Market flooded with cheap boats because of the coranvirus

[sailaboutvic]

Lots being written about the prices of boat dropping like a lead weight because of people selling up because of the virus .
I'm interested in how many here have plains to sell up once this is all over.
Personally what we hearing on the cruisers front is talk of getting back to sailing and other then a few that we knew about that was going to sell before this happen .
Maybe someone should start a poll .

 

[ctelfer38]

Lots being written about the prices of boat dropping like a lead weight because of people selling up because of the virus .
I'm interested in how many here have plains to sell up once this is all over.
Personally what we hearing on the cruisers front is talk of getting back to sailing and other then a few that we knew about that was going to sell before this happen .
Maybe someone should start a poll .

Good question. Just thinking about that when you posted and reaching a firm conclusion that when the all clear sounds I will make better use of my time than before. More time on board even if only pottering, tinkering, fettling and sitting on board to enjoy the general ambience. The old saying that nothing beats messing around on boats is prescient and more true than ever. No chance of selling up and getting out for me. Hang in there, this will be over in time. CBT

 

[Frogmogman]

For a lot of people this may not be a matter of choice. If they have lost their jobs, or need to free up cash to keep a business afloat......

 

[Denek]

We had planned to spend the whole summer on our boat this year and this is now postponed till 2021 so no I will not be selling yet.

 

[Talulah]

No plans to sell but I expect a lot of people balancing cost v reward are falling on the sell side of the equation.
I was due to be off cruising by now. In my wife’s mind she was having the house to herself. I need to escape ASAP because she’s spreading out her junk as if no one else was here. She’s driving me mad! So the boat is my shed. And the sooner I can escape the better.

 

[Portland Billy]

If people are selling their boats - who are they selling them to?
Surely viewing boats and leisure vessel surveys are non-essential in the current situation.

 

[dom]

I was due to be off cruising by now. In my wife’s mind she was having the house to herself. I need to escape ASAP because she’s spreading out her junk as if no one else was here. She’s driving me mad! So the boat is my shed. And the sooner I can escape the better.

My wife has also started to act strangely. I'm a member of Wisley Gardens for the purposes of admiring their work not mine, yet she displays a creeping desire for a better garden, a spray jetted patio, not to mention junking the Brittany anchor I mothballed in a front flowerbed three years ago.

Nor is she respecting the lockdown, for she would't let me self-isolate in the sitting room on Saturday and I had to cut the lawn instead.

I've taken her temperature, she isn't expecting, and I've asked the doctor ......no luck! ?

 

[Baggywrinkle]

The boat will be the last thing I sell .... after the motorbike and the cabrio .... and for the more difficult to sell items, there's always this web site.

How many camels is your girlfriend or boyfriend worth?

 

[V1701]

Well if ebay is any sort of barometer there are currently 38 sailing boats listed which is significantly lower than usual so I don't think there's any flooding of markets going on. That of course doesn't allow for the fact that there may well be lots of people who want/need to sell a boat but realise there's not much point listing it at the moment for obvious reasons. I feel for anyone who has had to make the decision to sell because of all this...

 

[Stemar]

How long have the boats on Ebay been there? No one should be travelling to look at a boat now, so no one with any sense will be advertising. I image most boats advertised anywhere will have been put on sale pre lockdown.

 

[Poignard]

If this lockdown goes on for a long time there's going to be many boats in a shocking state by the time their owners are able to get to them. Severe fouling, bird crap all over them, some sunk or nearly so, moorings chafed through, sails in tatters etc.

Some might decide simply to abandon low-value boats altogether or sell them off cheaply.

 

[Muddy32]

We had planned to spend the whole summer on our boat this year and this is now postponed till 2021 so no I will not be selling yet.

Me also, but with nowhere to go... better get out and cut the lawn.

At least it is not raining. And the folk in Brittany will be even more pleased to see us next year. Thank goodness the plan to cross to the Rhine and across for a passage down the Danube was cancelled by SWMBO.

 

[jac]

Having been focused on home extension and refurbishment over the last 2-3 years the plan this year was to go into the market now and buy. Obviously now doing nothing other than some serious window shopping online and not seeing much new coming on the market.

However - i'm probably put off buying for a few months whilst we wait to see how the dust settles economically . If either SWMBO or I were to lose our jobs then plunging £50k of cash into a boat shaped hole would not be sensible. I expect i wouldn;t be alone in that regard, especially given the number of people taking a hit to Income, talk of a recession. IF confidence doesn't return till late summer then i can imagine buyers thinking to wait till next season and avoid the cost of winter storage etc.

 

[Beneteau381]

If this lockdown goes on for a long time there's going to be many boats in a shocking state by the time their owners are able to get to them. Severe fouling, bird crap all over them, some sunk or nearly so, moorings chafed through, sails in tatters etc.

