Tough Times for Yacht Manufacturers?
- Thread starter Rick D
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Sailing declining
I definitely think sailing is down in the inland lakes market from its heyday 15 years ago. Power boating has grown a lot. All of the sailboat dealers in the Kansas City area closed down years ago. The market now is entirely resale boats, despite the fact that we have several good inland lakes within 90 minutes of here. When you say that more larger sailboats are being sold, but not so many small ones, think about what that means. Older sailors on larger boats started smaller, twenty years earlier. Now we don't have so many starters, which means down the road we won't have so many older sailors interested in larger boats. I finger several reasons for this change. One is the shortage of slip and marina space, not only on the coasts (condo development has displaced marinas), but also on inland lakes. Another is the twenties and thirties people are often into cycling, kayaking, etc., which cuts into the big blocks of time that sailing requires. Another is that sailboats take an awfully lot of time to maintain, more so than power boats. Economics play a role. The twenties and thirties people are more maxed out in debt than their predecessors, for a lot of reasons, and don't feel as able to afford sailing. Don't rule out marital changes, either. Sailing is hard to do when you are single. A married couple is way more likely to commit the time and effort to sail together. There are so many unmarried younger people today.
I definitely think sailing is down in the inland lakes market from its heyday 15 years ago. Power boating has grown a lot. All of the sailboat dealers in the Kansas City area closed down years ago. The market now is entirely resale boats, despite the fact that we have several good inland lakes within 90 minutes of here. When you say that more larger sailboats are being sold, but not so many small ones, think about what that means. Older sailors on larger boats started smaller, twenty years earlier. Now we don't have so many starters, which means down the road we won't have so many older sailors interested in larger boats. I finger several reasons for this change. One is the shortage of slip and marina space, not only on the coasts (condo development has displaced marinas), but also on inland lakes. Another is the twenties and thirties people are often into cycling, kayaking, etc., which cuts into the big blocks of time that sailing requires. Another is that sailboats take an awfully lot of time to maintain, more so than power boats. Economics play a role. The twenties and thirties people are more maxed out in debt than their predecessors, for a lot of reasons, and don't feel as able to afford sailing. Don't rule out marital changes, either. Sailing is hard to do when you are single. A married couple is way more likely to commit the time and effort to sail together. There are so many unmarried younger people today.
i did some research on schock
and found what apears to be a long term company that startedmaking race boats and subsidized thier efforts with several lines of very competitive production models and they seem to be doing well
and found what apears to be a long term company that startedmaking race boats and subsidized thier efforts with several lines of very competitive production models and they seem to be doing well
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