peter hughes sells the fleet

[sweir]

are you saying you learned nothing from reading the article and that none of it was news to you?

 

[Scared Silly]

While it was a good read, unfortunately, I did not really learn anything and it was not new or really news.

 

[mike_s]

are you saying you learned nothing from reading the article and that none of it was news to you?

we learned that he once owned 60 Taco Bells..... but other than that.... no....

 

[widget]

Well, I was a little surprised that Mr Hughs admitted selling his business was due to financial pressures.
This is not something we hear too often in the public arena, so a very honest and forthright comment I thought, and really just reflects the seriously difficult trading conditions in the dive industry world wide.

Although, I agree, this is a big business and occasionally there are losses, I think the live aboard industry (and most probably especially Mr Hughs) took a massive hit from the "Wave Dancer" disaster in Belize, when Hurricane Iris flipped them over like a toy boat and 20 folk lost their lives.

The fall out was huge, both legally and in terms of lost business, and if memory serves me well, I am sure I read at the time that there was a $10 million law suit filed against various businesses and people including Mr Hughs.

In the end I think the insurers "LLoyds of London" settled for their maximum exposure which was somewhere in the region of $5 million - and the suit was later retired and the funds apportioned,- $2 Million was used for legal fees, and the costs to refloat "Wave Dancer" and remove her from the Belize harbour, and the balance, $3 million I believe, was split between the 20 victims families and three survivors.

 

[sweir]

Since posting the link one thing that has come to light -- would like to correct one point in the story. Turns out that Wayne Hasson, the former owner of the Aggressor Fleet has retained a small percentage ownership of the company which is controlled by new owner Wayne Brown. So while Brown calls the shots Hasson considers himself a partner. My article says that he sold everything.

I will have a part-two'r coming out in a month. Hopefully it will be of more interest to you.

 

[mike_s]

Well, I was a little surprised that Mr Hughs admitted selling his business was due to financial pressures.
This is not something we hear too often in the public arena, so a very honest and forthright comment I thought, and really just reflects the seriously difficult trading conditions in the dive industry world wide.

Although, I agree, this is a big business and occasionally there are losses, I think the live aboard industry (and most probably especially Mr Hughs) took a massive hit from the "Wave Dancer" disaster in Belize, when Hurricane Iris flipped them over like a toy boat and 20 folk lost their lives.

The fall out was huge, both legally and in terms of lost business, and if memory serves me well, I am sure I read at the time that there was a $10 million law suit filed against various businesses and people including Mr Hughs.

I have to agree the fallout of that cost him a great deal of business.

without turning this into a "horse beating of Peter Hughes", let me ask this. I'm kinda surprised that Wayne Brown didn't change the names of all the Peter Hughes boats to "Aggressor _______" when he took over the boats?

to me it would make sense... a lot of people don't trust the Peter Hughes name anymore, but have no clue it's been sold. Changing the names would change some of that image.

just my thoughts.... (not trying to turn this into a Peter Hughes bashing thread.... so others lets please not either.)

 

[widget]

I have to agree the fallout of that cost him a great deal of business.

without turning this into a "horse beating of Peter Hughes", let me ask this. I'm kinda surprised that Wayne Brown didn't change the names of all the Peter Hughes boats to "Aggressor _______" when he took over the boats?

to me it would make sense... a lot of people don't trust the Peter Hughes name anymore, but have no clue it's been sold. Changing the names would change some of that image.

Yes, it is surprising indeed. Maybe its still in the pipeline?

I never really had anything to complain about when I used Peter Hughs operations in the 90's, and to be honest I quite enjoyed his Divi resort on Cayman Brac which I visited many times, but to be fair, he really had the lions share of the market at the time and competition was scarce.

I sort of met him at Dema once or twice and he was always very pleasant, once he even offered my wife and I a dirt cheap special to his Bonaire resort, I didnt take it up, but it was still a nice offer.

 

[Damselfish]

I can think of arguments for and against changing the name. It's true the PH name is dirt to some people, but lots of others obviously don't feel the same way so there may still be value in the brand to them, or having 2 brands. As similar as the 2 operations are there's still some distinct differences in style. At this point, anyone who bothers to search enough to find about the Belize thing will probably also discover that ownership has changed. If the name was changed I bet some people will figure they changed the name to try and hide history and be upset about that, so maybe no win there anyway.

 

[widget]

I will have a part-two'r coming out in a month. Hopefully it will be of more interest to you.

Great, looking forward to it.

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

will have a part-two'r coming out in a month. Hopefully it will be of more interest to you.

Me too. On a personal note from the dive travel industry perspective, I would comment that the PHD brand has been perceived as a slightly more refined and up-market dive product compared to Aggressor (whether that perception was valid or not) and that each brand has built a loyalty from its clients - some folks ask only about PHD and others for Aggressor - depending mostly on which boat they had been on before. Although no doubt the tragedy in Belize has haunted Peter ever since, I have never come across anyone who expressed a comment that they did not trust PHD because of that fateful day.