"Skip Gundlach" wrote:

A while back there were several threads on values of used boats. It was the
strong assertion of various posters that boats under 45' and of mature age
would be virtually worthless - to the effect that whatever you bought it
for, when you went to sell it, it would be worth half that.

I'm of very mixed mind on this matter, as I've found just the opposite. Any
of you following my search know that I'm looking at that type of boat, and
in the 'do you know this boat' thread, I've received several replies which
have exposed us to boats we'd not known about.

In an effort to get to know these, all very minimally available in the usual
YachtWorld universe, I've done a lot of searching, and unearthed various
reviews from '95 to '99 or so. Most of them were helpful in understanding
the type of boat, but very tellingly, and the point of this post, they also
had "well equipped and good examples of this boat's selling prices range"s
quoted which were *under* any I'd found available today.

That suggests to me that either Cruising World, Good Old Boat, and the like,
are badly misinformed (at the time) or that prices are actually rising,
rather than falling.

I think this is the result of two different effects. One is that inflation
has some effect on prices, so that even a boat that was not moving up or
down in price will appear to be selling for more now than it did 5 years
ago.

The other thing in operation is the reputation and desirability of various
boats. A boat with a good reputation for being well constructed will hold
its value better than a boat with the reputation of being flimsily made.
And some boats are rarer and therefore some people find those boats more
desirable than normal market pressures would account for.


That's good news as a trend for when we eventually go to sell our boat
(presumably more than 20 years down the road, so I'm certain that the 20-30
year old boat we'll buy will be priced exclusively on condition and
equipment, the full normal depreciation having been achieved some time
before). I've even seen some of the boats we've been looking at in real
time (current experience) have price increases, and in one particular case,
selling at the prior asking price. The bad news is the suggestion that it's
going to cost more currently than, say, 4-8 years ago, for the same boat
type.

What's been everyone else' experience?? If we don't find a boat soon, will
it cost us 10%, or something bigger, more, later?

L8R

Skip and Lydia, still looking, and appreciative of leads already and yet to
be received!


grandma Rosalie