On Apr 26, 6:19?pm, John H. wrote:
On 26 Apr 2007 15:52:10 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Sales are off over at Brunswick.

There's a 34-week inventory of boats in the pipeline.

However, because the fall off in sales was less than analysts
expected, Brunswick stock is up sharply.

Only thing weirder than the boat business has to be the stock market.

**************

The stock is still only a little over half what it was a couple years ago.

I fear we may see a few mfgr go OOB this year. Unleaded premium gas
ashore is $3.40- $3.60 right now, so it has to be $5 or really close
at the fuel dock. Folks who have to know exactly where every dollar
goes, every month, are probably the most vulnerable when this rape and
pillage pricing kicks in. It's going to be the smaller, less expensive
boats that suffer the worst. After the last two years of sky high
prices and this year headed higher, it's getting difficult for anybody
to believe that it's a temporary market phenomenon and that things
will probably get back to "normal" next summer. At $150- $300 an hour
in fuel costs for some of the speedier boats, even a few of the guys
with deep pockets are going to be thinking twice about using their
boats as much.

Too bad, because in general the economy is snorting along pretty
nicely. Full employment, strong stock market, real estate values
stabilizing and beginning to bounce back......you'd have to think that
this would be a dynamite time to sell boats. Business is extremely
good for some at the upper end, but it's never a good sign when sales
are off at Brunswick, Genmar, or one of the other
mass-pro suppliers. Means that folks of ordinary or upper middle class
means aren't buying boats, and that volume is pretty crucial to
pricing of a lot of goods and services that even those of us who
aren't going to be trading boats any time soon consume on a regular
basis.