New Excess Catamaran Brand

[indimini]

I'm curious to hear what people think about group Beneteau's move to introduce Excess Catamaran as a sportier brand of catamaran for the "new sailor" as their marketing material states. It seems funny to have watched Catana go after the charter market with the Bali line only to see Beneteau move into a sportier line.

[billknny]

Originally Posted by indimini

I'm curious to hear what people think about group Beneteau's move to introduce Excess Catamaran as a sportier brand of catamaran for the "new sailor" as their marketing material states. It seems funny to have watched Catana go after the charter market with the Bali line only to see Beneteau move into a sportier line.

"Excess"??? Really? I honestly thought the name was a joke. It has to be the worst boat brand name on the market. "I'm rich and you are not! Ha!" What is this, the private boat brand for people like Martin Shkreli?

I looked at the website for several minutes, and could find no pictures or design specs of ACTUAL BOATS! I guess they are buried in there somewhere. But they are seem after customers who don't really care about such details.

The very concept of the whole advertising campaign strikes me as totally weird. "We have to sell to new sailors because experienced sailors would never buy a Bendy-toy like this!"

[rom]

Originally Posted by billknny

"Excess"??? Really? I honestly thought the name was a joke. It has to be the worst boat brand name on the market. "I'm rich and you are not! Ha!" What is this, the private boat brand for people like Martin Shkreli?

I looked at the website for several minutes, and could find no pictures or design specs of ACTUAL BOATS! I guess they are buried in there somewhere. But they are seem after customers who don't really care about such details.

The very concept of the whole advertising campaign strikes me as totally weird. "We have to sell to new sailors because experienced sailors would never buy a Bendy-toy like this!"

I am ready to bet Beneteau has everything right here, including the name. Though I read it exactly like you say.

[yeloya]

I don't know if we are talking about the same project but 2 years ago I was visited by someone who was making market research for Jeanneau who was willing to enter into cat market. They were trying to figure out what the positioning should be and obviously avoiding to cannibalize Lagoon sales which is the same group. I asked recently what was going on and they said the project was postponed for a year or.They were no name whatsoever spelled out by then.
Yeloya

[Dadrock33]

I'm with you, billknny . . . . visited the website and browsed through the items shown at the top . . . . . not impressed at all. No boats, no specs . . . did see some video of one boat (from a distance) and showing the hulls moving through the water but nothing distinctive that you could use to form an opinion or even, accurately, offer advice or post your "pros & cons" . . . . really inadequate . . . . missed the mark on this one . . .

[LeeV]

Once again, in a time period when the distance between the have and have nots has increased, and there is a diminishing number of young people entering the sport of sailing the boat building community moves upward in sizes, costs and even the very ads they produce. Unfortunate.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by LeeV

Once again, in a time period when the distance between the have and have nots has increased, and there is a diminishing number of young people entering the sport of sailing the boat building community moves upward in sizes, costs and even the very ads they produce. Unfortunate.

Is it so?
I don't know. I have te feeling that at least the multihull forums are visited quite often by young folks planning their Youtube career on a catamaran.

[indimini]

I grabbed this from a frame in the site video - it looks like the boats will have lines similar to the Lagoon. I wonder if they will be sharing hulls and just updating rigs/fixtures in order to save production costs.

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by rabbi

Is it so?
I don't know. I have te feeling that at least the multihull forums are visited quite often by young folks planning their Youtube career on a catamaran.

I’ve been watching the trends, and while we may see some 30 and 40yr olds visit ask and dream, “most” cannot afford any of the new cruising models. A few will find an old Heavenly Twins (or name some other old brand), keep it running and risk heading out, and some will buy something a bit more costly at 1 or 200k. I’m not being pessimistic; I’m bemoaning the fact that nobody builds smaller, affordable cruisers.

We’d have a buyers market with many new and used boats if it wasn’t for Irma and thousands of people with big checks in their hands. Instead, all the prices went up, and new larger designs are out, costing even more.

Sorry for the rant!

