As with many other builders, GB suffered mightily with the departure of Tony F. It took awhile. Of course Fleming thrived.
I'm a huge Tony Fleming fan and a Fleming boat fan. However, when we talk about Fleming thriving and GB suffering we need to be careful. The number of boats Fleming thrives on selling in a year, would be suffering for GB. They were structured as a volume producer. Fleming thrives on far less volume.
There are many reasons for GB's demise as a product line (I'm saying the traditional GB vs. the company itself). Some external, many internal. They include ownership discord, high costs of manufacturing, failure to adapt, destroying their sales channels, being undercut in price by Marlow, Retail pricing structure created by them selling through dealers, slow build times, distance of management from their primary market, distraction caused by spending time on raising more capital vs running the business, ownership groups with different objectives, dependence on volumes that couldn't be maintained through hard times. The list goes on and on.
I'm happy the company appears to be on the way to survival, although I do not believe necessarily they're out of the woods yet. One year of profit after many of loss is just a start.
I'm sad that another iconic brand is gone.
I'm still waiting for others to step up and fill the void of 40-60' semi-displacement spacious cruisers. A void created by reductions and eliminations in GB, Baylineer, Tolly, Californian, and others. Beneteau Swift Trawler is the one that has taken leadership in that regard. Sabre has a good product in that range.