Markets change and you have to bend with those markets to survive.

Why do you need only new boats in order to keep in business? I would think if marketed right and the changes made to retro fit a new design in an older boat, that would be the market direction a company would want to take.

New boats are starting to sell... But it will take a few years to catch up. Many people because of the shortage of inventory of new have leaned towards re-furbing older boats.

Like I stated, the market is not dead, just going in a different direction. I stand by my original post,

IDK, it doesn't seem like there are all that many new boats being built these days compared to 8-10 years ago. Even looking at the used market, there are only around 580 used boats listed here today... I've never seen so few boats listed here going into spring. If anything it appears inventory is decreasing while prices seem to be up slightly (likely due to lack of inventory).

Think about it, builders layup and assemble boats. Very few paint in house, none do engine/drive work so all the "margin" on the refurbishments goes to 3rd party vendors. If the owner isn't happy he will be ranting to the builder (who remember didn't do the refurb work, nor did they get a huge margin/markup). So it is a lose,lose situation.

Think about it, car manufacturers don't do restoration, production home builders don't do remodeling/additions.......Why? Because the profit margin isn't worth their time and their whole business model is to build new stuff. New builds are all the same, refurb stuff is different on every one.......kills time and burns up labor hours.

Lots of boats are hitting the end of the value scale. Old Scarabs, flat decks, non-step Fountains/Formulas/Cigs/Apaches are getting to the point the rebuild costs exceed the whole boats value. Look at Razz, asking 30K now. Even if you got the hull for FREE you would spend 100K getting it back in shape and you still would have work to do and not be able to recoup the 100K upon a sale. Add 30K for the hull and you would have 130K into a boat that last sold for what 90K as a running/turn key boat?

I know a guy with a Sunsation very similar to my old boat. It is very very tired despite being a 2005 with about 250 hours. Boat needs everything redone, the power was rebuilt for 25K by a local mechanic and I would still throw it in the trash. When I inquired on the cost being higher than brand new small block merc 6.2s he said he knows that now but the guy kept hitting him 3-4-5K at a time and the receipts total 25K! He thinks he needs 65-75K to get out of the boat (payoff + rebuild money). I wouldn't pay 20K for the boat as it sits. He is spending probably $400 a month storing it outdoors on a yard trailer and it looks worse every time I see it.

If I paid 20K, repainted it (15K), repowered/rebuilt drives (30K), new gauges/interior/covers 12K, trailer 6K........boom you are in for 83K for a 10 year old boat. I love the old style 32 Dominators but I wouldn't want to be into a 10 year old one for 83K either. Now what about the trim pumps, the transom/stringers (wet?), cabin headliner (2K and a lot of hassle), stereo......etc. See how this gets crazy fast?

Does He want to convert his existing bolsters or does He want new ones?