[indimini]

I think your "rant" is right on point Lee. One of the reasons we were drawn to the 1160 Lite was the price point. Even thought FP calls the Lucia a 40, it really is just 38' and change - not any longer and maybe an inch or two wider than our Seawind. But when we priced out the Lucia, we would have been in for close to 80K more. Thankfully we bought in before the market went crazy and interest rates started to climb.

Back to the Excess brand, from the other info I heard, they are rumored to be bringing out a range between 38 and 50'. Time will tell. Given the marketing, I'm guessing Lagoon will remain the "value" brand and "Excess" will be more upscale, e.g. Toyota/Lexus. I will be curious to see how much the hulls differ between the brands. Maybe the Excess will have larger masts, laminate sails, etc? to address the sporting character they are pitching.

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by indimini

I think your "rant" is right on point Lee. One of the reasons we were drawn to the 1160 Lite was the price point. Even thought FP calls the Lucia a 40, it really is just 38' and change - not any longer and maybe an inch or two wider than our Seawind. But when we priced out the Lucia, we would have been in for close to 80K more. Thankfully we bought in before the market went crazy and interest rates started to climb.

Back to the Excess brand, from the other info I heard, they are rumored to be bringing out a range between 38 and 50'. Time will tell. Given the marketing, I'm guessing Lagoon will remain the "value" brand and "Excess" will be more upscale, e.g. Toyota/Lexus. I will be curious to see how much the hulls differ between the brands. Maybe the Excess will have larger masts, laminate sails, etc? to address the sporting character they are pitching.

Interesting; we are in the midst of selling our used C36, and moving to a cat for our final retirement cruiser (not full time live aboard). We’re not wealthy, we’re doing the new/used dance, and we looked very closely at the 1260 which I really like, but the Admiral absolutely hates the galley down. She’s the reason I love doing this so her vote is crucial! And in the latter half of our 50s and 60s we look forward to the comfort. So...we live comfortably- not wealthy-but still can’t really afford these current prices. I’m guessing any boat called Excess is out of our league!

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by LeeV

Interesting; we are in the midst of selling our used C36, and moving to a cat for our final retirement cruiser (not full time live aboard). We’re not wealthy, we’re doing the new/used dance, and we looked very closely at the 1260 which I really like, but the Admiral absolutely hates the galley down. She’s the reason I love doing this so her vote is crucial! And in the latter half of our 50s and 60s we look forward to the comfort. So...we live comfortably- not wealthy-but still can’t really afford these current prices. I’m guessing any boat called Excess is out of our league!

Prices for new boats have skyrocket. Availability of used boats is scarce, and prices went up significantly, too.
We recently put our 380 for sale and I thoroughly checked the market before for pricing. There is almost nothing on the market compared to previous years.

There is a couple of older first generation 380 between 2000 and 2005, but even those are often asking 200k+ USD.


Good if you have a boat for sale, bad if you want one.


But then there is pecial deals sometimes...
A 2008 FP Mahe has been for sale in Montenegro for almost two years. Came from 165k Euro asking down to 114k Euro. Recently sold for 89k EUR.

That was a decent deal, unless there was something completely wrong with the boat. OK, the russian owner was cheating about the charter history of the boat but other than that....

[pathlesschosen]

Excess? Seriously tone deaf. What marketing team pitched that name. Wow.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by pathlesschosen

Excess? Seriously tone deaf. What marketing team pitched that name. Wow.

Kinna reminds me of Tazer Face (Guardians II).


The video was embarrassing from my point of view. Sell sex that hard and I don't even care what kind of boat you make. It feels like you're trying hard to get over on me rather telling me what you have.

[cyan]

It looks eerily like the same marketing campaign of the Fyre Festival last year , which was supposed to be a “luxury music festival” in the Bahamas with tickets into the thousands.. The sexy shots of beaches and bikinis glossed over the bits where the luxury accommodations were actually tents, the luxury food was actually cheese sandwiches, and the music was one local band.

The whole thing was ill-conceived if not an outright scam, but it proved that there is a young rich demographic that is collectively very gullible. Show them video of sexy people on a beach while promising something else (unseen) and they will throw you money. Boat? What boat? Did we promise you a boat, or just a view of a kite surfing girl?