Dwyer Mast Closing

[s2sailorlis]

I just called them about an order I left....glad I did..guy on phone told me they are closing...

A heads up to anyone who may have left any work there to get done. I am going there Saturday to grab my shrouds....

[Steve Laume]

Thanks for the heads up.

I called and he confirmed that they are closing. I will be heading down there, tomorrow, to pick up a new boom section.

This is sad as they have always been a great recourse, Steve.

[s2sailorlis]

Yep I'm going today, picking up my shrouds and buying a few items, thought the guy said there wasn't much left in stock.

Glad I called about my rigging job. It had been sitting there for nearly 8 weeks and they didn't even call me. I guess not serving your customers means you go out of business. No sympathy from me...

[Steve Laume]

Yep I'm going today, picking up my shrouds and buying a few items, thought the guy said there wasn't much left in stock.

Glad I called about my rigging job. It had been sitting there for nearly 8 weeks and they didn't even call me. I guess not serving your customers means you go out of business. No sympathy from me...

Due to the heads up, I went down and picked up my new boom extrusion yesterday.

I am sad to confirm that the company has been sold and will be moving to Bristol, RI, next week! The new owner is Zim Sailing who also make some one design boats so they are not new to the game. At one point Rig Rite was looking into buying Dwyer and that would have been a disaster; in my opinion. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Dwyer and a number of his employees are 83 years old. Why they kept at it for even this long is beyond me. It seems, it was very hard to find younger, qualified, replacements for some of these key employees and that I can well understand. Evidently Mr. Dwyer has no heirs to pass it on to and that may well be for the best.

By their standards, they might not have had much left but there were hundreds of extrusions still in the racks when I was there. The new owner is going to take, everything, including the machinery. What they will not get is the dedicated employees and their expertise. The business was run in an old school fashion with much of the information in the heads of those who worked there, so it may take the new owners some time to get up to speed. The new owners have been spending a lot of time at the facility, asking all sorts of questions and that would certainly have effected the normal business operations.

I am glad I got a chance to pick up my boom when I did. It is beautiful and straight as an arrow with a slightly wider sail slot that should eliminate the need to take my new main back to changes the slides to slightly narrower ones. These guys were very good at what they did and an excellent resource for those of us with older boats. I only hope the new owners can carry on this tradition, as well, Steve.

[s2sailorlis]

Just got back from picking a few things up. I'll retract my earlier comment as I had a nice conversation with the owner. I gave him my best wishes for the future.

I'm glad you confirmed it's not RigRite as I've not heard many good things about them.

There seems to have been quite a bit of items in inventory. He stated it would be a few weeks before things moved over. He thought they would retain the number for a while to redirect inquiries.

In not familiar with Zim but it appears they're into the one design scene. Whether the line gets any attention or not remains to be seen. Also they appear to globally source parts too. I suspect for lower volume items they'll be be of lesser quality. So, get the quality parts now before they're gone...

[Jeff D]

This might be old news, but Dwyer has been purchased and is still in business, although now in RI rather than CT. I was told that while RigRite was interested, they are not the new owner. Their intent is to carry on the Dwyer tradition and service.

[Steve Laume]

These are the guys that bought Dwyer. they seem pretty dedicated to the sailing community. Time will tell how they proceed but at least they seem to have the right attitude, Steve.

http://www.zimsailing.com/about/about-us/