I know two people who bought new boats in the last 5 years. One of them
is a female physician. Good income, possibly limited "fix-it" skills,
limited time. She bought a mid 30's Tartan. The other, a bankruptcy
attorney, has bought two new boats in the last 5 years. The first was a
23-24 ft Beneteau, the second, a Catalina 36. Same profile, limited
"fix-it" skills, high income, etc. He spoke of a "good trade in" value
for the first boat. I shudder to think of the depreciation of the
Catalina until it's value stabilizes. FWIW

Jonathan

Daniel E. Best wrote:
Peggie Hall wrote:

...more than 2/3 of all boats sold today are used boats...


Peggie,
Is this an actual number or a guess on your part? If real, I'm amazed
that the number isn't much higher. At least for larger boats, of all
the people I've known who own sailboats, there's only one that I know of
that actually bought a new boat - perhaps that's why the yacht club I
used to belong to was sometimes self-described as the "poor white trash
of yacht clubs" ;-}

Had we restricted ourselves to buying a new boat for what we paid for
our used Tayana, we would have been limited to an unequiped Catalina 27
(or similar boat). Buying used was a complete no brainer. I honestly
don't know who buys new boats, but it sure isn't us.

btw, thanks for being such a great resource. You fill an information
need here and elsewhere on the net like no one else.