The New England Boat Show

raybo3

Went to the boat show today. The trend continues, the show was horrible. The price keeps going up, $18 per ticket, $25 to park. Hardly any venders and hardly any boats. Boat prices are outrages. 20' Center Consoles with 125 outboard for $179000. No SeaRay's, Cruisers, Silvertons and so on. Total waste of money and time. I wanted to get pricing on a new A/C unit for my boat but no venders there. So so disappointing. Its been getting that way the last few years but now I may not go again until it bounces back. I walked through the show 2 times and was done in 50 minutes. What a shame! Just say'n

Ian

Same at the NY boat show, pretty poor.

halifax212

Ours is in March. The rep that sold me my trailer said they are planning to attend the show but lack inventory. Ill still go since 2020 and 2021 shows were cancelled. Yes , new boat prices are crazy, but I have always thought that over my years. Somebody's buying them.  My depth gauge seems to be failing and hoping to talk to suppliers for recommendations and installation this Spring.  

oscar1

Same in miami today

Handymans342

Miami show and Ft Lauderdale is the best

YYZRC

One day I'd like to go to the Miami show.  Just seems like it would be great to be outside in the sun vs up here in a convention center.

raybo3

So I was talking to a vendor at the show. He said the reason the show is so small is the cost of space but mostly the lack of inventory to sell. They won't be able to fill orders. Imagine a boat show with no electronics. Simply amazing. 

randy56

I went to a dealership today of the brand I own. Since there are not any near me. He said he has had 5 - 36 footers ordered for over a year. All pre sold. He only had 5 new boats in stock. I always wonder where do people get all this money? 

Handymans342

randy56 said:

I went to a dealership today of the brand I own. Since there are not any near me. He said he has had 5 - 36 footers ordered for over a year. All pre sold. He only had 5 new boats in stock. I always wonder where do people get all this money? 

They work in Congress

Michael T

A couple of years ago a dealer told me the cost of trailering boats to the shows (gas, labor and hotel rooms) was a killer particularly if the boats didn't sell as they had to be trucked back. As well he said floor plan space was stupid expensive. They had to give the boats away to meet costs so it was far better to have the customers come to him.

YYZRC

Auto shows are the same - just dump money into a fire pit.

Black_Diamond

About any ‘trade show’ is big dollars.  $/ft2, charge for everything: electric plug, internet, carpet…we’ve easily dpent $100k for a show, not including bringing in display stuff and people. 

earl1z19

Recovering that cost is a huge task. Its not just $100k in sales its $100k in profit to cover that expenditure.

MarkB

Man, so the used boat market must be going crazy?

raybo3

MarkB said:

Man, so the used boat market must be going crazy?

I bought my boat in 2007. I winter store it where I bought it and he maintains it for me. He told me I could get at least what I paid for it or more. It's unbelievable.   

J3ff

Hard to not sell my boat right now, have gotten an offer for 15k more than what I bought it for, sight unseen, just show up to a boat ramp with it. 

The problem is I just lived on it for a week and loved every moment of it. I'm back in a house for the next two weeks and can't wait to get back to it! Would love to trade up if I could but the 270 seems to be the perfect size for being able to single Handley run it and live on it for short amounts of time

LaRea

Lucky me, I already have exactly the right boat.  I pity the folks who are trying to buy right now, unless they are downsizing and made a killing on the sale.

Michael T

Prices here are insane for everything. I have no idea how young families with children are coping. We had a 2021 supercharged Yamaha jet boat and sold it after a year (it just wasn't a Rinker) and had three bidders on it. It sold for more than I paid including sales tax, maintenance and insurance for the year. Just nuts! people are paying top dollar for junk boats and cars. 

Willhound

Be patient. If you want to sell and don't plan to replace immediately then now is the time. People get insane and caught up in the fever and jump in, many not realizing what they are getting into. Interest rates are set to rise, when they do a lot of people that financed will realize they can't afford it and will dump all those new toys (or worse, default) and prices will fall.