Ron,

Let me know when and I will try to meet up with you.

We expect to get there early Friday afternoon (before 2:00 PM?) and probably leave late Saturday evening or maybe Sunday morning. I'd like to go to PC Friday afternoon to look around, do the show on Saturday, and stop by a party at Catalina Yachts on Saturday night after the show closes at around 7:00. Since Pussers is our favorite restaurant (the PainKiller's help) I'd like to wind up there one of the 2 nights. We're staying at the Quality Inn on Whitehall Street (off of Rt 50 near the Bay Bridge).

it would be nice if several of us could meet up sometime. It would be great to actually meet the people you've been emailing for years. I think Dan is driving down too, and there must be a dozen owners within a short drive of the town.

[Ron]

Had a long talk with Tony at the Annapolis show. Spoke to Laura as well. Following is what has or will happen with Performance Cruising, but there still could be some minor changes -

Performance Cruising will continue to build the Gemini. Laura Smith Hershfeld is the President of the company, and The Catamaran Company seems to be involved as well. They will operate the marina and docks behind PC's property - but seem to have some interest in PC and the Gemini now too.

Tony is starting a new company, called Performance Sailing, to continute to develop and build the Telstar in the new assembly building. He won't be happy until he finishes developing the boat to his perfection. Knowing Tony, this job will probably never end. He has some good ideas for the future, including some weight reduction for the boat and trailer. Anyone who thinks they might want to wait to get the improved model - note that every boat he builds is one.

Will Hershfeld is starting to separate himself from Performance Cruising, and will get more into computers and web-design. I think this was his first love anyway. I don't think they' have anyone yet to handle what WIll was doing, but they have some new employees who will get more involved. He will be hard to replace.