Silverton

Silverton's best idea was deleting something. In 1997 the Millville, New Jersey yard removed the side decks from its new 372 Motor Yacht, replaced them with elevated staircases it called SideWalks, and spent the reclaimed width on a full-beam salon that midsize motoryachts simply did not have. More than six hundred sold, as the 372 and then the 392, and the whole late Silverton range — the 35s, 38s, 39s, 42s and 43s our shelf carries — is variations on that one trade: the most house per foot in American production boating, from a family firm the Luhrs brothers had run since buying Silverton Sea Skiffs of Toms River in 1969, alongside Luhrs, Mainship and Hunter in the family group.

The reputation runs opposite to the price tag. Owner forums that sneer at value brands are consistently warm about this one — well built, handles a sea, and visitors to the Millville plant came away impressed — and the press agreed: Power & Motoryacht called the 35 Motor Yacht the most nicely finished Silverton it had tested. The against-case is specific. The SideWalk trade means going forward over the salon roof, so shorthanded docking is choreography to rehearse before you sign; the machinery spaces are dim; big gas V8s pushing eighteen tons of house have an appetite; and older boats log fuel tank and wiring complaints. Then there is the ending. Production stopped in February 2012, parent Morgan Industries filed Chapter 11 that April — nine family companies bundled into one case — and Egg Harbor Yachts bought the remains that July. The revival did not hold, and the brand is gone. For a buyer that splits cleanly: engines and drives are commodity Crusader and MerCruiser, parts forever; Silverton-specific hatches, moldings and trim are salvage-yard and owners-club work, and the owners club has been doing the factory's job for a decade.

Scout watches 68 live Silverton askings, averaging $139,714, and publishes 1 across 1 of the yard's models, 1997, asking $75,000.

The idea reads best in its first year, before the badge said 392 — the Motor Yacht file holds it:

Buy one if the boat's job is to be the apartment that leaves the dock some weekends, and rehearse the docking before the sea trial ends. Walk away if you single-hand in wind, or if orphan-brand trim hunting is not your idea of winter. The 38 Sport Bridge and 43 generations carry the same argument up the range; the rest of the corner is on the motoryacht shelf, and the whole fleet on the powerboat shelf.

Sources: The Press of Atlantic City on the 2012 Morgan Industries Chapter 11 and the Egg Harbor purchase; Soundings on the Luhrs family; Power & Motoryacht, Silverton 35 test; The Hull Truth owner threads.