Pardon me for talking about $

Boat are a really hard market to serve. Wildly different customers. Recently a delivery truck pulled into the shipyard and a forklift carefully removed a very beautiful cedar lapstrake 8 foot dingy that cost 13,000 EUROS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Mackerel. But to the owner of the trawler in the yard who bought this work of art it was perfect...a bargain .

 

Sawdust
Rather than sell this boat, keep it as an example to show prospective clients your skill.
In the spring, run it yourself and the admirers may include a buyer or potential custom build client. Seek a commission to build a special boat for a special client. Just an idea.

 

Currently, the old curmudgeon is laughing at your efforts (when he's not muttering about young people).

 

Seconded- the material choice makes it a good candidate as a demonstration piece for the boat show circuit.

Find a client who wants a build done to his specifications and keep this one.
Have you considered setting up a booth at the Annapolis power boat show?

 

Good advice

Use the boat as a real-world advertising device....I like that! I can write off my fishing costs as business expenses!

A 13000 Euro dinghy? Did you get his phone number??

I've fished and camped on the St. Lawrence during the Clayton boat show in previous years...if I still own this unit in early August (as seems to be the consensus) I'll have to make a return visit. In the meantime, I've got a short job (a few weeks) on the hard for a customer with a dock in Orleans, MA (Cape Cod) and will take along the boat and tie her up there. Certainly the right class of potential customers goes by every day.

Pricing statement on the website has been clarified--thanks for the pointer.

IKEA effect--I plead guilty (but that does not exclude the possibility that I might also be right )

Back in 2004, a friend sent me the Simmons drawings he had obtained from the Cape Fear Museum; enclosed was a quote from a highly reputable yard on Cape Cod offering to build said boat for $51,000. Of course it was different in many ways from Solitary, but it was essentially an updated Simmons Seas Skiff. I realize that an established yard can command such a price based upon their reputation...on the other hand, when the finished product is available for inspection, the reputation of the builder pales in importance compared to the physical realities of fit, finish and immediate availability. OK, I know some of the pessimists will accuse me of whistling past the graveyard.

Thanks for the feedback.

Stu

 

I dont know much about the price of boats. I do know that I can go to the local boat dealer and purchase a well built, new , plastic fishing boat with a 40hp for 20 thousand. Good boat. This market would be impossible for a small builder with a 50 grand sea skiff to compete in.

 

That's true. I can also go to nationwide retailer at the local mall and buy a perfectly serviceable suit, shirt, belt, and shoes for $300...but plenty of stores near Wall Street sell plenty of suits for 10 times that much. Some folks wouldn't be caught dead in a suit that came "off the rack", and I'm hoping to find the buyer who doesn't buy his boats off the rack either. When he gazes out over the moorings in front of his summer home, he'll have no difficulty determining which one of the forty boats out there is his.

The wealthy are doing very well in the USA, and they're the only ones I'm interested in selling to.

Stu

 

You must somehow connect with this market...the holy grail. many attempt few succed.

 

I accept the challenge! (I have little choice, according to Management)

 

I will put the price between $4,000.00 to $8,000.00 without the engine.

 

There's your first offer

Since new hand tooled strip built kayaks retail for over $10,000 - that's a bit light on in my books.

Assuming your boat is as good as the photo's, I would start thinking seriously about offers ~ $16,000 without motor, but not till I had shopped it around the traps for ~ $23,000 for a few months ( over your summer especially) to see if someone is interested in making an offer.

Selling without the motor is always good policy, because we can always use a motor, but many buyers prefer to start off with a new, locally sourced and supported engine themselves.

 

Over twenty five years ago I talked to a very talented boat builder who had been trying to make a living by building and selling very attractive, varnished wood sailboats which were 16 foot to 25 foot long. Even though he got lots of excellent publicity including in WoodenBoat magazine he couldn't sell his prototype for what seemed like an extremely low price given the labor which had gone into the boat. Then he built an 8 foot varnished pram which quickly sold at a price he considered very good. The pram was purchased for use as the dinghy to a large sailboat. And then he built and sold more prams for use as dinghies. His explaination: For the target customers for the larger boats, his price was a very large expenditure. But for the owner of a large sailboat the price of the pram was about what they might pay to have a new pair of winches installed, or for a new sail.

Another thought. Part of the reward of buying a "custom" boat can be the process of interacting with the builder and having it personalized. When you buy an already built boat you lose that reward. So my theory is that unless someone is in a hurry for a boat, a completed boat won't sell for the what a boat built to order can be sold for.

 

Don't confuse what a builder says the price is for them to build a boat, with what a customer might pay. Until someone pays the price what the builder is asking isn't the market price. And after someone pays the price the question is how many more folks will pay the price.

Also asthetics are more than fit and finish. The shape and features also have to appeal to the buyer.

 

This is the best post on this thread in my opinion.
Yes Watson I was low, but boats are not selling well right now, so he must be happy with every dime someone will offers, or keep the boat until the market get better.

 

There's a guy in Vancouver,makes these fantastic dinghies with marquetry,checkerboard, banding,etc with different woods and they're so nice it seems a shame to use them.

Charges a hefty sum and sells all he can build.