Sailboats are faster but not cheaper. Why?

Sailboat industry failed to follow the lead of car industry. Sailboats are essentially hand-build one-off expensive toys. Mass production of sailboats remained a dream. The endless multiplication of sailboat classes is a symptom rather than a cause of this sad situation, isn t it?

 

Well biger part of "one design" clases aprowed by isaf or IYRU dingies vere designed to be cheap, what hapened next? Sailors wanted to be faster and new more expensive parts vere used. Don't forget what realy expensive sailboats are performance sailboats, they are "aston martins" of sailboat industry.

 

Mass producing a dream?

Bavaria are mass producing ugly sailboats in Beiren far fom any sea like they are producing cars there. All holes in the deck mold are cut by a robot for example.

For their size you could call these boats cheap.

 

Clearly you aren't understanding the numbers. In this country, sailboats account for 5 to 8% of the total pleasure boat market. This is typical world wide. The production numbers for all sailboats (global), built in a given year is just a few thousand. With such a small market share, the industry has little choice but to provide as appealing a product as possible to as wide an audience as able. Designer fabrics and decor, several accommodation layouts, rig and sail choice options, etc. all challenging for the handful of yachts that will be purchased each year. These production boats are the equal of the Fords in the automotive market. Some of the models are sort of fast, kind of comfortable and some reasonably hefty. They look nice when you first get one, but shortly after some hours are under it's keel, it becomes quite clear it needs some more "stuff". This is where the custom yacht comes to bear on the market. The custom yacht answers the call for a solid passage maker that will not toss it's stick over the side in a storm, or a 'round the buoys contender that will be at the front of the fleet each weekend, not the back or middle.

Mass production has been tried in the industry, but the numbers just can't support the cost of tooling up for a model run. The huge glut on the market, generated during previous attempts at this, killed plenty of seemly forward thinking companies.

 

US boating statistics

Statistics from the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA):

http://nmma.org/facts/boatingstats/2004/files/Abstract.pdf

http://nmma.org/facts/boatingstats/2004/files/market1.asp

Yoav

 

Understand the numbers, please.

Thank you Icetreader.
Let us review the numbers: According to the National Maritime Manufacturers Association, the number of total sailboat units sold, and the total number existing units, from 1999 to 2005 in USA is steadily declining (22500 18600 15800 15000 14300 and 1,64M 1,63M 1,61M 1,60M 1,58M ), while, at the same time, the average unit cost follows exactly the opposite route ( 33000 34000 36000 36000 42000 ) Is this a healthy market ? I don’t think so. The industry just refuses to invest and cut the cost, so the clients are refusing to buy, and that is what is happening everywhere and anytime. It is the industry that is stupid, not the clients, thank Ford.

 

It is a fact that the costs of boats in general are excactly moving up in such a way that the high quality boats are not loosing in value.
Another fact is that the best boats are made in the industrial developed couintries and there wages and taxes and the costs of the infrastructure in general are the highest in the world, where the all over efficiency of building is slightly moving downwards.
For production companies like Bénéteau, high sales costs are required and their general overhead is simply enormous.

The way to success can be also the way to the graveyard.

I talked not long ago to one of the CEO's of Contest, a big name in Holland, producing per year ONLY 20-22 boats but of very high, even top quality.
I said that I wondered how he could keep his head up in the today's market.
In any case not by means of ronbots and that sort of industrialisation but by modernising their producrtion process and by trying to produce a boat as perfect as possible. The high end of the market.

Taken in account that the Dutch Governments have created the last 15 years a very hostile environment for those companies that are producing products that are in the production-process environmentally hazardous.
Car factories, Shipyards, Car repairshops, Bodyshops etc. are doomed to disappear when it counts on the Government. Very high environmental taxes, very high wages, very high costs of labour-facilities, that all makes the yacht year after year more expensive.
The US of A doesn't want to discuss any topic regarding environmental laws because they are afraid to destroy millions of labour-places.
Correct.
Dutch politicians must like to destroy labour places because there is hardly any Shipyard facility left where there were dozens of them just 20 years ago.

The fact that Holland is still Yachtland No 1, is grace to it's superb infrastructure that is second to none. And the knowledge too.
To lift a boat, say 13 mtrs, it 'll cost 300 Euro's. Same boat in Spain, 800 Euro's.

Some twenty years ago, a yacht costed the same as a family-house. Today, it is almost twice as much.

Riddle in the sands...........

 

There is another aspect that is different from car production:
Cars disappear after a couple of years, due to mechanical failure, security regulations, accidents etc and thus clear the way for replacement, but almost every boat that was ever built in GFK is still around somewhere as a second hand boat.

 

The production numbers of boats compared to cars are nill. (not even taken into acount the much larger number of producers)

Investments in automotive industries are impossible to make in yacht industries. And even then it is impossible to build a brand new car. Different models are build upon the same chassis and lot's of parts are "recycled"

Unless we all want to sail uniform ships in the same classes specified by the leading brands, I'm not surprised, not even sad.

 

"Thank Ford" and other comments comparing apples and oranges I think are inappropriate. You can't compare the average sailboat to the average car! The average boat lives 4-5 times longer than the car, costs about 5 times more, is utilized differently.
Those statistics should be adjusted and understood under a greater look of socioeconomics. The market for anything is not the same now that it was back in 2000!
A coastal crusing sailboat can be compared to a car as much as it can be compared to a house. And in the US the later have tripled since 2000.
You can't mass produce anything unless there is demand for it and there is not going to be an increase in demand unless there are marinas, access, anchoring rights, etc etc.
At 15,000 sailboats a year in the US even if sales doubled it still as low of a production figure as a single Harley model, or maybe an Indian! It is defientely not a budget Ford.
Who would invest in a mass production plant that is fully robotized to make 15000 pieces of something? No bank, that's for sure!

 

car market vs. sailboat market is not a valid comparison.
people need cars to get to their jobs, etc. people don't need sailboats.

 

Do these numbers take into acount inflation and/or the fall in the value of the USD$?

 

$$ value

The numbers are in nominal US $ that don't reflect inflation.

Yoav

 

"Unless we all want to sail uniform ships in the same classes specified by the leading brands..."
The truth is that we all do drive uniform cars in the same chassis specified by the leading brands, but this does not seem to bother any of us, provided that the price and the quality is right - and we are pleased with the "privilege" of choosing one out of a handful of colours ! The vast majority of ordinary people would be really happy if they could enjoy the elements like their more affluent neighbours in a decently priced sailboat of their own, even if this sailboat would have been identical with the next one - some miles away. The industry should have known the simple fact that sailboats are no different that any other product: If they build it, we will come...

 

people buy differant boats for differant reasons. I might want a boat for sailing the bay or I might want one to go to austrailia,,,,,besides your average joe ,just wants to watch tv, and eat some chips.were all better off this way because,could you imagine everyone with a boat in thier yard? I mean how many more idiots do we need out ther that think a cell phone is all they need on board, not to mention the fact they have thier whole family on board, yea cars are one thing boats are another,,,,,,,,loveyaall longliner.