State of the industry: Pretty dismal

[okawbow]

What about all the used boats on the market? There are thousands of good old boats for sale that meet the needs of the average sailor. heck; many of the boats for sale where made in the 60's! Why pay 50 - 100 thousand for a very small cruiser or daysailor, when a nice used one is available for 10% of that price?

There may be fewer new boats being sold; but are there fewer people sailing now, or more? I know lots of new sailors. Most are buying used boats.

[CapnK]

...and many of those old boats are built better - in many aspects - than a brand new boat today.

I try to explain that to people, but sometimes for some reason folks just want "new". I've been told "that way were aren't buying any headaches".

"It's a boat", I tell them, explaining that they are just buying some *different kind* of headaches, and at an inflated price... ;D

(Welcome aboard okawbow! Grog!)

[Joe Pyrat]

The used boat market may be the biggest problem new boat dealers have.  I have never owned a new boat.  Well I take that back, my dinghy was new.   :D.

Considering the cost of fuel, I'd think sailboats would be just the ticket.  I was once watching a guy fill up his 26 foot cabin cruiser once, back in the day when fuel was closer to $1/gallon.  He shut the pump off at $100, he was not full, just shut it off.  I remember thinking that was about 10 years of fuel for me.  At the time I would only use about 10 gallons of gas per year.

Now that I'm a liveaboard (make that a full time cruiser in Florida), I use about 2.5 gallons of diesel per week for battery charging, which would make my monthly fuel bill $100.  If you are a weekend sailor, with a trailer sailor you can ramp launch, your fuel expanses might be $100/year or less.  I would think the trailer sailor industry is in an interesting position if they can properly market their product, especially to people who live fairly close to their sailing location.  And even for the non-trailer sailors, with somewhat reasonable slip/mooring fees, it might be just the ticket for an inexpensive way to escape on weekends and during vacation periods.  If memory serves, in Rockland Maine it was something like $500 for the necessary components to setup your own mooring, and $175/yr licensing fees.  After the initial setup, you are mooring for less than $200/year. 

While I can't remember exactly what it said, I remember seeing a poster recently that said something like wind, the clean, abundant, affordable fuel...

[TomRay]

Some of the makers, like Compac and PCI, aren't going after the big boat market.

That's not entirely true. Com-Pac still builds the 35, a nice Charlie Morgan design. But I work at a Com-Pac dealership, and what we sell all the time are the cat boats.

We also sell Precision boats, and they truly have abandoned bigger boats completely, discontinuing production of the 28 a while back. They build only 15 to 23 footers, and just had their best year ever! The gas prices have killed the express cruiser stinkpot market, but sailboats still sell.

[AdriftAtSea]

A 35' boat really isn't a "big" boat IMHO.