Suspect the market will collapse when we die off. Due to demands made on the average middle to upper middle class two income two child family there’s neither time nor money for a cruising boat. Trailer and rack boats may be possible but not trawlers with the time and money required. Being a boat owner speaks to how you envision yourself. It’s part of your persona. The retirement transition from small boats to big boats is based on that persona. That’s mostly absent in our offspring and nearly totally absent in those who didn’t grow up in boating families.
Cost escalation may hasten this result but unless we bring on new boaters think it’s inevitable. It’s the same problem facing ski resorts and golf courses. Even hunting has this problem. They also require significant expenditures, time and dedication to be any good at it. And until you have a basic skill set not as much fun.
I think you're right. The generation(s) coming behind us, Gen X-ers and Millennials, seem to have neither the interest in boating, nor to be on life paths that would give them the disposable income to engage in such an expensive hobby.
I'll bet our 12 year old is the only kid in his school who ever used a dial caliper to measure a prop shaft and packing gland so we can order the packing and re-stuff it in the spring. I'll bet he's the only kid in his school who even knows what a packing gland or stuffing box is.
Mmm. There will always be X% with disposable income. I've met some pretty free-spending techies.
Those that have the boating itch will seek different ways to scratch it vs earlier generations, I think.
As a side note, saw a thread on TF where Safe Harbor was allowing slip holders unlimited transient dockage at other Safe Harbor marinas. They were also selling large quality fuel purchases at cost. To me, that speaks volumes on what they think their business will be in 2023. It costs nothing to offer transient dockage to your customers if you're expecting them to stay home because of fuel costs. Also, I imagine the fuel reduction probably has to do meeting buying commitments and not getting stuck with expensive fuel sitting in storage tanks all summer.
I interpreted that a bit differently. I think SH is trying to create an umbrella that covers the needs of their members. Pay them the lion's share of your annual costs and they'll take care of you.
It doesn't cost anything to offer transient slips that are being paid for by traveling slip holders.
Greetings,
Mr. ps. Your link triggers a virus/malware warning on my computer.
Greetings,
Mr. ps. Your link triggers a virus/malware warning on my computer.
I've seen nothing from Safe Harbor that isn't about maximizing profits. Probably their highest profits come from transient slip rentals, especially if a seasonal slip holder has already paid for the slip, and is traveling.
Ted
An outlook on future boating...like all research....who knows?
https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/boat-market/
I think the market for reasonably priced trunk cabin trawlers will remain strong. Especially for those that have been well maintained...mostly because no one is building these type of boats anymore. The cost to build a 36' trawler with a solid teak interior and trim would be very expensive today. These older boats in my opinion will continue to be desireable and there are some nice boats available under 200K. While you could spend 500k or more for a newer tug that just does not fit a lot of budgets...including mine. What your boat is worth is up to you...did I pay too much for my boat? Could I sell it and get my money back? I would have never bought it if that was my main concern...I bought it because if I didn't someone else would! That's the market today and going foward...just my opinion, whatever that is worth...
Contrary to the thought that the "younger" generations will not be interested in trawlering as a result of their seemingly frenetic and disconnected life styles, I believe that there is nothing exceptional in the current elder generations, especially those in the vanishingly small percentage of those generation which enjoy slow cruising. As the youngsters age, I think there will always be that portion who have the will, means, and desire to continue the privilege of the slower life afloat.
And I learned to work on my own stuff for a couple of reasons. Partly because it's cheaper, meaning I can afford to do more stuff, and partly because it's honestly less of a pain to just do a lot of things than to get someone else to do it.[/QUOTE]
And less expensive in the long run than hiring a "professional" to do work, then having to pay again to do it yourself to fix all the stuff the "professional" screwed up . . .
No disrespect to the Quality Professionals out there who do quality work, but I only know two of those, and a LOT of other "Professionals" who I wouldn't let work on my non-motorized push mower . . . .
Seriously, the main reason we do our own work is that if/when something breaks when we're far from civilization, we're already pretty familiar with the boat and it's systems, that we can generally either jury rig it temporarily, or at least identify the parts we need to fix it, order them, and then and have them shipped to some place we can pick them up to install ourselves!
And I learned to work on my own stuff for a couple of reasons. Partly because it's cheaper, meaning I can afford to do more stuff, and partly because it's honestly less of a pain to just do a lot of things than to get someone else to do it.[/QUOTE]
And less expensive in the long run than hiring a "professional" to do work, then having to pay again to do it yourself to fix all the stuff the "professional" screwed up . . .
