On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:40:03 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Jan 22, 3:04?am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:55:46 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould





wrote:
On Jan 21, 2:18?pm, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
Prequel: ?I'm not trying to start an argument here.

I helped take down my dealer's display at the Boston Covention Center
today and transfer it to Hartford for the CMTA show this coming
weekend.

I had some down time, so I started talking to the Parker dealer and
the subject of splash boards came up - I noticed that all the Parker
boats on display had splash boards on the open transom boats.

When I asked the question, he simply said that in his opinion, anyone
who doesn't use a spash board is asking for trouble when backing down
for any particular reason. ?Not to mention more water in the boat than
is nececssary in certain sea states.

Straight from the dealer. ?:)

That really wasn't nice, Tom. Did you know that (according to the
stats available through Google) several posters have logged an average
of more than 30-posts per day since the beginning of the year? Good
grief, it's become a full time job for some of them. How dismal is
that?
Now you've kicked off a huge "You're a this," "you're a that," feud
that will run up the totals for some even higher.

Just pointing out that not everything Parker revolves around the
Chesapeake Bay. ?:)

And because it's fun jerking Harry's chain every once in a while.

And that low transom thing never gets old. ?:)

Although it is getting a little long in the tooth.

How was the boat show?

Ugly - very ugly.

Lots of muttering about money wasted, etc. ?One solid week in Boston
and four leads - no sales. ?Heard via several of the reps I know that
there wasn't a lot of activity in any of the booths.

On the plus side, BRP is putting the Johnson brand into sleep mode for
a couple of years (nice little rumor about what the Johnson brand is
going to become) and ETECs are going to be produced in three new small
flavors - 9.9, 15 and 25 and being introduced in 2009.

Soon, ETEC will rule the world!!!

MMMUUUUUUAAAWWWWAAAAHHHHHAAAAAA!!!!!

Ours starts on Thursday.

The CMTA (Connecticut Marine Trades) show starts Thursday. ?That is
usually a producer of leads and actual sales. ?We'll see.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It will be an interesting show in Seattle, that's for sure. I don't
know how it's going to play out. Our local economy is holding up OK,
but everybody who listens to the national news is oh so ready to dig a
financial fallout shelter back behind the garage and just disappear
with their money until 2010.

People buy boats with disposable income and when they are feeling
flush. For a lot of people, "flush" means that they can take a six
figure chunk out of their investment portfolio, plow it into a boat,
and watch the money replace itself over the next 6 -18 months.

I would personally like to be more optimistic about the national
economy, but the fundamentals all seem screwed up. We don't have
meaningful, productive employment opportunities available for the
"baby boomlet" now coming of age, not with so many of our hard goods
and financial services industries chasing $2/hour labor in the poorest
countries on the planet. With interest rates plunging, real estate in
the tank, and the stock market in a free fall, even folks with serious
money to invest are going to be confused about where to put it. As
more folks retreat from the economy to "wait and see" how things play
out, we will slow down faster and to a greater degree.

I look for a renewed interest in small, less expensive boats. Every
manufacturer in the industry has geared up to build $500,000, 34-foot
express cruisers......but sometimes I suspect they are all chasing the
same couple of hundred prospective buyers.

The solution? Tax the hell out of corporations to punish them, and then put
them under government control. Of course, it helps to import a dozen
million illegals to keep wages down. And then there's Hillary, who wants to
provide them with health insurance while they're here illegally.
--
John H