Can The Boat Industry Survive?
 

Not trying to be too negative, but with fuel costs, operational expenses and other economic factors skyrocketing, I am guessing the boat building industry will experience a change unlike any other industry has ever experienced. It is even possible that the entire industry may evaporate until it can reinvent itself.

A small weekender SeaRay for $16k used to cost a hundred bucks to operate on a weekend, those costs have tripled, maybe even quadrupled, knocking many out of the dream of this entry level market. They used to say that these types of times simply weed out the weak, but when you read about a powerhouse like Brunswick struggling so severely, along with fuel prices that most likely will NEVER come back down, what is the outlook???

Remember, oil affects MORE than gas, it is a factor in the construction process and will probably create a domino effect.

Looking for input on the subject, not arguments.
Thanks.

The outlook for me is good. 85 Sunny, and I am going to put the boat in first thing in the morning and enjoy the heck out of the weekend and not think twice about fuel prices, diesel prices, insurance, or any of the other costs - not because I am in that league (in fact most of my boating gets put on a Credit Card with no end in sight), but because I don't care. It is what I enjoy and what I am going to do.

Eric

I think of it this way: a few yrs ago a buddy took his family to DisneyWorld for a week, flew down, stayed in their hotels, tickets, meals, etc, etc. spent $5,000 for 1 wk.

What if I spend that much over an entire summer of boating and family gets to enjoy lots of great weekends, and fun together.

When its hot they "aint no better place to be"

Yep - My wife and I don't go on vacations, we don't go out to dinner often, we don't do other things because we substitute the opportunity to spend the entire summer boating with friends, and if the summer fuel bill is 5k than so be it - the memories are worth every dollar.

When the economy rebounds the profits will be spent on luxuries like cars, boats, vacations. Things are tight in a lot of industries so there maybe a little hurt going around but remember in the early 80's interest rates were in the high teens, that would be far worse than today's problems.

Not really looking for personal experience, looking for the industry outlook like Jupiter stated. My only objection to what Jupiter said is that I am wondering "if" the boat builders can ride it out. It is quite possible that a $100k boat will be more like $200k by this time next year. Then throw the fuel costs onto ownership and many people may just move to another industry for their hobby.

Can the industry survive...yes. These times may shake out the under capitalized, but the quality builders will remain. Many owners may cut back on usage, but won't entirely, and those considering new purchases may postpone them...but will the industry disappear...no way.

Agree. Take a good hard look at the tech industry from 95 to 2000. Take a good look at it now. It survived, but a cleansing occured. Nothing really new here if you study other industries. It will survive, and it will change some things.

The current state of the economy will weed out some builders and the strong will survive! Boaters are stubborn and they love their sport/hobby.

if the people of this country don't stand together and do something about the big oil companies windfall profits more than just the boat industry will suffer i understand a barrel of oil costs whatever the market will bear but our wonderful oil companies in this country should NOT be allowed to make huge profits while the rest of the country suffers we need to stand together and do somthing about it just my two cents