Prices at the Ft Lauderdale show
 

Super busy show. No sign of "recession" LOL.

Pretty interesting non-scientific observation, boats in the 30 foot range, which I assume is probably where most sales come from for some brands went up by 4 times. Even most wake board boats are at $300K now. In the group of people I was with one of my buddies bought an Everglades 29 around 2006 for $99,000 with twin Honda 200's. That boat now is $399,000 Same story, about 4 times for a similar Boston Whaler and Contender too. These were real owners that have since sold and moved on to other boats. The 40 foot range went up 2 to 2.5 times since 2010 & 2012 So the same guys that owned the Boston, Everglades and Contender went up to Invincible, Yellowfin and Contender. So those guys all bought around $275K to $350 and all those boats are $700,000++ now. All these guys have Merc 300's and obviously, most are at 400 or 450 now. Another interesting thing was materials, almost every boat decreased in weight by about 600 pounds. Except for the Yellowfin, his same boat still looks and weighs exactly the same. Pretty crazy, I know there is inflation, more advanced materials and Mercury has bigger power but I found it really interesting. Not many items saw that level of price increase except butter and milk.

YF, Everglades got swooped up by hedge fund types, Hinckley went that route too so no doubt the bottom line is the focus. Pump out as much product and collect as much as you can!

I have met Steve Dougherty (former owner of Everglades) over the years. I liked the 243, thought it would be a perfect sand bar boat. They were 75K for years, then 115 and now they are over 150K and one is listed on boatrader for 209K. This is a simple boat, single 300 is the usual motor. So I mentioned to Steve at a boat show years back that "I remember when these were 75K," Steve says: "I told you back then you should have bought that boat!"

Bob Dougherty (Steves dad) worked at Whaler, invented the 13 hull design, left and started Edgewater boats (right down the street from Whaler in Edgewater FL), sold EW and started Everglades the sold EG to the hedge fund guys. Steve has since started Solace boats and Bob passed away shortly after the sale of EG.

Had I bought a new 243 in 2005, they were 55Kish, the boat today would still be worth 40K 18 years later!

Yeah, we were joking about that at the show. Every dude I was with had a 40ish CC and at what point in our lives did you own a boat that either held its value or even appreciated! Nuts!

I know its easy to knock the higher pricing of just about everything, but what most people don't understand is how just about EVERYTHING is oil related. Unless you are growing your own food and making your own clothes from the cotton you pick in your back yard or whittling some clogs out of wood.....i bet its oil based or related in some way!
I just did a quick search on 55gal drums of resin. the WEST system 105 at west marine is $2904! So lets say for the sake of this discussion you are building a 30'ish boat and the bare hull weighs in at 2500lbs (again this is just hypothetical) so its a perfect world of infusion and you get a perfect mix of 50/50 resin to glass, you would need 3.125 drums of resin so right there the boat company is buying 4 drums at a cost of around $12K and that's not factoring in the fiberglass itself, the hardener, acetone, any expendables like rollers, vacuum lines, bags, gloves, masks, eye protection etc etc.
We use an epoxy resin to pot some pumps we make for submersible use...the cost of the resin since 2018 has gone up almost 130%!!! the hardener we use has gone up 100% its hard for a salesman to explain to an OEM why we are increasing the cost of a product by 18% in one year when its been historically around 3% or 0 year after year for the last 20yrs!

Going off on a tangent...These anti fossil fuel crusaders make me laugh every time i see them.....i bet the blue or pink dye in your hair is petroleum based! Those avocado "vegan" shoes you are wearing....yep there's an oil based resin holding it all together! Did you drive or bicycle here? How do you think the rubber for the tires is made? You think the light you see at night is made my magic? They need to get their heads of of their you know what and wake up! If they want to crusade about something, go to China and protest against their climate destruction!!! see how that goes for ya! ok i need to go for a walk and calm down! lol :D

The one that made me LOL was the Deep Impact 369 CC STARTING at $620k. LMFAO

gets tougher and tougher for a new boat buyer to enter the sport for sure!
of course there is always the used market most won't have choice to look at to reach their goal of floating in a boat !

Not sure I would use a boat show as a metric for measuring a recession…99% is curiousity vs. serious buyers. Just my opinion.

New 32 Sunny CC's listed at $399K - $420K. 4-5 years ago list was in the upper $200K's. What boggles my mind more than the price increase is the demand for them at the current prices. I believe there was a new 34 Sunny CCX listed over $600K. I know most are well into the upper $500K's now. Hey, more power to Sunny and PBC if people are lining up for 'em at those prices. Get it while the gettin's good.

Everyone talks about the high price of boats but it doesn’t seem to be slowing sales down.

Thats the WTF moment about boating right now, You guys been on here longer than me. Do you guys remember a time when boats held their value or gasp appreciated like they do now? Its nuts, they are getting into plane territory with appreciation.