State of the Boat Market. Its Serious and on Radio 4.

[oldgit]

Interview with a member of Boats .com on how the market has gone nuts since the lockdown(s). It appears that the top end of the market in both new and second hand boats has also been similarly affected and reflects anecdotal evidence on this forum about the market in general.
Mentioned in the interview that prior to Covid, larger boats were always purchased by people working their up the food chain, who had some previous experience with smaller craft.Not the case now apparently.
Worries expressed about the fact you can hand over £ 2-3M turn the key and and go. Boats .com very emphatic indeed they advise all purchasers to undergo some sort of training.

It might have been a tiny little bit self promotion but mentions of four large yachts being sold in a single week.
Interviews with other sellers at the other end of the market reflecting the same phenomenon in the UK.


A sellers market ?

 

[Farmer Piles]

Was this on You and Yours? My daughter was contacted about this by them as the marketing manager of Classic Cottages based here in Cornwall. I would be interested to listen to the programme on Sounds.

 

[Never Grumble]

Let's hope these people go and get some training before they kill someone.

 

[timbad]

Link here

 

[Seastoke]

Interview with a member of Boats .com on how the market has gone nuts since the lockdown(s). It appears that the top end of the market in both new and second hand boats has also been similarly affected and reflects anecdotal evidence on this forum about the market in general.
Mentioned in the interview that prior to Covid, larger boats were always purchased by people working their up the food chain, who had some previous experience with smaller craft.Not the case now apparently.
Worries expressed about the fact you can hand over £ 2-3M turn the key and and go. Boats .com very emphatic indeed they advise all purchasers to undergo some sort of training.

It might have been a tiny little bit self promotion but mentions of four large yachts being sold in a single week.
Interviews with other sellers at the other end of the market reflecting the same phenomenon in the UK.


A sellers market ?

Is my boat worth more to me , NO as at the moment it is giving me no pleasure and i know it is going to depreciate a lot in 2022. . I am tepmpted to sell and wait for boats to be bargains again , which will be winter 2022.

 

[oldgit]

Is my boat worth more to me , NO as at the moment it is giving me no pleasure and i know it is going to depreciate a lot in 2022. . I am tepmpted to sell and wait for boats to be bargains again , which will be winter 2022.

That means the loss of x 2 lots of brokers fees and at least you know whats been done to your present boat and whats likely to be dropping off next.
As opposed to buying a new and completely new load of grief from somebody else .
Do wonder if the real peak of the resurgence in UK boat market is still yet to come, when we are finally released at home but the paperwork aggravation and difficulty of getting in and out of the UK and abroad has not been finalised.
Parts of Italy have just shut down again.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

True. I’m hoping that I can get a couple of years use from mine and sell for a profit. Then buy something bigger with Cats or MANS. And without outdrives....

 

[Bouba]

Is it possible that when life returns to normality ?these new owners will get distracted away from their new hobby and a lot of boats will return to the market

 

[ashtead]

Maybe more will continue to work from their boat homes though. In the summer months it’s quite pleasant working from home in the cockpit as no doubt many liveabords will attest. Not certain I would be so keen if I was breaking the ice around the hull though.

 

[Greg2]

Perhaps because we only changed last year, but I have no interest in selling at a high price and hoping to get a bargain in a couple of years time. We love the the boat and not having one for a year or two just ain’t worth it IMHO, not least because I think that the jury is still out on what life will be like in the future. Brexit and Covid have, I suspect, changed things for the foreseeable.

 

[Mr Googler]

I think the main reason the market will stay buoyant is VAT. on the used front.....what’s here is VAT paid.....what isn’t is not. Everything in the EU is 20% more than it was. Our used market is much smaller now. Won’t effect new market of course but then most of us can’t afford new.

 

[oldgit]

[QUOTE="Scala, post: 7600220, member: 151692" And without outdrives....[/QUOTE]

.

 

[ari]

Is my boat worth more to me , NO as at the moment it is giving me no pleasure and i know it is going to depreciate a lot in 2022. . I am tepmpted to sell and wait for boats to be bargains again , which will be winter 2022.

That sounds like an astonishingly accurate crystal ball you have, does it do lottery numbers too..?

 

[ari]

Worries expressed about the fact you can hand over £ 2-3M turn the key and and go. Boats .com very emphatic indeed they advise all purchasers to undergo some sort of training.

In theory you could, but nobody does. Indeed it's almost certainly impossible for someone with zero experience to board a £2-3M boat and figure out how to 'turn the key and go'.

 

[Bouba]

In theory you could, but nobody does. Indeed it's almost certainly impossible for someone with zero experience to board a £2-3M boat and figure out how to 'turn the key and go'.

The dealer takes the boat out to open water, passes the wheel over to the client and he drives it just like a car. What’s the problem ?‍

 

[oldgit]

In theory you could, but nobody does. Indeed it's almost certainly impossible for someone with zero experience to board a £2-3M boat and figure out how to 'turn the key and go'.

Somebody capable of being able to afford a boat in this price bracket, able to read a manual, probably owning several sophisticated motor vehicles and no doubt after a quick briefing from the man taking his cash, could turn the key and go .
Most probably out into the River Crouch, its quite wide and all you have to do is dodge the yachts, best not look back as your wash might cause them to enthusiastically wave at you.

The chap from Boats.com suggested that the main barrier to any buy and go adventurer sailing off into the blue would be .........the insurance companies.
Only knew one chap in a financial situation to be able to to do this sort of thing .
He wanted to insure what was a unique racing car for the road, this proved impossible via normal routes.
He came up with some sort of wheeze to self insure and off he went.

 

[ari]

Somebody capable of being able to afford a boat in this price bracket, able to read a manual, probably owning several sophisticated motor vehicles and no doubt after a quick briefing from the man taking his cash, could turn the key and go .
Most probably out into the River Crouch, its quite wide and all you have to do is dodge the yachts, best not look back as your wash might cause them to enthusiastically wave at you.

The chap from Boats.com suggested that the main barrier to any buy and go adventurer sailing off into the blue would be .........the insurance companies.
Only knew one chap in a financial situation to be able to to do this sort of thing .
He wanted to insure what was a unique racing car for the road, this proved impossible via normal routes.
He came up with some sort of wheeze to self insure and off he went.

But you'd have to be an idiot, and not many idiots amass enough money to spend seven figures of it on a toy.

The proof of the pudding, as ever, is in the eating. When did you last hear of a seven figure boat being crashed by someone with zero experience? Ironically the most recent one was a fully qualified skipper.

 

[oldgit]

But you'd have to be an idiot, and not many idiots amass enough money to spend seven figures of it on a toy.

The proof of the pudding, as ever, is in the eating. When did you last hear of a seven figure boat being crashed by someone with zero experience? Ironically the most recent one was a fully qualified skipper.

If it was me would be keeping very quiet indeed.

 

[ari]

If it was me would be keeping very quiet indeed.

I'm sure you would, but crashing a 60ft+ boat isn't the sort of thing you can do subtly!

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

The state of the market is all the same around Europe and beyond. Crazy stuff.
Normality might be 2022, if lockdown finishes. Currently the people who are making money have less things to do, and more money left in there pockets so the expenses of a boat seems little.
Say your 11 meter which costs 10k to keep looks okay now, because you are spending nothing on the stuff you used to do prior to Covid-19.
How will it be when normality returns? This is the big question. For some they might have found a new hobby for others the boat might be the expense which takes away cash from the normality which at the moment is lost.
Normality being that I do four or six holidays a year, normality which means going shopping twice a week, and eating in a restaurant nearly three to four times a week.
This is the equation.