US Sailboat Show

[Dale Tanski]

So... what did you think of the Annapolis Sailboat this past weekend?  We attended Saturday.  It started to rain as the show opened and rained harder and harder as the day went on.  I have been to that show in the rain but nothing like that. 

Attendance on that day was way down, but that day was not a good day to judge.  I for one think it is high time to split the multi hulls off into their own little world.  Way too many for me and I sail cats all the time.  If you were looking for a euro look boat you were in luck.  It appears all of the builders are of one mind set.  The Outbound 46 was one of very few that was a standout in my book. 

I spent a bunch of time looking at the new electronics.  The new touch screen stuff is wonderful.  If you re thinking of upgrading I can not imagine they are going to come up with anything new very soon.  The NEMA 2000 backbone is flawless as far as plug and play goes with one exception, Raymarine.  Their cable plug sets are not compatible with everybody elses standard NEMA 2000 stuff. Raymarine does sell an adapter for around $900. After talking to the other vendors, apparently Ray has lost enough business over this issue that they are making a switch to the real NEMA 2000 soon which means anybody that already bought their stuff is screwed.  If you are looking to upgrade let us know. There isn't much margin on electronics but we will sharpen our pencils the best we can. 

Another item that caught my interest was Watt & Sea hydro generator.  The device looks similar to a Laser rudder with a trolling motor lower end complete with propeller and hangs on your transom generating 200 to 300 watts of energy while you sail without noise or vibration.  These things are cool.  I already believe we have a customer for one. 

Dale Tanski

[Rudderly Confused]

We spent the day at the show on Friday.  Great weather, crowded, but not overly so.  It's been a few years since I'd been there last, and agree with your thoughts on the cats.  I was also surprised to see how many of the "old guard" were missing.  No Island Packet, no Cabo Rico, no Caliber, no Hunter, etc.  I haven't been following the builders too closely, but have they all gone out of business?  I also saw and was impressed by the Outbound 46, but I'm kind of old school, and really liked the Gozzard 41.  I'll never understand why it had an in-mast furling system though.  My main interest in attending was to scope out new gear to upgrade a 365 ketch I'm waiting to close on, especially the electronics.  I love the B&G Zeus2!  Also looked at LED nav lights, solar panels, an arch by Atlantic Towers, AC and DC panels, bronze thru-hulls and sea cocks, etc.  If this deal ever closes, I may have to give you a call on the B&G Dale!

[Dale Tanski]

We have sold several B&G Zeus units and have had wonderful feedback on them.  The layline and sailsteer features are outstanding.  I think the performance people like the fact you can load polars into the Zeus plotter and compare their actual performance against the theoritical polars. We find that the race oriented people favor the Zeus and the cruising people will also choose the Vulcan series plotter which also has laylines and sailsteer.  B&G just came out with a Vulcan 9 (not even in the catalog yet) which has the radar overlay feature not avaliable on the 7" or 5" version. It is a great value.

Ditto on the boats that are no longer there.  Long gone are Sabre, Alden, Hinkley, Little Harbor and even Cherubini. Your right on the others even Catalinas seemed a bit sparse this year.  Hunter is still in business, Sabre and Hinkley are building power boats.  Hinkley had 4 sailboats on the production floor this year, the first time in something like 10 years.  An owner of a Bermuda 40 had them design a Bermuda 50 and they ended up getting two orders and two other Hinkley owners ordered 42 foot daysailers which are 2004 designs.

I too like the Gozzard although I agree the in mast furling is a performance robber but on a boat like that, it probably doesn't matter.  What was up with the painted white wheel on that boat?  Poor choice.  Along those lines no more Shannon.  Moorse had a $300k daysailer! Like you, we went to look at gear.  In fact we didn't step foot on a single boat and over the past 10 years we have been there on and off, we haven't been aboard more than a half a dozen boats.

Before owning the business we used to go there for deals.  Didn't see many deals this year, in fact I do not recall Defender even being there or for that matter Jamestown... Humm.   

Dale

[Rudderly Confused]

Nope, I didn't see Defender, Jamestown, or West.

