Why so many Lagoons on the market?

[Sand crab]

I think Lagoon and all the french boat makers get some kind of financial benefit from the government. ZA boats benefit from the lower labor costs and the exchange rate (which varies). Seawind is made in Vietnam which is self explanatory.

I'm not knocking Lagoon but they are the Ford of the cat manufacturers with their basic get the job done manufacturing.

Their have been some claims here in this thread about Lagoons manufacturing numbers but no proof to back them up. FP used to be a very close 2nd, did they fall so far behind? A few years ago Leopard claimed they sold more boats in North America or possibly the US then anyone else. I guess they fell way behind too. I started a thread way back on actual real life manufacturing numbers. I contacted Lagoon and got the up to date tally and listed the builders in order (i think).
Perhaps we should start a new thread on that topic.

[Sand crab]

I found that thread from 9 years ago. Perhaps it's due for an update?

Back then it was 2050 units built by FP (powercats included?)
2298 sail units, or 2411 including power cats by Lagoon.
Around 800 by Leopard
FWIW Gemini is still in business and has produced over 1200

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ers-69895.html

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Barra

Yes case in point but you will find no shortage of lagoon owners telling you full balsa cored hull is a good thing. We all love our particular boats i guess but the ability to self delude never ceases to amaze me.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Because they are great, have more space and carrying capacity, are quite rigid built and are more affordable than the other brands, so the demand on the market is high for them.

Makes them perfect for charter and liveaboard and CNB / Lagoon to the largest production catamaran builder in the world, followed by Fountaine Pajot and Leopard. Lagoon builds more catamarans per year than the next 3 or four competitors together.

If they are so great and popular and demand is so high why are people selling them and why are so many available unsold?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by JamesPNW

Similar to the US pickup truck market, Ford got 32.4%, GM got 30% and the rest divided among 4-5 other brands for the market share. Ford wins the top spot because it builds the pickup people wanted. Someone will argue Toyota or Dodge are better, but wisdoms of the crowd said differently.

Herd mentality
BAAAAAA

[sailingchiro]

Please remember the South African yachts are sold under several names. Leopard, Robertson Caine, Moorings, and Sunsail. I wonder if the numbers include all trade names. There are alot of them but still suspect Lagoon has produced more.

Seems like I heard after the hurricanes took out the charter fleet, Lagoon was the builder that promised to produce the most units to fulfill the charter fleet. Once everyone had check in hand, they went with the builders that were producing the most and shorter back logs. Fountaine Pajot and Leopard had longer back logs and seemed Lagoon had shorter build times. May have something to do with the number of Lagoons are coming out of charter now.

[sailingchiro]

Ford produced more trucks in the past for public and private industry. Many more than Chevrolet and Dodge. Kind of like the number of Crown Vics in the past for cop cars. I do see more Dodge industry trucks currently. I also see more Dodge cop cars now.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

I can understand the large numbers of Lagoons on the market (charter boat owners selling) but I do not understand the high asking prices. The cat is perfect for charter but as a private boat it has high docking fees. These times people like the idea of owning a boat (driven by the notion to get away from it all) but once the have a boat they just end up with the monthly slip payments and visit the boat twice a year. It is a high price to pay for notional freedom, so they should be putting the boat back on the market soon.

Having said that, all assets are inflated and that lifts the boat prices as well.

Many of us dock our cats at our homes. Since I already bought the house the marginal cost to dock a cat is the same as a mono for me, $0. Also, since it takes me all of 60 seconds to walk down to the boat, it averages 2 visits a week at least in the summer, not 2 visits a year. Perhaps your idea of cat owners doesn't match the profile of actual cat owners, which explains why it isn't making sense?

[MicHughV]

Why a Lagoon ? These boats are Winnebago's with a sail on it. Do yourself a favor and sail one of them and some other cats before you and your check book become departed friends. Remember too, that most cats are built for the charter trade, this is akin to buying a car from a car rental company. Caveat emptor !!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Many of us dock our cats at our homes. Since I already bought the house the marginal cost to dock a cat is the same as a mono for me, $0. Also, since it takes me all of 60 seconds to walk down to the boat, it averages 2 visits a week at least in the summer, not 2 visits a year. Perhaps your idea of cat owners doesn't match the profile of actual cat owners, which explains why it isn't making sense?