No disrespect to the Quality Professionals out there who do quality work, but I only know two of those, and a LOT of other "Professionals" who I wouldn't let work on my non-motorized push mower . . . .
Seriously, the main reason we do our own work is that if/when something breaks when we're far from civilization, we're already pretty familiar with the boat and it's systems, that we can generally either jury rig it temporarily, or at least identify the parts we need to fix it, order them, and then and have them shipped to some place we can pick them up to install ourselves!
I'm not young (just turned 48) but probably younger than most folks out here. I have zero people in my network of friends and even acquaintances my age who own a boat. Few older retired friends/mentors do.
I think it's mostly a time issue: I agree with the above & cannot imagine the combination of hassle and expense (or alternatively expense and expense) that it would take to be a credit card captiain - it's just way out of my league to be on the sort of "yacht program" where the boat is kept up professionally, washed, waxed & buffed for whenever the owner is ready to use her.
Below that expense threshold I've found that good professionals, when asked for help, will basically show up when they have a gap in their schedule. I did this once to get an injector pump rebuilt (among other things) on my old sailboat's 4.108. The boat was out of commission for 3 months while various parts were sorted, new issues were found, etc. I think it cost around $5000 by the time it was up and running.
In 3 months I could have learned how to do it all myself, found the local shop where he got the rebuild done, etc. etc. But most people in my age bracket are too busy working & driving kids around to do anything but pay someone & hope the job gets done. That's to say nothing about the learning curve of operating & maintaining these vessels more broadly.
In sum: it's totally unsurprising that old people own boats. I do worry that my generation isn't getting the exposure necessary to be ready to step up to larger vessels, but on the other hand YouTube University is an amazing thing, so I'm not sure demand will fall off a cliff, at least for well kept vessels.
I'm not young (just turned 48) but probably younger than most folks out here. I have zero people in my network of friends and even acquaintances my age who own a boat. Few older retired friends/mentors do.
I think it's mostly a time issue: I agree with the above & cannot imagine the combination of hassle and expense (or alternatively expense and expense) that it would take to be a credit card captiain - it's just way out of my league to be on the sort of "yacht program" where the boat is kept up professionally, washed, waxed & buffed for whenever the owner is ready to use her.
Below that expense threshold I've found that good professionals, when asked for help, will basically show up when they have a gap in their schedule. I did this once to get an injector pump rebuilt (among other things) on my old sailboat's 4.108. The boat was out of commission for 3 months while various parts were sorted, new issues were found, etc. I think it cost around $5000 by the time it was up and running.
In 3 months I could have learned how to do it all myself, found the local shop where he got the rebuild done, etc. etc. But most people in my age bracket are too busy working & driving kids around to do anything but pay someone & hope the job gets done. That's to say nothing about the learning curve of operating & maintaining these vessels more broadly.
In sum: it's totally unsurprising that old people own boats. I do worry that my generation isn't getting the exposure necessary to be ready to step up to larger vessels, but on the other hand YouTube University is an amazing thing, so I'm not sure demand will fall off a cliff, at least for well kept vessels.
There are definitely some jobs worth having done and occasionally I find one of those. But for the stuff that doesn't require an overly specialized skill or an expensive special tool, it's nice not to be bound by someone else's schedule. And I can usually make enough time to do it, although sometimes it's a stretch. Although we don't have kids in the picture yet, as that may change the time situation (we're only 30).
As slowgoesit pointed out, the familiarity with the systems is a big benefit. Both when you need to fix something in an unfamiliar place and just for generally being able to pick out when an issue is developing.
"But for the stuff that doesn't require an overly specialized skill or an expensive special tool, it's nice not to be bound by someone else's schedule. And I can usually make enough time to do it, although sometimes it's a stretch. Although we don't have kids in the picture yet, as that may change the time situation (we're only 30)."
In our experience the folks in and around your age group do not have skills with tools or with systems like these nor do they appear to have any motivation to secure any such skills.
That is not a negative in any way within their life itself, but it does pose a larger barrier for older boats future health and relative value.
Looking around at people I know, I don't see a whole lot that know just a little or dabble in DIY stuff. It seems like most are either clueless about it (some might want to learn but never had exposure to it, others couldn't care less) or they're pretty much all-in.