Talk:US Yachts US 27

'Unauthorized'?

It feels like this could be better explained, but the sources also just use 'unauthorized'. I suspect this is topic jargon that is perfectly understandable to someone in to sailboats, but for laymen like me can we flesh it out more? I'm confused how a person can make an unauthorized derivative of their own design. --WhoIs 127.0.0.1 ping/loopback 07:22, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Good question, but the refs don't fully explain it, as you noted. I think what happened is the original builder agreed that the designer would be paid a royalty for each boat built, rather than a flat-fee for designing the boat, which is a common arrangement for new or small manufacturers to save up-front costs. The original manufacturer then sold the molds to another company who made some changes to the design, but kept the same hull design and produced the boats under a new model name, without paying royalties to the designer, probably claiming that it was not the same design. There are probably unanswered legal questions, like did the original manufacturer contractually agree to not sell the molds without a new contract that would require the royalty fees to be paid? The refs for that original builder, Chaser Yachts, are also not clear, but it is possible that the molds were sold by a bankruptcy trustee as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings and that they were sold "as is-where is", as spare parts, or even as scrap, with no legally binding agreement to pay the royalties to the designer. Unfortunately without some clarity from the refs this is just speculation on my part and so cannot be added to the article. - Ahunt (talk) 12:34, 21 September 2022 (UTC)