Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
in between medical tests yesterday with a couple of hours to kill, so
I decided to drive over to the Nitro/Tracker dealer in Shrewsbury just
to look at boats.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the showroom and saw....

NOT ONE BOAT!!!!

Zero, zip, nada - not one.

The GM of the place, who I've talked to before, told me that they
aren't getting their 2010 inventory until late October, early
November. Their other brands, Trophy and Bayliner won't be arriving
until at least December. Aluminum Trackers are also on the same
schedule.

He said, that I have no reason not to believe him, that the
manufacturers are being very careful about building inventories for
showrooms and at least with his dealership, they are going to have a
limited showroom inventory and probably spend a lot of time having
boats built to order rather than off the floor.

Heard via the grapevine last week (I forgot to mention it), the major
floor plan financier for boats is requiring higher interest and down
payments on inventory boats - so high that it's almost impossible for
smaller dealers to hold much in inventory if any at all.

I wonder if we'll get a Cash for Sinkers program for boats? :)

Looking around at the used boat sites, it seems like the market is a
little slow there also - maybe folks are holding onto their boats a
little longer than normal. I've been looking for a used bass boat for
a while and I normally can find deals on a regular basis - not so much
lately.

Interesting.


The end of September was pretty much the end of the small powerboat
season on LI Sound in Connecticut when my father was a boat dealer, and
he did everything he could do to clear out his showrooms of new boats
and motors before October, and would not accept deliveries of new boats
and motors until March, a couple of weeks before the "spring" boat shows
in New Haven and Hartford. Other than a couple of new leftovers, and
usually sold, what he had in his showrooms over the winter were used
rigs he had taken in on trade.

It seems that was a better business model than today's heavy duty
floorplanning, which really eats into profit.