Sybarite
Well-known member
Don\'t wait too long ..
When I look at UK new and second hand boat prices I consider them to be high compared with French prices. I often wonder then why people don’t broaden their search when they are making such a big investment as is a boat. I notice on the threads when somebody is asking for advice about a boat it usully concerns a UK built one.
Maybe it is universal knocking of Bénéteau and Jeanneau which are putting people off. In their defense, Beneteau has been around since 1884 and you don’t become the N° 1 in anything by selling rubbish. They started off by building trawlers and the time since the move to pleasure boats represents only about a quarter of their existence.
However if one still doesn’t like these, there is still a host of other smaller manufacturers of quality boats.
What motivates this mail however is that I was listening on the radio to a French currency guru I know who was the head of a forex department of a major French bank. He is forecasting that the euro will continue to rise from its present level of $1.10 to $1.50 (having already come back from $0.87) by the end of 2004. He justifies this by saying that the major Asian banks whose current forex portfolios are about 90% in dollars want to get a better risk spread between euros and dollars and are starting to sell their dollars.
I had previously heard that large European insurance groups like Axa and Ing wanted to do the same.
Depending on what the pound does in all of this - if you miss the boat about adopting the euro - you might miss the boat about getting the bargains that currently exist in France.
John
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When I look at UK new and second hand boat prices I consider them to be high compared with French prices. I often wonder then why people don’t broaden their search when they are making such a big investment as is a boat. I notice on the threads when somebody is asking for advice about a boat it usully concerns a UK built one.
Maybe it is universal knocking of Bénéteau and Jeanneau which are putting people off. In their defense, Beneteau has been around since 1884 and you don’t become the N° 1 in anything by selling rubbish. They started off by building trawlers and the time since the move to pleasure boats represents only about a quarter of their existence.
However if one still doesn’t like these, there is still a host of other smaller manufacturers of quality boats.
What motivates this mail however is that I was listening on the radio to a French currency guru I know who was the head of a forex department of a major French bank. He is forecasting that the euro will continue to rise from its present level of $1.10 to $1.50 (having already come back from $0.87) by the end of 2004. He justifies this by saying that the major Asian banks whose current forex portfolios are about 90% in dollars want to get a better risk spread between euros and dollars and are starting to sell their dollars.
I had previously heard that large European insurance groups like Axa and Ing wanted to do the same.
Depending on what the pound does in all of this - if you miss the boat about adopting the euro - you might miss the boat about getting the bargains that currently exist in France.
John
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