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Random Quote: Naw, its okay,,, its always made that sound.
Just reading the latest issue of Motor Boating and there are 4 pages worth of ads for Fountains near the front. Every mention of the brand however refers to them as "Fountain Mercury" not "Fountain, powered by Mercury" but just Fountain Mercury. Is this new? The website still says Fountain Powerboats is the text, but the name on top of the page says Fountain Mercury as well. Is Fountain somehow owned by Brunswick?
Even the boats powered by Yanmars (Express Cruisers) are referred to as Fountain Mercury.
Fountain and Mercury are what is know as an "interlocking directorate" - the share a lot of things including capital, stock and decsions at the board level.
from what I understand both are "in bed together" since a few years ago. I "heard" that Fountain owed a lot for Mercury Motors and gave them part of his business. Not sure if that's really true or not but either way Fountain has maintained it's top-notch quality.
I'll bet Mercury gives Fountain alot of co-op money for all that advertising.Fountain,wins their races,with Mercury engines.Fishing boats take second fiddle,in their boat lineup,racing is their heritage.Each hand washes the other.
Fshing boats being second fiddle at Fountain also comes as a surprise to me. I know that's where they got there start, but their fishing series seems to be pretty popular, I wonder what generates more revenue, up here in the northeast its gotta be the fishing series.
The "Fountain-Mercury" name has been in exsitance for quite some time now, at least 2 years if I'm not mistaken. Their fishboat line has come on strong in the last few years and has quickly become a better selling segment than their sportboats, at least for most dealers. We outsell sportboats 10 to 1 at least with the fishboats. They are so much more versatile and can achieve speeds that have surpassed some sportboats!
It is called co-branding folks. What we have are two companies that are publicly-traded with separate boards of directors that have independently decided for promotional reasons that 1 + 1 = 3........and they are correct.
The last time I looked, fishing boats comprise 25% of Fountain's sales.
Fountain is in the process of changing its production lines to reflect the the growing poularity of it's fishing boats, versus sportboats. More maufacuring space will be devoted to fishing boats than ever before. According to information given at the Dealer meeting last October.
I can't imagine buying a Fountain without Mercs to begin with. If you are buying a Fountain speed is a big part of your determination. Mercs have always been associated with racing and speed so they just go hand in hand to begin with.
__________________ AKA, The SKIMMER! No way am I reading all that crap!
At one point, the same thing happened with Blackfin Yachts. If I remember correctly, Blackfin was in debt to Roger Penske so much, that Penske's Detroit Diesel ended up owning Blackfin.
Fountain name change???? 
