Skater booth was by far the best powerboat display there. They brought the hardware.

I stopped by to say high Jim, but you were out. Talked to Bruce. Nice guy. I have been scratchin a lot of LOTTO tickets since I left that booth.

Unfortunately for us though, nothing was more impressive than the in the water show. Those big yachts are amazing. Where does that money come from?

Looking at the photos, looks like Skater really stepped up their cockpits. They were very nicely done.

Yep! And the Ilmor package is very attractive. I believe they have hit a home run. The drive is capable of 1000HP and 1000ft # of torque and transmission uses only 4 hp and 14ft # of torque from the motor. Wow!. Prop hp is close to the flywheel hp. Impressive

Does anyone have pics of the fountain and baja?

Why is it This way Now!
 

Lets do a little boat economics and marketing 101 here in this post.
First, the performance boating market (buyers) and indeed pretty much the whole boating market could not be in a more depressed state if it tried.
Second, most all the boat builders and engine and equipment suppliers have had a wonderful run in sales and profits for the last 8 years or so.
The honeymoon is over so how does the industry shake out?
Not real good for a lot of companies. Some of these builders of larger quantities of performance boats and engines, headers, guages, etc such as (then Baja) Now Fountain, Donzi, Eliminator, who are set up to build over 100 boats per year, engine companies like Mercury, Volvo,Ilmor, Teague and equipment suppliers like Gaffrig, Lavorsi, CMI, Trailer builders, etc. are currently having ABISSMAL sales results. when these companies have the investment, debt, organization size, factories and equipment to build large qauntities of product and the sales go in the "Toilet" the effects are obvious and devastating.
They have to keep a presence in the industry at shows like Miami and there current sales won't even pay for even close to a "break even."
There is already an ongoing scale back in our industry to drop expenses to meet reduced sales and it will continue all this year at least.
There are also a small quantity of what we call higher end and "compact" boat builders such as Skater, MTI, Cigarette, Outerlimits, Nortech and specialty suppliers whose annual sales of these higher end boats are in the 10-30 boats per year range .
They sell these boats to a small market of high net worth, large cash flow customers who even in a down ecomomy have larger sums of disposable income and can afford the extra time to play with and travel with these "Big Toys."
Then there are the small mid-level boat builders such as Sunsation, Active Thunder, Velocity, Pantera, etc. that can generally still stay active in a depressed market because hopefully they have less debt, overhead, large facilites and big payrolls that would help "bust" them in an economy like this one we have now. These builders build a really nice quality custom performance boat that is somewhat still affordable to some "average" performance boaters and they can tailor the finished product easily to get the boat more affordable.
Where is the boat market going now especially the performance boat market will depend on a few things.
1. How long this recession/depression really lasts.
2. What happens to the cost of oil and fuel over the long run.
3. How the liberal public and government moves to shutdown this form of recreation. (Performance boaters tend not to be Liberals!), THROUGH REGULATIONS, RESTRICTIONS AND CLOSURES!
4. Whether or not a real disposible income enviroment and spending philosophy will ever again reappear in the American Performance Boating Expierence.

In the mean time our industry will shake out and creep along with those builders and suppliers who can "Ride It Out" until things hopefully improve and correct.

At Raylar we are glad we are in the postion we are in now, we offer products and engine packages that are high quality and technology advanced at an affordable price level. We have no debt, very low overhead and an operation that can quickly adapt and survive in this challanging market enviroment!
The real market with potential now is the upgrade, refit and rebuild market as customers switch to upgrading either their exisiting boats or pick up good value in used boats being liquidated and sold in the volatile market place of performance boats and improving those products.

This is now how the boat shows, advertising, new offerings will appear this year and into the near future. Less big over the top boat displays, parties, events and magazines and magazine programs! The industry just can't afford the spending practices of the past in the current economy and it appears that a resonable quantity buyers are just not there now!

Just a lot of people looking for information and entertainment, And That Won't Pay The Bills.!!
Class Dismissed!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

WOW... Well Said.. And so true!!!

How do you top that??

And he should know also since he has been around a while.:cool:

The ultra rich people I know are also standing on the sidelines. For example, my best man is one of the wealthiest men in Europe. He has plenty of cash to buy any yacht at the Miami show.

However, he sees this as a depression, not a recession. Its been going on for over a year in the US, and this last quarter saw the world's second largest economy (Japan) shrink by 13%! In one quarter!

Why just blow cash, when some VERY amazing deals on truly valuable assets are appearing.

Think about GM: for a few billion dollars, buy a company that grosses 200 billion per year.

This sort of pricing of real performing assets has not been seen since the 30's, the last time f*ing republican free traders trashed the world economy.

Back to our regularly scheduled broadcast...

:ernaehrung004: Spoke to Chris this morning ,sounds like Peter and the crew are real happy with the show :ernaehrung004::ernaehrung004:

I agree and disagree. the zf's were not up to par, but the 009, zrc and the 27's cockpit looked nice.
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