Info Aqualung Financial Troubles

[lowwall]

Even the MR-42? I just had one come in the shop and thought I had to order the special seat for the 42 (MR42 seat on left). Shaft looks longer.
New standard seat is on the right.
.View attachment 906515

You got me. The MR-42 had smaller everything in the HP section and of course the body. Cute little bugger isn't it?

And it's nice they still have parts available given the reg was only manufactured from 2006-2011 (as far as I can determine).

But I believe that's the only exception for the T shaped seats dating back to the days when AMF, which had acquired both Voit and Mares, decided to have Mares take over production of the Voit MR-12. The 12, 22, 32, 52, 62, 72, 82 and their XR counterpart diaphragm first stages all use the same size seat which first appeared in the double hose Aqua-Lung/US Divers Royal Aqua Master. (Or possibly the Aqua Master, but apparently the pin diameter changed during the AM production run.)

 

[lowwall]

huh? You literally posted that AL was in insolvency administration since May, Apeks..well that has been an issue for ages.

I am LOL at the idea that AL was happily motoring along making products.. ok.. now I pulled something laughing so hard. Catch you after I recover. It won't be as long a recovery as Mares getting AL and Apeks products back in production shipping in any qty. I mean, the UK and French AL owned manuf facilities were, while they had lights, security lights for sure. The pipes didn't freeze. Did the machinery from UK that was shipped to France get any of that power hooked up or did it fall off a truck in the chunnel?

Many companies continue operations while under bankruptcy court supervision. I was under the impression that both Apeks and Aqualung were still making products, or at least were still capable of making products. The press release seems to indicate that is the case, " This will safeguard hundreds of jobs and improve and expand AQUALUNG's production facilities in France, the UK, and Mexico." and "HEAD also plans to leverage the Aqualung Group's production capacities to support the global production and distribution of premium products."

I guess we will see.

 

[cerich]

Totally different situation. Aqualung is still a going concern with working production facilities. Dacor was in liquidation, didn't actually produce most of their products and their suppliers had already scrapped the tooling and moved on.

Oh BTW, Mares had multiple 40ft containers shipped from Dacor to us in CT that sat for ages that were in fact filled with tools and reg parts that hadn't been chromed. I poked around in said containers on a couple different occasions. The vast majority of the contents of those containers were disposed of when we moved the warehouse from CT to Maryland. The effort to secure tools be they at Dacor or at suppliers when Dacor went under was a real thing as Dacor did in fact own their tools and they were not the property of any supplier

 

[Mobulai]

Even the MR-42? I just had one come in the shop and thought I had to order the special seat for the 42 (MR42 seat on left). Shaft looks longer.
New standard seat is on the right.
.View attachment 906515

Hold up hold up; that square metal bracket is dis/re-assemblable!? So.. the mares seats that came without it fit INTO the bracket… oh sweet!!
(I sourced a few blindly but cheap for my AL core and thought the are useless in the AL scope when they arrived)

 

[BoltSnap]

Mares had multiple 40ft containers shipped from Dacor to us in CT

You worked for Betsy??? Glorious times lol.

 

[TravisD]

The vast majority of the contents of those containers were disposed of when we moved the warehouse from CT to Maryland.

Don't intend to hijack the thread - but what piece of the scuba industry existed(?) in Maryland? Just curious... I'm assuming it's gone now...

 

[cerich]

Don't intend to hijack the thread - but what piece of the scuba industry existed(?) in Maryland? Just curious... I'm assuming it's gone now...

The HEAD warehouse when combined HEAD racquet and ski with the HEAD owned MARES. Everyone can get all "Mares owns XXXX and XXX and XXXX but in truth HEAD does (Johan Eliasch)

 

[cerich]

You worked for Betsy??? Glorious times lol.

I did indeed, it was fun other than never having enough stock in summer and Italy on vacation all summer..so

 

[BoltSnap]

I did indeed, it was fun other than never having enough stock in summer and Italy on vacation all summer..so

I was a Mares dealer from 1994 to 2004 (The dive store I bought in 1994 was a dealer for Mares and Dacor since 1976, I think). I was also a DACOR dealer until they went under, and Mares "bought" them. I witnessed it all lol. Carlo was the group GM, IIRC. Rene Kousef was the Mares rep, followed by Tony Van Deusen.

 

[BoltSnap]

I did indeed, it was fun other than never having enough stock in summer and Italy on vacation all summer..so

So, we probably bumped into each other then. We can say that we have known each other since the early 90s lol. Wow, 35 years we knew each other, but we didn't realize it. Cheers, old friend