[Dale Tanski]

West never goes to shows.  I have seen Jamestown attend on occasion but Defender has been a fixture at the Annapolis show as far back as I can remember.  Despite what the government propagandizes, the economy is not any where they say it is unless you work inside the beltway.  I suspect that may be the issue for all of the companies that we did not see. 

West is a tough competitor for us as they have or can get anything and their stores are very appealing.  Their day to day pricing structure and the lack of many of their employees ability to answer basic boating questions or give advice works in our favor.  They do have sale items that are priced well below our cost but on the overwhelming majority of items we never worry.  My biggest complaint is West labeled products that customers want to compare our brand name items against.  The problem is who made it, what's really in there and how will it preform over the long haul? Jamestown is doing more and more private labeling because it is easier to adjust the contents, (cost) than to compete apples to apples.  The problem is... again what are you really purchasing?

Here is some friendly advice.  Many manufactures products have what is known as MAPP, (Minimum Advertised Price Policies).  MAPP means that you agree not to advertise a specific item below the given minimum price or the manufacture can pull your ability to purchase that product.  The idea of MAPP is to even the playing field so that huge companies such as Wall Mart can't totally dominate (buy) the market and eliminate the smaller companies.  History has shown that after a company eliminates the competition they then run rough shod and set the price where ever they desire so that a manufacture now finds it can not complete against another manufacture.  So... if you look on our web site you will see a specific price for a Harken block.  That price will be the same as everyone elses providing they posted the minimum advertised price as well.  On our Harken wall in the store our visible prices are actually less than those on our web site for the same identical block because of MAPP.  In the store we can do what every we want.  If you see a MAPP price on an object, (everybody has the same price) call the vendor and nicely ask if they can do any better.  Nine out of ten times they will but they can't do so on their site or in their catalog. 

There are a few exceptions.  Companies such as Harken, or Gill (which are two great companies to deal with on our end as well as the product end by the way) allow us to have a sale once or twice a year.  The length of the sale is fixed and we have to put in writing before hand and get their permission, but we can set whatever price we feel will move the product out the door.  Jamestown (more so) and Defender (occasionally) "hedge" the MAPP pricing by posting under MAPP pricing.  As good dealers we are supposed to self police each other and report any issues to the manufactures.  One violation I recall we reported, was a certain company that sent out in their spring flyer and advertised Torqueedo motors $200 below MAPP.  Torqueedo did the right thing and contacted all of their other dealers and reduced our purchase price by $200 for the duration of the spring flyer pricing.  They reduced the purchase price to everyone but the people that ran the add.  So in essence that company lost $200 per motor that they sold. In reality I'm sure sold a ton of motors, gained the reputation for a short period of time as the best price people and probably made out just fine.  We hate cheaters.

Dale

[Rudderly Confused]

Dale,

Good advice all around.  You obviously know the business end much better than I, the average consumer, because, well, it is your business!  I'll just tell you the same thing I tell West whenever I get their "how did we do today" email surveys after a purchase.  I'd say 90% of my purchases from them are based on convenience (a store close to my boat or home) and an immediate need for the item on my part.  Whenever I have time, I much prefer to research the item I need as much as possible, then search online for the cheapest (shipping and tax included) source.  That is rarely West.  Even though I am a West Advantage member, I feel no loyalty to purchase all my marine items from them for many of the reasons you mentioned ... including lack of knowledge, lack of in-store inventory, and lack of "best" price.

I'm sure I've run into the MAPP without knowing what it was called.  Many times multiple vendors list the exact same price for the particular item I'm looking for.  Some say "call for our price."  I guess its on all of us to become better informed consumers.

Thanks for the input, and sorry if I've hijacked the original intent of your topic.

Chuck

[SV THIRD DAY]

In terms of water maker and refrigeration sales it was an average Annapolis Show for us, not record setting, but not something I was bemoaning being their for either.   What I see happening in the boat Market I think mirrors the rest of American Society, the upper end boat sales and growth is booming while the middle and lower end is stagnant. This isn't the early 2000's where people are pulling out phantom equity to buy a boat.  But the used Market is a buyers Dream right now.