If the hull or structure of the boat needs repair it is sent back to the manufacturer. At PBC, All other warranty work is done at our shop. Engines, electronics, water systems, etc.

Not all shops can service or do warranty work on 520's, 565's, 1100's, 1350's, 1650's.

I'm not a fan of this personally, not selling direct. But I'm from the west coast and there are no dealers really, you just walk straight into the manufacturer and order what you want. I feel like its much less of a custom boat if I have to talk to a middle man, I just want to talk to who's building it. Just my .02

selling dealers take care of all warranty work engine side and drive side as well.

most boat manufacturers are not set up to do indepth service & repairs nor warranty work mechanical side.

Also many boat manu's do not have the special marine tools needed to work on boats nor the special equipment either. Alot do not even have a scan tool.

Who said you cant just cause you ordered from a broker. Usually the manufacturer is more than willing to still talk to you and get your input.

Then what's the point of the broker..? Just seems weird to me if I walk into Cigarette and pick out what I want, design the paint scheme, pick out the interior colors, spitball ideas on power and setup, see the boat in production, get fitted for the bolsters, then when its complete, I give my money to PBC because they're a dealer...

Nothing against PBC btw, they have built a hell of a nice business, just an example.

Again, this is just my narrowmindedness having dealt with the west coast builders where everything is built to order, virtually nothing built for "stock". Different meaning of the term "custom" I guess.

Because i am sure every manufacturer wants theire facility's full of people at all times.

It might sound rude but they need ti focus on what they do. Dealers act as a buffer but your input is not silenced at all. Also as others have said, dealers deal with warranty issues that the manufactors dont.

You are not going to chevy and buying a truck direct , same goes with boats

Thats where the west coast differs. Advantage, DCB, Eliminator, Lavey Craft, Hallett, Howard, etc are bought direct. I don't think they're distracted and not focused because a customer walks in their door, they build arguably some of the finest boats in the world. Most, if not all, are mercury service and repair facilities, its a one stop shop. Again, different definitions of the term "custom". You go to the Chevy dealer and order a corvette by checking the boxes of what options you want, I go to Chip Foose who builds whatever my mind can think up...both are "custom" ordered...

Does a way exist to check mfg. production numbers other than searching a states DOR dealer records ( an industry database)? It would be interesting to see how many units are actually being produced these days. I'm always shocked by the dealers that act like they sell a lot of boats and then you look at the numbers and they tell a much different story.

As far as using a dealer, I can see using a dealer to help you through the process and to act as a general contractor of sorts on the project because the dealer should have other builds going on and would be in regular contact with the builder. Service after the sale would also be key and when spending $400k + on a new boat I would expect that. Short of living near a builder I think the increased expense of the dealer involvement would still be worth it even if you had the option of going factory direct.

Power boats are not chip foose builds unless you truly are getting a 1 off, they are just different options of a standard mold/chassis (just like the vette).

All I'm saying is that's not how all boat manufacturers work. Not arguing that most boats are bought by checking the options list, that's true. But go look at some of the build threads for Lavey Craft or Active Thunder or that monsterous Skater build thread and look at all the custom details that are put in those that aren't on the options list. I'm just saying that's what I define as a custom boat and that I wouldn't want to work through a broker to build something like that.

Sorry to completely derail the OP question lol. Carry on!