My beak is a 24 and not a 42 for one reason- $$$,$$$.

I have been boating for 40 years. My 27 year old son has no interest, he states that he can never afford to buy a boat, and certainly can not afford to insure or fuel it. I tell him to work harder. Boats should grow in both size and speed as your income grows. The big boats are expensive but worth every dime. My son does not agree and has turned down every chance to boat. No interest! The ability to pen a check for the purchase certainly limits the buyer. Limited usage is another downer for him. He sees me spending far more hours caring for the boat than running it. They just don't get it.

Doug- I've been boating with you for 10 years and don't believe I've ever even met your son. Haha

lots o you guys are still young!
I was young,
I got into power kiting sea land and snow in '05
then I decided I should get a boston whaler 13 footer 4 kitesurfing the best spots
then I got a pointy chriscraft 16 ft glastron clone
(much better)
four? five? years ago I grabbed a checkmate 28
iloveit!
this year I turned 40
pretty sure I am not a kid any more.
good luck kids!
do what I did,...
try self employment
it s a good way to get$$$

also
I keep my big boat on a rack
and have never towed it myself
pretty sure that costs less
got an s-10 and 2 astroes that move the jetski and or the sixteen footer

also also, my wife gets super scared over 30 mph
so I only really drink lotsa gas when she is not on board

31 now and ate up with the dumba$$ of owning a boat, bought the 42 at 25 yo and that was the cheap part

I think it's a societal shift more than cash.

There is money to buy boats and the market has plenty of affordable gf boats. Young kids ( my generation and younger would rather play on their IPad than venture outside. Lots of my generation can't even drive stick, much less diagnose/work on a boat. Couple that with the fact that you can buy a used jet ski for 3000 that is fuel injected and runs 60 mph and the young person just doesn't see fit to go boating unless they have the passion.

I'm 30 and was raised around boats. Started with a crown 225 and while being @$$ raped raw on a car build I said forget this nonsense and bought a 288. Had it for less than two years and took the advice of others... Buy a boat that's already faster. Being in the 32 I am overwhelmed, until I want more.

Fast boats are expensive. Modding is even more expensive. Cars are great but think about HP in cars these days. 300hp and you were balling back in the day. Now, my 538whp cobra is nothing special. More so, I don't see the need for the younger crowd to be behind the wheel. I believe many of us would agree.

To another point, milenials are in fact making the coin to afford it. However, the entry price for a bigger boat is mind blowing. To get into a boat and truck you're cracking 100k. If I was 22/23 all over again I may have bought a wakeboard boat too.

Nah.

Mainly credit, money and time. But the ones that do have credit and or money are buying the heck out of wakeboard boats. No other fiberglass boats can come close in sales except the Yamaha jetdrive boat in which leads everything for one model only in sales.

Malibu and Mastercraft account for about 4,000 in sales in new boats per year alone for just them 2. These boats are not bought by the 52 or older crowd unless daddy war bucks buys it for his kids.

Total sales for the wakeboard boats end of Oct 2014 were close to 6000 in brand new sales. Compared to the sportboat sales were what 200 for the whole 2014 year and compared to all fiberglass 14 ft thru 30 ft straight inboard and I/O was around 10.800 in sales in which is down 21 % from last year. Wow.

Keep mind wakeboard boats mainly are 20 to 24 ft and that's it basically and only have about 12 manufacturers total compared to over 100's rec boats 14 to 30 ft manufacturers. These numbers I posted are 2014 new boat sales ending Oct.

going off on a tangent,...
hot rod cars vs boats
I drive enough all day every week,...
its torture
why buy a hot rod car for thrills?
just gonna hit traffick in it anyway!
a hobie cat is thousands times more fun than any 4 wheeler!