Pardon me for talking about $

The price should be what a buyer is willing to pay for it. It dose not matter the cost to build nor the labor put into it (lots of expensive houses on the market right now for far less than the cost to build). Pricing anything is determined by the value a willing buyer will pay, not your costs. If people are willing to pay extra for hand crafted attractive boats, than you can make money selling, if not you need to change your line of work.

If you have a special product for a narrow market segment (a buyer that wants an attractive hand built fishing boat), than to get the best price you have to find a way to let THAT type of buyer know you have it for sale. You need to find a way to target the type of buyer that would pay top dollar for your boat. Just shot-gunning advertising out to every possible boater is a huge waste of time and money, you have to focus on the type of person that would want that type of boat.

And it is entirely possible, as the builder of the small wooden sailboats discovered, there may not be someone willing to buy this type of boat. If you want to stay in business, you need to find out what type of custom boats people are willing to pay top dollar for, it may not be what you are selling. An affluent fisherman may only want to pay top dollar for a very different type of boat. It would be dumb luck if you can sell at a profit the type of boat you want to build, it is possible there is a reason there are not a lot of custom built small fishing boats.

but you may have found a segment of the market that is not being served well by mass produced fishing boats. If so, you need a way to put your boat in front of those types of buyers. If those kind of buyers are few and far between, than you need to find another type of boat that buyers will pay top dollar to get.

It comes down to serving a potential buyer with what he wants to buy. The better you can do that, the more successful you will be.

Please do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to be negative, nor positive about your product. It is a very attractive boat. I am trying to educate you about what it means to stay in business. I have run several small businesses. Some were disastrous failure because I had not considered that people will only buy what THEY want, not what you want to sell them (no matter how good that product might be). It is all about give the customer what he wants. I have been self employed now for well over 20 years with modest success, where I am surviving even in a very slow market where almost all of my competitors have closed their door and went to work for someone else.

If you hit the combination of finding a small segment of boat buyers willing to pay top dollar for your boats, than you will sell a few at good prices (I can not imagine that market is very large, so stay a small business!). If not, than you will have to find another type of product that uses your skills where you can make a decent living. That may not be in the boat building market at all.

Good luck.

 

Petros--if I gather your meaning correctly, you are also of the opinion that I should use the current boat as a demonstration of my skills, as an aid in acquiring work on commission. If I happen to sell it along the way, that's an extra bonus.
Sounds like a tour of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard should be arranged for the summer...God but life throws some terrible tasks in a man's path!

There's a comment about this thread on my CP that I do not understand...it says "wife? yob" My wife is not a unruly loud aggressive British youth, she's middle aged , so that "yob" seems to be out. Yob could be "your own business" but I fail to see any connection to this thread....ah, but I did mention that she's tired of parking outside and wants her spot back...that must be it. If you think that's simply my own business, you haven't met my wife .

Stu

 

yes, that is a good plan. just make sure you get it in front of the people who might want to buy such a boat, and that they know your services are available for them. Hit a number of boat shows if you can, the best ones are "on the water", many have little or no cost to show off your boat. Watch your expenses, it would be hard to justify costly trips to sell one boat. If you like doing these kinds of trips and would do it anyway (and it does not bankrupt you), than that is a different consideration. Even if you do not make much off of it, these costs would be a tax deduction (presuming you have any income that is subject to taxes after building boats for a living). No law against losing money, they even allow you to off-set other income with buisness losses.

 

For a boat guy like me I wouldn't consider anything bright finished. Varnish.


If I choose to pay 50 grand for a wooden boat it will be trimmed with TEAK, and left naked. I personally find anything shiny as a "putty and paint make her what she ain't" trick that will cost money and time to maintain. I wont be fooled.
For your next project go with a purpose build , designed craft then highlight the uniqueness of this design with craftsmanship and the finest materials..

The 13 thousand euro rowing tender was oiled ceder and teak on the inside. Classic utilitarian design, Low maintenance, the correct materials for the job and a dramatic appearance.

