Heard of Any Good Boat Buying Deals Lately?

[Dean Travis Clarke]

Thanks to the current global economic crisis, buying a new boat represents a two-edged sword. Many people are simply not in the financial position to make a large-ticket, disposable-income purchase like a boat. However, other people are! And those people can reap some astounding benefits from incentive deals offered by manufacturers and dealers. In fact, there may never have been a more advantageous time to purchase a new boat. Have you seen any great deals being offered at boat shows or elsewhere? If so, who, what and where?

[Oliver]

Dean,

One things for sure, its going to be a buyers market! Check out ebay for a start, the last few months there has been a few nice boats on there. What size boat are you looking for? Are you after something that you could buy cheep and refit? Also where abouts are you?

One thing I found out while looking for a boat this summer was that there are a number of ************************s on the east coast that are crying out for business. I found a 33 gamefisher on the net for that needed a refit, the seller was happy to let me have it for 75% of the asking price. It was on a private slip and need moving to a public ************************. I contacted one nearby who offered to lift the boat out of the water, remove all the growth and make good and repaint the bottom for the cost of the paint if I kept the boat there for 6 months! He was also happy to undertake a load of other work at a reasonable cost just so he could keep busy. Needless to say the deal fell through when I found out the seller had outstanding finance on the boat and my payment would not have cleared it! I guess he thought he could pull a fast one on me as I was buying in the states to ship over to europe where I live.

Don't count out buying new either, with the credit crunch growing every day, I would guess that you should be able to get a great deal on a new build, just make sure that the builder can come up with the goods! If the auto market is on its backside and asking for government help and dealers wanting to do deals then you can sure bet that a boat builder will do a deal (he'll have a fat chance of getting a government handout)

What ever you do, don't rush into it you can sure bet just as you think you have found what you want, something better will come along.

Regards,

Ollie

[Bluemon]

There are no shortage of good deals out there. Of the 500 boats we have listed, probably the best deal is a late model 61 Viking for under $ 1mill. Let me know if you are looking for any size/ make in particular.

Mike McC
HMY