Some might decide simply to abandon low-value boats altogether or sell them off cheaply.

I’m like you, boat in a different country. I’m lucky, got mates living aboard on their boat on the same pontoon. They went on board yesterday and removed the long life milk, crisps, biscuits etc that would have been ok if we could have continued our month on month off biz! Now with it looking as if he June trip is off as well it will be 6 or more months since we were there! Luckily I took the Genoa down last December! Antifouled ok and new shaft seal but I bet the prop is a fuzz ball when we get back.

 

[FlyingGoose]

I will sell the Wife before my boat, I have contacted a good middle eastern Country who take such oddities and already got a good price if I go down this drastic action ,
It may be sooner than she thinks

 

[PhillM]

I suspect the new market will suffer and the charter market will do OK. If I was thinking of buying now, I would be tempted to put it off for a while and get my fix through chartering. Less risk and less impact on capital.

 

[Poignard]

I’m like you, boat in a different country. I’m lucky, got mates living aboard on their boat on the same pontoon. They went on board yesterday and removed the long life milk, crisps, biscuits etc that would have been ok if we could have continued our month on month off biz! Now with it looking as if he June trip is off as well it will be 6 or more months since we were there! Luckily I took the Genoa down last December! Antifouled ok and new shaft seal but I bet the prop is a fuzz ball when we get back.

Mine is laid up ashore in a very well-run yard in Brittany, under her winter cover. I have paid the year's fees. She should be OK.

 

[Lightwave395]

​

In a stunning new development it's been discovered that not only can old and new anti-fouling paint protect against COVID-19, but that the virus has been active in the world's oceans for years, with algae, krill and plankton absorbing it and developing their own antibodies. Those antibodies wick into the porous hulls of old fibreglass boats, with the hulls themselves able to repel and kill the Corona virus.

"This is a game changer" said Len Bippiett of British Marine's Yacht Harbor Association. "All those countless ancient clunkers in the boneyards of marinas are now worth thousands of pounds. Most have been abandoned for years to avoid paying storage fees that accrued and it was just too expensive to cut them up and put them into a landfill. We've seen a flurry of legal paperwork to seize titles due to abandonment, and some big money changing hands for what have been the homes of small woodland creatures for 20 years."

Evidence points to a particular type of keelboat as having superior wicking/immunity properties: those with bilge keels. It's the proximity to the the water and the muck, even when they're just standing in a field or a high tidal effect mooring, that pulls the most anti-virals into the hull. There are reports of Kingfisher 20s selling for over 25,000 GBP, complete with inches of rodent droppings all through the interiors. "They always sailed for shite but they're pure gold now" said one pleased marina owner.

This is also a win-win for many small towns who've faced huge costs of removing abandoned yachts from backwaters and rivers. "We don't have to deal with haulout, demolition, dumpter and hauling costs any longer" said the city manager of Hampton Virginia. "Hundreds of derelict boats have disappeared overnight, and we're certainly NOT going to have the police chase down the thefts of derelicts. It's when the fiber-thieves start going after proper yachts that we'll have a problem"

Fat chance of that, as it seems the older the boat, the thicker the fibreglass and the more porous it is from old age, the better and hence the more valuable the hulls are for anti-virus protection. "Find me an old lumbering seafaring pig the shape and size of a Presbyterian church, with half inch thick waterlogged fibreglass and I'll show you the next Mayfair-priced survival bunker" said one boneyard scavenger.

 

[sailaboutvic]

So far 18 replies and not one that said there plain to sell up.
I think it's wishful thinking on the part of buyers that a 30k boat will be up for sale for 10k or 100k For 60k .
There always be bargains about and always will be some not so much a bargain then a money pit.
I remember after the bad hurricane season all the talk of cheap damage boat to be had for next to nothing and it was going to kill the second hand market valve,
it turn out all them very cheap next to nothing was going to cost money more to put right then buying one in good condition boat and nothing ended up happening to the SH boat market.
There no doubt if this goes on for any length of time there be jobs loses but there also be new business starting up.
For us who have had boats for long periods of times many years in some cases we would have to be a
Most down to our last penny's before selling up let alone give our boats away .
Where some bargain may appear is where people have got to the age where's there are ready to call it a day , but then hasn't that always been the case .

 

[Gwylan]

Age and health reasons meant it was time to move on.
Well, we tried to sell last season. Total fiasco endless round of tyre kickers and worse.
Got to the end of a sale at Christmas for a knockdown price and then the twerp revealed that he didn't really have that much money and would I help him out.

So, pre virus, the revised plan was April on the hard, fettle and polish and May off down the French coast.

Not going to happen is it. Google Seahawk for sale.