bstnsportsfan, I am both. I am a satisfied customer who asked and offered to help market the brand. I approached Bill Judge in Feb about helping him as I saw it as an opportunity to help us both out. Bill Judge took me up on my offer. Obviously from my posts here, I believe in what they are building as I have been a fan as far back as when I bought my previous boat to my Judge when I noted that Judge 27 was the boat I wanted (It was just out of my reach financially at the time). Plus, my father owns an older Judge 27 that he has been more than pleased with. Being that I am an owner and one who followed the build of my boat from start to finish, I understand the product as well as anyone and can speak educated about it. I also run my boat a lot recreationally. I have over 200 hours on the motor since I took delivery of the boat last Oct and that doesnt count the time on anchor or much of Jan and Feb when I didnt use my boat. I know how the boat fishes and performs with regular use.
Unfortunately, You probably shouldnt expect to see a Judge at a show in FLA anytime soon. Despite really wanting to establish a dealer network to offer their line throughout the country, dealer financing is very tight and not many dealers are self financed or willing to take on a new line rightnow. Until money starts to flow some and dealers are established in particular regions, Judge will continue to be factory direct. Hopefully down the road the hopes of dealer networking will allow the boats to be more visable throughout the country. The factory direct pricing rightnow hopefully will be appealing to a prospective buyer. The costs currently on the boats are tough to beat buy a builder of the same caliber.
Conch&Balls, The hull did derive from the Eastern 27. Bill started by building on that hull with a topside layout similar to the many charter boats found here on the Chesapeake with the forward helm and exteneded top for weather protection. Bill said he built probably over 100 boats on the Eastern mold. However, the
Judge 27 is no longer the Eastern hull as Bill has made many changes to mold. Some of which where done after Judge had a plant fire a number of years ago and had many of the molds redone. The newer mold has more beam to it and Bill has pulled the chines further aft amoung other things to get the boat to perform its best - especially as he went to all wood-free composite materials. My father owns a Judge built on the Eastern mold and there are quite a few differences in the boats and their performance.
Here is the Judge 27 mold:
For more shots of their shop see here:
Pictures from the Judge Yachts open house 2-28-09
Here are build photos of my 27 Chesapeake:
http://www.thehulltruth.com/members/...ld-photos.html (note that there are two pages of the build)
