Offshore powerboats are expensive and selfish.
I love 'em but they keep going up in price and most of them can carry 5-6 people with little room to move around on board. Truthfully, all they are good for is motoring around, often at high speed, burning fuel.

Every other style of boat has a more useful purpose. Cruisers carry a few more people slowly with loads of luxurious amenities for entertaining. Sports boats for wake boarding and water sports. Toons for relaxing in groups and meandering around the river. Centre consoles for fishing and now adapting to a cross-over role.

The offshore stuff has the most expensive power plants with more expertise required on costly maintenance. Love them or hate them, they are the most impractical of all. Couple that to the younger generations having more interest in hi-tech phones, social media, throw in the anti cancer brigade (I am a minor victim of skin cancer), add the number of jobless, allow for the general state of the economy worldwide, it's not surprising boat numbers are going south with offshore performance stuff hardest hit.

The forum will either adapt or get smaller. My bet, it will adapt and I think the first stage will be sections for centre consoles. Every CC related thread on here reveals more and more CC owners coming out of the woodwork.

Times are changing, practical low maintenance boats are taking the market share.

My 2 cents worth....

RR

Correct...totally.

It has to be scary for young people these days.

Not just for young people try to be a over 50 white guy. Companies hate us.

Can a moderator delete this thread ? Too damn depressing.

One would think if the hobby is so depressed, nice clean boats would be at "giveaway" prices. The exact opposite is the case as far as I can tell.
We see this downturn of interest in the musclecar hobby talked about on a weekly basis, but.so far nobody is giving those away either.
Weird.

While I'm not 50 I do feel that the black on white racism I saw in high school has reached the professional world also. Just today a black guy walk into the restraunt I was in with a shirt on that read "caution: educated black man". Now if I wore that shirt that read white instead of black I would be the biggest fu!king racist prick around. But because of how out of control this country is that is "hilarious" for a black man to
Wear that. If I was black and saw another one of "my" people wearing that I would tell them what a fu!k they were. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be at my prime, have put on a ton of good years to a company only to watch a under qualified minority take my job because the white vs minority ratio was "off".

I've yet to comprehend paying a half million dollars for a boat that has a porta potty and cannot be kept in the water for fear of transom or stringer failure.

I hate life without being on the water. I have contemplated buying a small something or other just to get me out there. Heck, even thought about an inflatable fishing boat from Academy. I think people would like to be able to boat, but having to work multiple jobs or the type of jobs that pay enough, well there is just no time. Only time will tell where things go. I like the CCs, but the wife does not. Care to guess what I won't be buying?

If only we can get rid of this bad monkey on our back. No influence on you.

Hell anything remotely affordable by the average young to learn how to work on boats and get his feet wet is being snatched up and cannibalized for parts