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Bump's World - March 2013
March 17, 2014
I just finished my 33rd New England Boat Show. The Boston Convention Center continues to be a perfect building for a boat show. Two thirds of this huge building is used for the show and based on the economic outlook for the marine industry there is hope, but no real plans to expand the show back to the full building. The convention people have announced plans to double the size of the convention complex in order to stay competitive with other cities in the convention world. Once again our tax dollars are at work. They want to more than double the 800 million they spent the first time. WOW.
Today I am cautiously optimistic. The attendance of the show was up about 10%. This is good, but also it is affected by the fact that no major storms impacted the show. The industry news loves to jump all over this a proof that we are having a big upturn in business.
There is significant improvement in the small powerboat sales. The real final numbers will be lower, but dealers reported an average increase of about 50% over the past 4 years. This is very good news. The small power boat business was overrun with excess inventory in 2008 when the huge down turn took place. It has taken years for this inventory to be sold, and for the inventory of good used boats to go down to the point where new boats look good again. It is amazing to see how quickly builders once out of business are jumping back into this business. You would think looking at what’s out there that the market never crashed and things were never better.
Here at New Wave Yachts we have taken on the line of Tidewater Power Boats. They build 17 to 28 foot outboard powered boats. They are powered by Yamaha outboards. Tidewater Boats are built in South Carolina. They are a good American built product showing that they can be more than competitive in today’s market. The Tidewater Boats are great riding, well built boats. They are extremely well priced. Please come by our office in Manchester to see the 17, 19, and 23 on display. You can see the full line of Tidewater Boats at www.tidewaterboats.com.
New Wave had the Hanse 385 and Dehler 38 on display at the show. It was the first Dehler showing in New England. She was extremely well received.
The show was representative of the European invasion into the American sailboat market. Between Beneteau, Hanse and Jeanueau they represent 90% of all sailboats sold in the world. Last year was the first year ever that more European built sailboats were sold in the US than North American built boats. France and Germany continue to support their boat builders. They constantly come out with new product. They spend money on boat shows and other marketing. They act like they are in business for the long haul.
The Catalina at the show looked like the Catalina that was in the show 15 years ago. The American sailboat builders are on the edge. They do not have the money to invest in new models and marketing the way the European builders do. They continue to lose market share. I do not see how this trend is going to turn around. Americans are used to seeing lots of new European product. This is what the buyer expects to see at the shows now. No longer are people coming on our boats asking where they are built and saying they never heard of Hanse before.
Hanse and Dehler have invested in modern boat building robotics. They are very modern companies where, like the car industry, they are learning how to make the boats more efficiently with less labor and waste. Like the car industry they deliver a better more modern product at a lower price.
When the tractor trailer backs up to the Hanse factory to unload 4’ by 8’ sheets of marine plywood, it is never touched by human hands. The wood is off loaded by a machine with suction arms and dropped on a long conveyor belt. It goes into an area where it is sand blasted. Then it never stops and is sprayed by a varnish finish. It continues into an oven which bakes on the finish. This is done 4 times until the wood reaches the end. It lands on a table controlled by a 5 axil router which cuts the most efficient use of the wood for the boat. Each piece is bar coded and every worker has a bar code reader on him. The piece is then fitted to the boat with an extremely low tolerance level. The boats come out better built and the customer benefits. Better more efficiently built boats. Gone are the days of hours of sanding, fitting, resanding, refitting on and on.
As I always say, I keep cutting this piece and it is still too short???
Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
Bump Wilcox
Bump's World - March 2013
March 17, 2014
I just finished my 33rd New England Boat Show. The Boston Convention Center continues to be a perfect building for a boat show. Two thirds of this huge building is used for the show and based on the economic outlook for the marine industry there is hope, but no real plans to expand the show back to the full building. The convention people have announced plans to double the size of the convention complex in order to stay competitive with other cities in the convention world. Once again our tax dollars are at work. They want to more than double the 800 million they spent the first time. WOW.
Today I am cautiously optimistic. The attendance of the show was up about 10%. This is good, but also it is affected by the fact that no major storms impacted the show. The industry news loves to jump all over this a proof that we are having a big upturn in business.
There is significant improvement in the small powerboat sales. The real final numbers will be lower, but dealers reported an average increase of about 50% over the past 4 years. This is very good news. The small power boat business was overrun with excess inventory in 2008 when the huge down turn took place. It has taken years for this inventory to be sold, and for the inventory of good used boats to go down to the point where new boats look good again. It is amazing to see how quickly builders once out of business are jumping back into this business. You would think looking at what’s out there that the market never crashed and things were never better.
Here at New Wave Yachts we have taken on the line of Tidewater Power Boats. They build 17 to 28 foot outboard powered boats. They are powered by Yamaha outboards. Tidewater Boats are built in South Carolina. They are a good American built product showing that they can be more than competitive in today’s market. The Tidewater Boats are great riding, well built boats. They are extremely well priced. Please come by our office in Manchester to see the 17, 19, and 23 on display. You can see the full line of Tidewater Boats at www.tidewaterboats.com.
New Wave had the Hanse 385 and Dehler 38 on display at the show. It was the first Dehler showing in New England. She was extremely well received.
The show was representative of the European invasion into the American sailboat market. Between Beneteau, Hanse and Jeanueau they represent 90% of all sailboats sold in the world. Last year was the first year ever that more European built sailboats were sold in the US than North American built boats. France and Germany continue to support their boat builders. They constantly come out with new product. They spend money on boat shows and other marketing. They act like they are in business for the long haul.
The Catalina at the show looked like the Catalina that was in the show 15 years ago. The American sailboat builders are on the edge. They do not have the money to invest in new models and marketing the way the European builders do. They continue to lose market share. I do not see how this trend is going to turn around. Americans are used to seeing lots of new European product. This is what the buyer expects to see at the shows now. No longer are people coming on our boats asking where they are built and saying they never heard of Hanse before.
Hanse and Dehler have invested in modern boat building robotics. They are very modern companies where, like the car industry, they are learning how to make the boats more efficiently with less labor and waste. Like the car industry they deliver a better more modern product at a lower price.
When the tractor trailer backs up to the Hanse factory to unload 4’ by 8’ sheets of marine plywood, it is never touched by human hands. The wood is off loaded by a machine with suction arms and dropped on a long conveyor belt. It goes into an area where it is sand blasted. Then it never stops and is sprayed by a varnish finish. It continues into an oven which bakes on the finish. This is done 4 times until the wood reaches the end. It lands on a table controlled by a 5 axil router which cuts the most efficient use of the wood for the boat. Each piece is bar coded and every worker has a bar code reader on him. The piece is then fitted to the boat with an extremely low tolerance level. The boats come out better built and the customer benefits. Better more efficiently built boats. Gone are the days of hours of sanding, fitting, resanding, refitting on and on.
As I always say, I keep cutting this piece and it is still too short???
Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
Bump Wilcox