What effect will BP oil spill have on the boating industry?
 

Ok the media has hyped to death the environmental impact, the beach/fishing town impact but what do you think it will do to the boating industry?

Will boats not get built/sold due to the possiblilty of boating in oil slicked waters? Will marinas take this as a final blow with reduced activity/sales etc? If you didn't own a boat, lived near the affected or soon to be affected areas would it prevent you from purchasing one?

Invest in Boat Soap stocks.

Yeah! We need to market a oil slick/tar ball repellent for boats!



But I'd imagine all the fish boat companies, baitshops ect are going to take a large hit with all the fishing areas closing down

It's true. Most marinas and dealerships are on the edge. Especially if they are less than 10 years old. I didnt say ALL so don't start a big thing.

A little more pull-back in retail demand and you'll see another wave of closings

You are right and the 100 Fathom line or whatever they call it out there nowadays and the deep water reef are about to take damage from this.

I was actually wondering what effect on the water pump/ impellers and exhaust all that tar/oil would do going through a boat. If it would just pass through or get burnt and gummed up????:drink:

When I first thought about this I thought the same way.......but if this is even a thin sheen will go fast guys want to run in this, misting oil slicked water everywhere. How tough is this going to be to remove from your hull (whether in a go fast or a 100 ft yacht). The Yacht charter business is shot, who would rent a yacht for a week-month with bad water encasing FL and the Bahamas.

On the 10 year part, you should include those that have sold inside that 10 year window as well. Those guys (like everyone in real estate) got clobbered with high prices paid.

One "leg" of the marina income was usually boat sales (both new and used) so that leg got kicked out a couple years ago. Now they rely on storage and repairs. But if you are broke you certainly won't want to pay the rack fee and fix your boat!

A new marina opened here in Jupiter (www.jupiterpointe.com) and they are choking big time. They started out with the intentions to sell racks for 60K+++ but by the time they finished the building in early 2010 they suddenly realized they were going to have to be rentals instead. So they lowered the per ft. charge to "steal" all the surrounding marinas clients. They have a huge barn to fill and even at cut rates it is still better than empty. It is a state of the art hurricane building so as a boat owner you are happy to be there especially at the cut rate.

Bad business model if you ask me, playing the lowest price game isn't always the best model to follow. Sometimes it just leads to a slower death.......

Jupiter,

The simple answer to you subject line is: Nothing good. The industry is fragile now. It won't take much to set back whatever, if any, recovery it has made.

Regarding getting oil off your boat, I posted this awhile back, http://www.boats.com/boat-content/20...off-your-boat/.

I received this oil-specific hull-cleaning information from Meguiar's at a time when I thought it was, on my Meguiar's part, a little too opportunistic and exploitative. So I rewrote it and removed all the product-specific references. But the basic information is solid.

Hope it helps someone. Hope even more that no one needs it, but I'm afraid that just isn't realistic.

As you know, I got out in Dec of 06. Thank god. B/c my biz would have gone under. I got in highly leveraged and the downturn would have been to much to stay "afloat"