Re: Your advice on investing in a small Aluminum Utility style boat manufacturer.
Thanks guys. Again replies directed below:
@ BF, sounds like you did lots of custom work on your boat. The first thing I suggested was cup holders! I grew up and learned how to fish in simple open boats like this with good old evinrude 9.9's and 20's on them. For our area they are actually the best ones anyways because we go through a couple of shallow creeks and they have minimal draft. (I digress...ahhh...summer). Anyway, the biggest single PITA factor that I come across is peoples drink can's and bottles falling over all the time when everybody freaks out when a fish is caught (rare occasion for us, we are fishing disabled). 2nd was storage, to which he replied that would eat up some of the floatation, and he doesn't want to cut into his seats for the reason you said...stability. But I agree with you. I guess at the end of the day there are many added features you can add to a boat, but then the costs creep up and all of the sudden you must charge more. He's kinda tossed his hands in the air and said he just wants to make safe boats for families with not much money. As you said, I guess they are used primarily as seconds or overflow boats when guests arrive. For my family, we had not much money, and it was the primary boat my brothers and I learned in. The Canadian Tire idea, now that is a great idea, I'll pass that along to him no matter what my decision is. (Though my guess is that he doesn't really have the gusto to get into a Can Tire boardroom and get that large of a deal worked out). Does your boat leak? Is that why you put the bilge in or you just forgot to put the plug back in a couple times doing the 'drain as you go' trick? Either way I'd be impressed too if I saw a boat like this with a bilge pump. Ours never leaked but after a good night of rain we'd be bailing for a good hour using old javex bottles.
@ Allpoints, It's just the boat. I checked out a couple competitors, the 16 foot crestliner, it had a max rating of 25 hp (!!!low!!!) and they wanted 4500 for it! wow! Now this guy is selling his (he doesn't sell that many granted) for 2800, and they are rated way way higher I think up to a 45hp. I'm not sure what he does for a trailer, last I checked the 'latest' thing in trailers was to make them out of I-beam aluminum and they are very light weight that can be pulled by a Toyota Camry (if you have a simple aluminum boat like the ones were discussing). Far as I know he delivers them to his dealers on a flat-bed trailer and he just stacks them on top of each other using foam pads between them. BF is right about the styling being pretty much the same as the lunds he mentioned.
@ Bubba, Yah I was unsure about his riveting comments too. I mean, yah, I have had 6 plain jane riveted boats and none of them ever leaked (we did have to repair the bow on one after a collision in a creek though, hah), and we've never noticed our rivets boats being 'weak'......but the concept of a welded hull does seem to make a whole lot of sense. The part im un-settled on is that with respect to size of the boat?? Like a heavy crab trawler on the big open water of the ocean, or even the larger, you know, 75 hp Lund mega-fishing boats (don't know their model names) with the floors and the seats...now those would be way way heavier and I can see them moving to welded hulls. I don't know about it either way, for this light of a boat it kinda makes sense that it just doesn't take as much beating and the rivets are fine. Plus I always look out at the wings of an airplane and wonder if maybe the thinner aluminum boats use rivets because the thin aluminum flexes...and I read that the welds tend not to flex..and the rivets do flex. Pluses and Minuses probably depending on the intended use I suppose but hey, i'm no expert which is why I'm asking your opinions.
My wife and I have been talking this over, and the biggest question we have is: whats the future of the 'this segment' of the boating industry. If (as BF says) cottagers own these boats as seconds (or for their kids to toodle in like my parents did), OK, that makes sense...then the question defaults to 'Is the cottage ownership industry a growth market or a shrinking market'? Sounds like linking this simple boats to fishing is just the wrong methodology based on what I'm hearing.
What are you guys seeing in terms of cottage ownership say over the last 15 years? I'd say it's up here, lots of Calgarians buying places on Shuswap lake (in BC, and which incedently is a massive lake and not a good lake to put a 14 foot 9.9 on!). So based on my observations around me, most of the people I know are buying massive boats, not these small ones.
Honestly, I think were likely going to pass, I just can't see how this can be a 'growth' industry. I agree with the comments Canuck said about how management is the #1 factor, and with the size and type of investment were looking at, we'd be able to influence management or even replace it. So the next question is more focused on weather or not these type of simple aluminum boats are going the way of 'whale oil' or is there a steady demand from...new cottage owners with kiddies?
Cheers guys and thanks again. Ryan.
