Chuck Gould wrote:
On Nov 27, 4:57 pm, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Nov 27, 2:28�pm, Gene Kearns
wrote:
On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:27:26 -0500, HK penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:
"With a little bit of budgeting, it would seem reasonable that most
families could justify spending 6-month's income on a used boat or
perhaps a year's income on a new one."
Only if they are insane.
In 2006, the median annual household income according to the US Census
Bureau was determined to be $48,201.00.
Maybe a 245 Bayliner Cruiser for 50K?
Maybe 3 families could go together and buy a 28' Mako.... 106K on sale
at Bass Pro....
Nah.........
--
Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.
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I suspect that if we further qualified beyond just "median household
income for Americans" to "median household income for Americans likely
to purchase a boat of any kind" the number would go up.
That 40-some thousand figure includes tens of millions of retirees,
and some of them rather nicely on assets rather than income. "Income"
might be limited to $3000 a month in social security payments, but if
that can be supplemented with another few thousand from savings, muni
bonds, a "reverse mortgage" etc they are living a lot better than a
family where two wage earners are grossing $9 an hour each.
The low figure also includes students working part time, as well as
all the burger-flippers, hotel maids, and other workers who are
literally "subsisting" rather than earning a living wage.
With fuel at the boat dock heading towards $4.00 a gallon, I don't see a
great future for boats in the mid to upper "fuel burn" ranges.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'd say the twin big-block gas boat is probably done, or nearly so.
Agreed. At these big dollars for fuel, the old bromide "You'll never
save enough in fuel to offset the cost of a diesel engine" is now even
less true than it used to be.

The cost of fuel is more likely to deter new people from taking up the
sport than keep existing boaters off the water. Folks who don't have a
boat now probably imagine that fuel is a relatively major expediture
in the overall scheme of owning a powerboat. Those of us who already
boat know that fuel can be a significant number, but in the grand
scheme of things it is often far from the largest boating related
expense.



Speaking of cost, the guy who shrinkwrapped Yo Ho for me did the job for
a little more than half what the dealer charges. He did a fine job. Cost
me $165 instead of $300.