When did manufacturers get so exclusive at boat shows?

[Caleb_Grey]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Seems like a silly business practice. I know I could go on Thursday or contact them all and pre-book, but you don't get to fortuitously show your spouse a bunch of boats while you're wondering around on Sunday that way,

Oh so your devious plot to plant the buying a boat seed in your wife was foiled because you didnt do your homework, so lets blame the boat manufacturers like a petulant child.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Caleb_Grey

Oh so your devious plot to plant the buying a boat seed in your wife was foiled because you didnt do your homework, so lets blame the boat manufacturers like a petulant child.

The name calling was neither necessary or civil, what exactly did you hope to accomplish with that and why did you feel it was needed?

Listen, I'm one of a pretty small group of people who is both interested in and could buy one of those boats. Deciding that one of the very few people in your addressable market is required to do homework and must be buying a boat for exactly reasons you decide meet your personal requirements simply isn't good business, something I know a bit from starting and running a couple of successful ones. Especially since the high end yacht business is very fickle and its quantifiably hard to keep one in business through an economic cycle. I'm curious what type of business you ran where this (and gratuitous personal attacks) were good business?

By the way, if either this or my original post is your definition of a "petulant child", you've either never had children or have completely forgotten what an actual petulant child is like!

[Tellie]

OK, begin rant,

..I used to do the Annapolis show and still do the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami shows for years. I know a lot of these brokers as I deal with them year round. Personally, I think most of them have the patience of Job. As many have stated, these boats for the most part are already owned and a lot of them still have a lot of personal items aboard. In this day and age people have a serious lack of respect for other peoples property. The deal is, if I give you my boat to show, any damage will be paid for by the brokers. As others have mentioned, KIDS, forget sticky fingers and dropped Ice cream. These little monsters are destructive as all get out. Your kitchen cabinet door at your house may cost $200 to replace, on one of these boats it can easily quadruple. Boats, especially Cats are getting bigger and more expensive every year. Sure this is about tire kickers. These brokers have a job to do and that is to sell boats not entertain tire kickers and their little broods with multi million dollar boats. If they have been in this business for any length of time they have a very keen eye for real potential buyers and tire kickers. My little booth at each show costs me over 10K a year when all said and done and that is on the really cheap side. Having half dozen or so docks at any of these shows could pay off most peoples mortgage. Your entrance ticket is a joke to these guys. If a real buyer calls ahead before the show they are comped tickets by the brokers. If you want to play the game of I'll dress down to get the real story, remember the old adage of play stupid games win stupid prizes. You are not fooling any of these guys. There are far more real buyers than a dozen or so. Most of these boats are two to three years out in production because the buyers list is larger than the ability for the manufacturers to deliver. If one were to break down the cost per minute to do any of these large shows you'd be amazed. Every time a broker has to answer silly questions, play Romper room sergeant at arms with unruly children, asking people not to slam every door they shouldn't be opening anyway, people making a scene because they are wearing boats shoes and refuse to take them off, drunk people who play with expensive electronics, etc. They see that as a huge wasted expense which it most certainly is. There are plenty of real buyers they are trying to get to, far more than a dozen. All they ask is respect for the vessel and a little respect for their extremely expensive time. Here's a hint, take a dozen or so of your business cards with you. Politely explain between the screaming kids and what's this thing questions, that you are seriously interested in their time to look at these boats and I assure you your phone will ring. You'll probably get invited for a quiet personal tour of the boat in question after the show with free drinks and catered food where they can answer any questions you might have. One more bit of advice be nice, you might even get a better deal if you are.

Rant over, tear it apart boys.

[Zhyachts]

My Chinese step son's cute little wife stands at the boarding steps and tells everybody wanting to board that it will be about 5 minutes as the boat is pretty full now. Those still there after about three minutes, not many, are welcomed aboard. We call her the "Gate Nazi".

[Chotu]

Well said, Tellie. It’s like many posters here want that image of a down home, scruffy guy, but they don’t even have the understanding of what it’s like to be a small business owner.

[jim King]

A couple of years back after hurricane Irma wrecked my Leopard 44 in the BVI I went to the Miami boat show in search of a replacement. I was very keen on the Lagoon 45 but the French salesman wouldn't give me the time of day much less answer my questions. So I headed over to the Sunsail/Moorings booth and was treated like a member of the family. I bought a new Leopard 45 with them and have been glad for that decision ever since.
jim

[chavodelocho]

They NEED new Competition:-((((:

https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/...dustry/marine/

[walkabout08]

We toured that HH50, Off Piste, at the Newport show, quite a tricked out cat. We spoke at length with both the husband and wife owners who hail from Utah where they intend spend winter skiing mostly. They spent the summer cruising up to Maine and are taking her down to the Bahamas/Carribean. She’s a newbie, he’s a lifelong racer and they have some downwind performance sails on order. As I recall they said they spent $2.3M. I heard the second helm option they added was a cool $500k. These owners are of the money is no problem type. So if the brokers are looking for similar clientele why wouldn’t they try a make the experience better for prospective customers? If I were in that situation it would help a lot to not be swarming around with a dozen others.

