wrote in message
ups.com...
I took a seaplane up to Roche Harbor to cover one of the many owner's
rendezvous we see up this way every spring and summer. The boats were
all 36-60 feet, (nearly all 42 or larger and over 50 very common). The
least expensive boats run about $500k, with 7-figure price tags
extremely common. This line of Asian trawlers has been imported by the
regional dealer for about 5 years, so I was impressed to see over 30
boats gathered the last weekend in April at Roche Harbor.

When I remarked about the large gathering, I was told that several of
the people who had intended to come had to change plans at the last
minute, or the gathering would have been larger.
"We'll have a substantially larger group next year," said a
representative of the local broker/importer, "we currently have orders
for another 31 yachts."

That's a lot of upscale boat business, by any standard.


And all despite the escalating fuel costs. The economy is apparently
stronger than some would like us to believe. Imagine if fuel was back down
to $2/gallon!