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Bump's World - March 2010
March 8, 2010
NEW ENGLAND BOAT SHOW 2010
I just finished my 29th New England Boat Show. The original boat show back in the early 70s was at Suffolk Downs in Revere. In the late 70s the show moved to a bigger and supposedly better facility the Commonwealth Pier in South Boston. The Commonwealth Pier was a dump so you can imagine what Suffolk Downs, a horse race track, was like. In the mid 1980s, again to up grade, the show moved to the Bayside Center. The Bayside was originally built as a shopping mall but the locals vandalized the place enough to drive the mall tenants away.
The ceilings were about 18 feet high, so a sailboat with a 6 foot keel is about 13 feet high on deck. We had to put foam and yellow tape on the black building support beams because people kept hitting their heads on them. At floor level the temperature was very cool, but on the boats it got very hot. This was a perfect environment to catch pneumonia. I called it the boat show plaque.
Two years ago the boat show moved to the new Mass Convention Center in South Boston. The new convention center is built like only the government can. The building is five hundred thousand square feet with ceilings up to 100 feet high. Eight hundred million taxes dollars at work. A perfect building for a boat show.
The first year (2008) the boat show exhibitors filled the total 500,000 square feet. At New Wave we felt fortunate to be on the early call list so we could get the space we needed for our booth and at a good location. In 2009 the boat show space was reduced to 350,000 square feet. No longer were dealers fighting over the space. In 2010 the space was again reduce, now to 250,000 square feet or 1/2th of the building. At 1/2th of the convention center floor space it is still bigger than the Bayside Center. The first year of the convention center most sailboats were displayed with their rigs up. In 2010 very few had their rigs up. A definite sign of the times.
The big news that the industry talks about is attendance. Some how we are to believe that the number of people who attend the show is a direct relationship to the health of the industry. This year attendance was up about 5%, even with the reduced floor space. Of course the looker does not know the show is smaller until he gets there. So the industry says we are on the rebound and things are very promising since the show attendance was up. What it tells me, is the weather was good and the circus was not in town. The level of screaming kids was definitely not down.
Shortly after the show all the dealers network to compare notes and see who sold what. The problem is the definition of sold. To some a very strong conversation, to others it means a check to hold the boat, or a check and contract, or a check contact and no conditions, all of the above can constitute a sold boat. After the show of 2009 my networking revealed that over 50% of the reported sold boats never happened. This year we'll see what the real results are.
Certainly more dealers reported more sales this year than last year. I would say that the increase was about 50%. Most all the boats sold at the show were boats that had been in dealer inventory for a minimum of 1 year and many way longer than that.
Dealers did report than overall they have reduced their inventories significantly. This reduction in inventory means that there will be fewer boats that the dealers are willing to discount, often taking a loss just to reduce their inventory levels. If a dealer has to order the boat from the manufacturer, instead of selling it out of stock, then the dealer would expect a reasonable profit.
Manufacturers have greatly reduced their production capacity, if they are building at all. Most manufacturers do not build unsold boats. The boat must either be retail sold or a dealer must be willing to put the boat into their inventory. So now the dealers have small inventories, which means the boat model equipped the way you would like it is probably not in stock. The manufacturer has a much reduced work force and fewer parts in stock so the delivery time will be much longer. It is very likely that if you want a new boat for this season time is quickly running out.
It is impossible to predict the future, however the strongest case is for a gradual increase in new boat sales. The boat show demonstrated this and all the brilliant minds in the media say this. Oh wait a minute these are the same guys who 2 years ago said things will only get better.
Bump's World - March 2010
March 8, 2010
NEW ENGLAND BOAT SHOW 2010
I just finished my 29th New England Boat Show. The original boat show back in the early 70s was at Suffolk Downs in Revere. In the late 70s the show moved to a bigger and supposedly better facility the Commonwealth Pier in South Boston. The Commonwealth Pier was a dump so you can imagine what Suffolk Downs, a horse race track, was like. In the mid 1980s, again to up grade, the show moved to the Bayside Center. The Bayside was originally built as a shopping mall but the locals vandalized the place enough to drive the mall tenants away.
The ceilings were about 18 feet high, so a sailboat with a 6 foot keel is about 13 feet high on deck. We had to put foam and yellow tape on the black building support beams because people kept hitting their heads on them. At floor level the temperature was very cool, but on the boats it got very hot. This was a perfect environment to catch pneumonia. I called it the boat show plaque.
Two years ago the boat show moved to the new Mass Convention Center in South Boston. The new convention center is built like only the government can. The building is five hundred thousand square feet with ceilings up to 100 feet high. Eight hundred million taxes dollars at work. A perfect building for a boat show.
The first year (2008) the boat show exhibitors filled the total 500,000 square feet. At New Wave we felt fortunate to be on the early call list so we could get the space we needed for our booth and at a good location. In 2009 the boat show space was reduced to 350,000 square feet. No longer were dealers fighting over the space. In 2010 the space was again reduce, now to 250,000 square feet or 1/2th of the building. At 1/2th of the convention center floor space it is still bigger than the Bayside Center. The first year of the convention center most sailboats were displayed with their rigs up. In 2010 very few had their rigs up. A definite sign of the times.
The big news that the industry talks about is attendance. Some how we are to believe that the number of people who attend the show is a direct relationship to the health of the industry. This year attendance was up about 5%, even with the reduced floor space. Of course the looker does not know the show is smaller until he gets there. So the industry says we are on the rebound and things are very promising since the show attendance was up. What it tells me, is the weather was good and the circus was not in town. The level of screaming kids was definitely not down.
Shortly after the show all the dealers network to compare notes and see who sold what. The problem is the definition of sold. To some a very strong conversation, to others it means a check to hold the boat, or a check and contract, or a check contact and no conditions, all of the above can constitute a sold boat. After the show of 2009 my networking revealed that over 50% of the reported sold boats never happened. This year we'll see what the real results are.
Certainly more dealers reported more sales this year than last year. I would say that the increase was about 50%. Most all the boats sold at the show were boats that had been in dealer inventory for a minimum of 1 year and many way longer than that.
Dealers did report than overall they have reduced their inventories significantly. This reduction in inventory means that there will be fewer boats that the dealers are willing to discount, often taking a loss just to reduce their inventory levels. If a dealer has to order the boat from the manufacturer, instead of selling it out of stock, then the dealer would expect a reasonable profit.
Manufacturers have greatly reduced their production capacity, if they are building at all. Most manufacturers do not build unsold boats. The boat must either be retail sold or a dealer must be willing to put the boat into their inventory. So now the dealers have small inventories, which means the boat model equipped the way you would like it is probably not in stock. The manufacturer has a much reduced work force and fewer parts in stock so the delivery time will be much longer. It is very likely that if you want a new boat for this season time is quickly running out.
It is impossible to predict the future, however the strongest case is for a gradual increase in new boat sales. The boat show demonstrated this and all the brilliant minds in the media say this. Oh wait a minute these are the same guys who 2 years ago said things will only get better.
Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
Bump Wilcox