Originally Posted by vintage chromoly

Im talking about market value declining, not the sum of building a boat or car. Dreamers will always think they have gold bullion.

Good clean boats and cars are holding their own.

If the hobby is "dead", one would think the market value of the boats would reflect that. Maybe guys with big dollar boats are losing their shirts on them? I'm not privy to that as I'm a small fry.

Originally Posted by thirdchildhood

'Toons are everywhere. Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, the Rivers. Our local lake gets so clogged up with toons idling around on week-ends that the boats that want to run the lake's perimeter can't even run their boats. I hate toons more than I hate sailboats and PWCs jumping my wake. They aren't even boats. Aren't they technically "rafts"?

Originally Posted by Indy

It's been a few years since I sold the PP and I'm having a hard time not being on the water, but I'll get back to it in the not too distant future hopefully. I go down to the beach fairly often to get a water "fix" and look at all the boats and dream. Over the years I've noticed a lack of boats out on the water, by a good measure, unscientific observation I'd say there's less than half as many out there as there was before Wall Street, gov't, and globalization shattered dreams. It's really depressing...I can look out at the Sound (Long Island Sound) and count on one hand how many boats I see out there whereas before it was an active boating paradise.

In the paper today there was an article on how the state of CT is down 14,000 registrations since the recession (out of 100k+) and how marinas are disappearing because of lack of slip rentals. It cites the average age of the boater in CT is 55 and it goes up 6 months every year, and the younger generations aren't making up for the shortfall. Having a 26 ft center console going for $100k + doesn't help, in fact it's killing the newer first timer industry. I get the expense of the boat building industry, but having a new little sh!tbox going for over $100K is pathetic.

I know personally my next boat won't be a stern drive, I fit the average age statistic and I've done my time in the bilge and will have none of that anymore. Maybe a 25ft PP with outboards to bomb around in but for sure it's not going to be as expensive to own as the last few boats.

To me, there's nothing like the water, it puts me into a different state of mind the second I'm there. I don't even have to be out on it, I used to go down to the marina after work and fiddle around on the boat for a couple of hours and it took me into a different world. I can't imagine not being back on it and it makes me sad that there are many boaters that have been forced out of the hobby for various reasons, much of them economic.

Has anybody else noticed this decline over the years? Statistics aside, just looking out at the Sound and it's dead out there...very sad.

Originally Posted by Nate5.0

I would disagree.

My boat was super clean and very documented and sat for damn near a year on the market. People are just asking crazy prices (my self included) and not getting them.

Originally Posted by Mike A.

Where I live performance boats have disappeared, replaced by center consoles. Boating in the area overall remains strong, just a different type of boat.

Originally Posted by Jupiter Sunsation

Must have been those damn black motors again!

Originally Posted by Jupiter Sunsation

+1..... at one point we had a 47 GTX OL in town, a couple of Apaches, a mix of TG's (old and new) and some Formulas/Sunsations/Powerplays and a lone Skater with ASD's.

Today the only boat I see running around is a 38 Powerquest and occasionally a classic Donzi......the rest are 2-3-4 engine CC's