Gas Gauge Fixed & GW Factory Tour

[Graybeard]

We just got back from a 3,000 mile road trip from Annapolis, Md to Key West, FL and back with a stop in Greenville, NC for a GW factory tour. My faulty gas gauge was fixed under warranty while we were away and I picked it up my Freedom 225 from the dealer this morning. The float unit had to be replaced because it basically sunk. Yesterday we did the factory tour and both my wife and I were very-very impressed. The vice president for manufacturing gave us the tour and we chatted with the president who hit it off really well with the wife. They knew all about my gas gauge problem and went out of their way to explain what happened. The factory is a very clean operation with a family feel to it. And everyone went out of their way to make us feel like one of the family. I got to see what my Freedom 225 looks like without the deck in place. There was a lot of structure in there!!! I also got to see one of the new $650k 36 footer's ready for delivery with 3 Yamaha 350's across the back. I can see why GW's are so expensive because there is a lot of attention to detail and handwork. Before we left for home they also gave us some nice going away presents. For the next 90 minutes all my wife could talk about was the tour and how smart we were to buy one. After that it was all about the Royal Baby with the wife insisting the Sirius be tuned to CNN while she Google'ed, "Royal Baby Update" every 5 minutes

 

[stray current]

Cool! I have a property in Oak Island NC and passed Grady once when missing a turn (which my wife calls lost),nice country! I'm hoping to take a tour there one day. I live in NJ,Philly burbs,and in my life visited Egg Harbor (hazy),Post,Silverton and Viking plants there as well as Southport and Long Bay in NC and I'd like to visit Jones Bros one day. I think Post is out of business,I've seen some hulls at the old Egg works but I think they closed too;I haven't been by Silverton in a few years and in a poor economy Viking was working overtime and they also have a marina.Southport seemed to try and pressure me and Long Bay was out to a Long Lunch when I stopped in. Nobody put anyone else down and Southport seemed to say they steal from everyone else to build a quality boat or maybe that's what I heard and there were remarks at Viking claiming that all New Jersey boat builders weren't related altho many started together.
I know it's topic but I liked the idea of seeing what and how they do and did things even if I don't really understand what it all means but what other manufacturer whose products you use does that?

 

[Graybeard]

Well that was my first tour of a major boat manufactuing factory. Seen some of the local shops but they are nothing like the GW factory. Before I got my old Parker they sent me a VCR (remember them) to watch showing the manuracturing process. That was interesting but the tour was better. They even posted our photo on the Grady Guest gallery on their web site