[CaribbeesYC]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

You don't want to waste time with tire-kicker. Sure, the ragged looked dude might be in the market for a $1.5 Million boat, but in reality, this is rarely the case.

I've done a few trade-shows in my past (in a different industry), and it was very often easy to guess, who will just waste your time. If one ran around with more than one bag of freebies - let the pretty-booth-inventory deal with him.

truth.

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

You don't want to waste time with tire-kicker. Sure, the ragged looked dude might be in the market for a $1.5 Million boat, but in reality, this is rarely the case.

I've done a few trade-shows in my past (in a different industry), and it was very often easy to guess, who will just waste your time. If one ran around with more than one bag of freebies - let the pretty-booth-inventory deal with him.

As a CIO, I go to trade shows and do carry, purposefully, those bags. That way I don't get bothered. If I get rejected by a presenter, maybe that tells me something about what type of service I'll get if I'm not a major client.

[capn_billl]

Normally you all would be right, but unfortunately the high end boat market has taken some bad turns.

The buyers market is hot, hotter than in my lifetime.

30 million baby boomers are retiring with half to a million each in their retirement accounts.

And they've dreamed their entire lives about sailing into the sunset some literally.

There is now a 2 to 3 year waiting list for a new Cat.

Add to this Covid where they have to greatly restrict access, and you have the perfect mess.

I remember touring multi million yachts, (as a kid with $3 to my name) and no one worried as long as I didn't leave any footprints.

Today they are only allowed to bring 2 or 3 people on board at a time, and they want every single person to be a prequalified buyer.

[lewisa]

Many years ago I broke a clip that holds the barrel of Barient winches in place on my C&C 30. I knew that Hinkley yachts used Barients and, because I was near Southwest Harbor ME, I put into the Hinckley yard to see if they would sell me some clips. They were happy to do so only if I agreed to tour their facility where they were then building Bermuda 40's. I told them that, as a young college professor, I couldn't afford a Hinkley yacht, but they insisted on giving me a personalized tour. The salesman told me that, although I couldn't afford his yachts at that time, I might well be able to do so in the future and he wanted to impress me with their quality construction. I was duly impressed not only with the product but with the foresighted marketing approach of the company. This was before Hinkley was bought out and got "corporatized". It was a lesson well learned.

[Mariefred]

I think you mean seller's market capn bill



" If I were in that situation it would help a lot to not be swarming around with a dozen others."


If you were in that situation, that is exactly what would help. They want to impress. Which means they're never going to buy a boat that's empty at a boat show. They will buy whichever boat has the longest queue of bag carriers.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by lewisa

Many years ago I broke a clip that holds the barrel of Barient winches in place on my C&C 30. I knew that Hinkley yachts used Barients and, because I was near Southwest Harbor ME, I put into the Hinckley yard to see if they would sell me some clips. They were happy to do so only if I agreed to tour their facility where they were then building Bermuda 40's. I told them that, as a young college professor, I couldn't afford a Hinkley yacht, but they insisted on giving me a personalized tour. The salesman told me that, although I couldn't afford his yachts at that time, I might well be able to do so in the future and he wanted to impress me with their quality construction. I was duly impressed not only with the product but with the foresighted marketing approach of the company. This was before Hinkley was bought out and got "corporatized". It was a lesson well learned.

I have to say it though.

You never bought a Hinckley and they basically went out of business.

The story is only proving the point that sales people need to do a good job of weeding out time wasters.

Note: I like the old New England yankee approach. It would be nice if the world worked like that still.

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by walkabout08

We toured that HH50, Off Piste, at the Newport show, quite a tricked out cat. We spoke at length with both the husband and wife owners who hail from Utah where they intend spend winter skiing mostly. They spent the summer cruising up to Maine and are taking her down to the Bahamas/Carribean. She’s a newbie, he’s a lifelong racer and they have some downwind performance sails on order. As I recall they said they spent $2.3M. I heard the second helm option they added was a cool $500k. These owners are of the money is no problem type. So if the brokers are looking for similar clientele why wouldn’t they try a make the experience better for prospective customers? If I were in that situation it would help a lot to not be swarming around with a dozen others.

I think you may have misunderstood something. All HH50s have the twin helms. The OC50 has a single helm but the cost difference is much more than one helm. The OC50 is not fully carbon fiber which makes up the rest of the cost difference.