Sounds like blowing your own horn. JMHO

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Sounds like blowing your own horn. JMHO

Not at all. A poster seemed to hold the view that most cat owners pay extra for berthing and only use their boats twice a year. That view is simply incorrect in many if not most cases, which I pointed out based on my personal experience, and what I see around me. It's a sad day when people start holding first hand experience against someone sharing it while choosing to ignore someone spouting off incorrect information who has no experience in the matter. Why, exactly, would you choose to do that again?

BTW, I live in a small home on a small lot on the Chesapeake that I bought as a foreclosure and restored over several years while serving as a Coast Guard officer on a government salary. I paid less for it than anyone who has purchased a Lagoon new. Do you go around telling everyone who has a Lagoon or FP or Hanse or Oyster in their profile that here they "sound like they're blowing their own horn"? For you, who don't know me at all, to accuse me of "blowing my own horn" by simply stating I live on the water which was a necessary thing to explain the personal experience I then conveyed....well let's just say it's not civil or nice and I'm guessing it's not up to your normally high standards of civility and respect for those you interact with?

[75Driver]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Not at all. A poster seemed to hold the view that most cat owners pay extra for berthing and only use their boats twice a year. That view is simply incorrect in many if not most cases, which I pointed out based on my personal experience, and what I see around me. It's a sad day when people start holding first hand experience against someone sharing it while choosing to ignore someone spouting off incorrect information who has no experience in the matter. Why, exactly, would you choose to do that again?

BTW, I live in a small home on a small lot on the Chesapeake that I bought as a foreclosure and restored over several years while serving as a Coast Guard officer on a government salary. I paid less for it than anyone who has purchased a Lagoon new. Do you go around telling everyone who has a Lagoon or FP or Hanse or Oyster in their profile that here they "sound like they're blowing their own horn"? For you, who don't know me at all, to accuse me of "blowing my own horn" by simply stating I live on the water which was a necessary thing to explain the personal experience I then conveyed....well let's just say it's not civil or nice and I'm guessing it's not up to your normally high standards of civility and respect for those you interact with?

I didn’t take it as you blowing your own horn but I would guess the vast majority of CAT owners do NOT have their own dock. Mooring fees are a significant factor in calculating ownership costs. I would suspect your situation is an exception, not the rule. I think I see it too when cruising ICW’s and anecdotally looking at private mooring vs marina. Way more CATS moored in marinas than a private homes water front.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by 75Driver

I didn’t take it as you blowing your own horn but I would guess the vast majority of CAT owners do NOT have their own dock. Mooring fees are a significant factor in calculating ownership costs. I would suspect your situation is an exception, not the rule. I think I see it too when cruising ICW’s and anecdotally looking at private mooring vs marina. Way more CATS moored in marinas than a private homes water front.

Fair enough, it's obviously anecdotal based on where you live and what you see. I know from having lived there that if you were from CA you would think everyone living in a waterfront house was eye poppingly rich and the vast majority of cats would be at a marina. If one hadn't spent much time on the Chesapeake they might not realize that there are tens of thousands of waterfront homes here, many quite modest and certainly no more ostentatious then "owning a sailing yacht", and so here certainly the ratio of cat to mono on private moorings seems to be much higher than that ratio in marinas. Most of which don't have any cat moorings at all or only 1 at the end of each pier.

Again anecdotal but better than speculation, when I was looking to buy a cat in South Florida most of the boats I looked at in person were at private moorings, and in fact when I needed to temporarily moor my boat for a couple months in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area I had to call a dozen marinas before I found one that took cats, way up the New River. I certainly saw a bunch of cats moored in front of homes on the way up to that marina, but obviously I was looking with that top of mind after the difficulty I'd just had finding a cat mooring so I'll admit it is a biased memory.

Regardless, just pointing out to the person I was originally responding to that what they see as irrational or mystifying might just be a reflection of limited knowledge of the space on their part or excessive focus on one way of doing things. Certainly their determination that most cats are only used twice a year reflects a lack of first hand familiarity with the space.

[Cadence]

I'm sorry if it wasn't blowing ones horn. I can probably could on one hand the people I know that have had water front homes. I've been fortunate but most haven't.

[Barra]

Either way the number of cats kept in front of waterfront homes is a tiny minority of how cats are stored so it's a pretty spurious argument.

Whatever kind of boat it is if it's costing a bomb to maintain or store but you aren't using it as much as you hoped you eventually move it on.

Many of the new covid buyers of yachts and RVs will be in this place in a year or 2 I suspect. Not the majority perhaps but a much more significant proportion than are waterfront based cat owners ;-)