Commentary: Baja’s Smart Move
 

Baja's alliance with the Freedom Boat Club has far-reaching potential potential, http://speedonthewater.com/in-the-ne...a-s-smart-move

Hell of a way to do durability testing.....

I think that's why they requested custom outboards. They are a little harder to destroy!! Run it like you rented it. lol How about some Donzi 38 ZR 525s for the fleet? :)

I'm thinking this opens the door for "Freedom Elite". Once you have enough hours they will let you rent a Cig or an MTI from several locations around the country. Of course I guess they would have to give a cut to SCOPE :lolhit:

Freedom clubs in S. Florida aren't great. They love to use private individual's boats as rentals (you sublease your boat to the club, they get the use of the boat for the cost of your payment), they are always getting sued/re-organizing under new names and it is somewhat of a broken business model. Some want $5000 membership fees that are good for 3-5 years plus a monthly charge.....the issue is that this cost structure rivals a boat payment with none of the flexibility of actually owning the boat!

If Baja can move 100 boats doing this great but you have to wonder what it does for the brand image (Baja = rental boat). I know in the jet ski market the smaller Yamahas like XL700s/VX sports are mostly used in the rental market so most consumers are leery of buying those models new or used (looks like a rental or it was a rental).

I was thinking the same thing, Jup. Baja = rental. They sure are a long ways away from their Bucyrus heydays. It's a brave new world though so you can't blame a company for doing whatever to move product to stay alive..

On the flip side, if you can make a boat that survives well as a rental... Think about it, the guy that just rented an "offshore boat" spent last night excited searching youtube for offshore videos and seeing Bobby S take warpath on a run that mortal men only dream of. Today he gets in that boat and puts the hammer down!! If you can build a boat that survives that time and time again, thats a hell of a selling point.

Your point on the "rental boat" perception is something I can speak to, and it's fair (don't know a lot of Freedom Boat Club but I'd be careful making a generalization based on one market). But I think you're missing the larger point, and that point is exposure for the sportboat market on the whole.

No, I wouldn't buy a Yamaha 700, even though it's a good product, but I would buy a Yamaha 1200. And like most people, I was exposed to PWC through entry-level offerings like the 700.

Jupe, if you look hard enough you can find flaws in just about anything. I'm not saying this is a perfect program or a perfect idea or the solution to the challenge of bringing new buyers into the go-fast boat market. I'm saying it's a step. I'm also saying it's nice to see a company trying something.

Or the industry can just do nothing and nothing will change. It may not change anyway, but from where I sit giving up is never an option.

I hear you on the exposure to a bigger market but renting a Baja sportboat and then even a decade later buying a 39 TG or 36 Skater is extremely long odds......especially if you leave the year round boating markets of FL/TX. I think while it is a good long range, for the industry plan, it is "pie in the sky" at best. If I was Skip (Cig) or Peter (Skater) I wouldn't want to rely on some Baja rentals this year fueling their sales model in 2024!

In the short term, Baja had an excellent reputation for being a entry level sport boat so a small outboard powered boat could certainly boost that reputation. The rentals however might hurt sales when it comes to a guy signing on the dotted line thinking along the lines of "wait, I have a 60-120 month payment book on a rental boat?"

Flip side being, a relatively new boat with loose bolsters, rough fit/finish from rental abuse certainly might deter a buyer from buying a Baja due to their perceived quality. Safe to say my example is more likely than "built tough as an Apache" example you listed above.