 

Wife? referred to "management insists". Yob is short for yobarnacle. I gave you the rep

 

Sell it at an art gallery.

I'm totally serious.

A friend of mine did that with his wood canoe, they hung it from the ceiling.

All you need is one awestruck fool with more money than brains which falls in love with it. I'm in love with it already, if I had the money I'd be such a fool myself.

Nice video, they could play it at the art gallery with headsets.

EDIT: Trust you don't mind that I posted it in a random image thread.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/391522-random-transportation-pictures-704.html

 

Art

I actually had a passerby (I live on a state highway in a small village) stop in and ask to buy the boat so he could split it in half down the centerline and hang a half at each end of his bar in Florida...he was not joking! Having dried myself out 15 years ago, I just could not imagine sending my baby to hang in a bar. Maybe I should have taken his phone number. Web traffic to my sites is holding up fairly well (20 per day to the website, 25 per day to the video) but no action at the mailbox yet...Spring is in the air!

Stu

 

You have the syndrome of many newbie boatbuilders. Falling in love with what you built will not keep the business running. What difference does it make what the buyer will do?

 

If he hung it so that the cut was exposed and showing the structure, that would be interesting, but still tragic.

If it gets you top dollar, I say go for it.

 

What's tragic? If you get the amount you want, you really don't have any say as to what is eventually done with it. Wall art would be a fine thing for this boat, maybe a little plaque with the builders name, etc.

 

PAR: I think you are as pragmatic as I am

 

Look, boats, cars, houses, ex-wives are all commodities - to be bought and sold. You can fall in love, over value, lavish ridiculous amounts of attention and swoon all you want, but in the end, it's a commodity and you need to get a grip on the realities of the particular market this one is targeting.

So, lets take another look shall we; the fishing boat market is perking up a we bit, but given the offerings of 1 to 2 year old craft, in this general size and accommodation, well a little (okay a lot) over priced. It's not fast enough for the money either. It's further reducing its market share by being wooden (by over 90% BTW). Also being brightly finished every where, adds to the decrease in market share (another 70% of an already very small market) to draw prospective buyers from. It's an old design, again decreasing this "desirability" in the market. It's overly heavy, for what she is, in a now continuing theme of market share segregation. I'll stop here, though there are other things to consider. At this point, the fraction of a percent of the fishing boat market, that is willing to release some discretionary funds, on a boat, will insist on a different, better equipped, different material choices, type of craft at the current pricing estimates. I can think of nothing more depressing, then owning something that has such a small market share. It's a bit like attempting to sell livestock jewelry. Maybe a nice set of pearls for your heifer or possably lovely mood nose ring, for the Alpacas at the ranch up the street? Yep, you might get a sale or two, but don't hold your breath or give up your day job.

 

yeah - but look on the bright side ..... he only has ONE of them to sell, and he doesn't need to pay for a showroom.

 

An ex-wife may be a commodity, but a new wife (or boat) you fall in love with...you guys handle the commodities, and I'll trust Cupid. There's a lot of Boomers whose first boat was a Simmons original, and now I just need to find one who's hungry to get back his youth, in a bit of style with some modern conveniences. He doesn't need to go 50 knots or take six drunk buddies with him--he just wants to teach his grandson how to fish and handle a small boat. He's out there somewhere...

Stu

 

Yeah - but he is YOU !!!

You have built for a character profile based on your personal profile. To find another one will be hard, to find another one willing to spend a lot of money will be even harder.

You could always raffle it !

Down here in Tassie there is a Primary School who buys these lovely little cedar sailing Dinghies, and raffles them off at the local market. Of course, the builder gets paid, but the pain of having to sell these specialist craft is spread over 100's of hopefull passerbys.


Totally off the subject: -


I heard of a farmer once whose $5000 Bull died - uninsured. He went down to the Pub, and sold 51 tickets for $100 each, to all his farming friends.

The guy who won was pretty upset about the bull being dead - so of course he got his money refunded.