My reading of the history of sailors and own observations lead me to believe there have always been cheap sailors, sea gypsies, and those that desire to be professional regarding maintenance and operation.
The two recent US financial bubbles (dot com and housing) and the advent of "credit card" cruisers (ease of purchase and operation through technology i.e. GPS, bow thrusters, iPhone apps etc.) have created its own bubble of boats without loving and dedicated owners. I am not convinced that the boating related industries can change the current trend by improved advertising. Selling "the boating lifestyle" strikes me as feeding a fad not creating long term sustainable replacements for boat owners aging out or burning out. It is my opinion that the boating industry would be well served by better low cost product advertisements. Show people new to boating how a trailerable boat is a desirable and affordable entry into boating. Don't have one page of affordable boats surrounded by gold plated mega yachts and expect "Joe Paycheck" to say "honey, that could be us" to the wife and two kids. Another decent approach is to push yacht clubs and boating centers (along with the timeshare businesses) to have affordable access to boat capable of weekend cruises. By allowing people to try out boating without 2nd mortgage we may see a growing base of younger boaters to fill in behind us older long term boaters. Martin Calypso 1970 C&C 43 Seattle ________________________________ From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of honeys...@aol.com Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 3:37 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Stus-List Used boat prices In spite of what the politicians and media say about the economy improving I continue to see more & more sail boats and now powers boats on the hook in our local waterway and our local marinas are having real issues with abandoned boats as well. These are folks that have held on since 2007 and have finally realized that they can no longer afford dockage. I always look at the waterline on boats when I walk around the docks here in Savannah and I am completely amazed at the large number of sail boats that seemed to have grown to the floating docks. The large majority of these boats cannot get underway due to marine growth and that is only what I can see from the dock, I can only imagine how the bottoms look. What happens if they have to evacuate due to a hurricane? Also, when discussing bottom jobs (we are in a semi-tropical environment with summer time water temps in the high 80's to low 90's) at our local sailing club, I hear many folks actually brag about going 3+ years between bottom jobs and when they do paint the bottom it between tides on a sand bar. If that a sign of the boating economy of just the usual cheap sailor attitude? Also, these are the same folks that complain about their ratings time & time again when they find themselves, as usual at the back of our constantly declining racing fleets. Maybe PHRF should allow time for barnacles, sea grapes as well a general lack of bottom maintenance? HONEY US12788 Savannah, GA
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