I can understand how the large yachts are so popular, after reading your
article about that 2.2 million dollar yacht, I decided I need to step up to
a bigger boat.

wrote in message
oups.com...

Wheeler was once among the premiere names in large yachts.
The revival of the trademark is interesting, just as it would be
interesting to auto enthusiasts if they started building Packards or
Studemakers again.

There is currently a *huge* market for big boats. There doesn't seem to
be any amount of money that the well-heeled can't or won't pay for a
luxury yacht. Most of the marinas in my local region are scrambling to
increase the number of slips available for 60-footers and up.They can
charge out the bee-hind for slips in that category, and there are an
increasing numer of boaters willing to pay. A recent study concluded
that there are 10,000 families in my home county with a net worth of
$1mm or more. Obviously, you're not going to buy a $1mm boat, or even a
$500,000 boat, if you're only worth a million bucks.......but if there
are 10,000 families in this county worth $1mm, there are probably 1,000
families worth the $8-10mm or more it would require to put a $1-2mm
boat into proper perspective. If 15% of those 1000 families are into
boating (wouldn't be a high percentage in a group with that kind of
disposable income), that creates a potential market for 150
multi-million dollar boats......in one county alone.

The boating industry in general is very, very, healthy right now. Some
local new boat dealers of more specialized craft are sold out for the
rest of 2005 and into 2006.

The two grim reapers on the horizon for the industry are likely to be
interest rates climbing to a more traditional range......(won't bother
the megayachters, but a lot of the rest of us make payments when we buy
a boat)......and fuel prices. Some talk of $80-100 a bbl within a
couple of years. Should that happen the US pleasure boating industry
will change enormously, and more closely resemble that of Europe.