Friday, February 24, 2012
Hope floats
After several down years, boat dealers are upbeat heading into this year's show.
Mark Taylor | The Roanoke Times
The day before the opening of this weekend’s boat show, the Roanoke Civic Center was filled with a wide variety of shiny new watercraft.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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The interior appearance of the Roanoke Civic Center changed drastically in a matter of hours Wednesday.
Empty and cavernous in the morning, the center's coliseum and Special Events Center were packed with boats by midafternoon.
Members of the Southwest Virginia Boat Dealers Association spent all day hauling rigs to the facilities. They would like nothing more than to haul as few of those boats as possible back to their dealerships after this weekend's Roanoke Boat Show.
And, with the boat business improving after a couple of recent difficult years, the dealers are hopeful that a fair number of those craft will go home with new owners.
As they hurriedly put together their displays, dealers said they harbored optimism heading into the weekend's show, which opens today with a Free Friday promotion offering free admission for all visitors.
The boat business, local dealers said, continues to gradually rebound from the beating it took during the recession.
"Most everybody I'm talking to is upbeat," said Scott Reynolds of Smith Mountain Boat & Tackle in Penhook.
That goes for both customers and industry folks, and it's a good feeling to have after what the industry went through a couple of years ago.
Boat sales lagged severely in 2008, and that left many dealers holding lots of leftover stock at the end of the year.
In some cases the dealerships were still required to order 2009 models, which just exacerbated the glut of inventory that year.
Not only were boat dealers holding on to lots of inventory in 2009, but consumers were still holding back on discretionary spending during the worst of the recession.
And then there was the credit crunch, during which loans were much more difficult to obtain than they had been in previous years.
A number of boat manufacturers didn't survive the crash, and dealerships folded, too.
Not everybody suffered during the difficult stretch.
The glut of inventory meant that consumers who had cash on hand were able to score some incredible deals.
Things have worked themselves out over the past few years.
In some cases, boat manufacturers cut back on production, which allowed dealers to gradually get their inventory to more reasonable levels.
And while credit is still not as easy to obtain as it was prior to the recession, consumers with good credit ratings are getting approved for loans, though boat shoppers can expect to be asked to make a down payment of at least 10 percent.
Mike Ratcliff, an owner of Conrad Brothers Marine, said that business has been steadily improving.
"We had a decent season," he said of 2011. "It was better than the previous."
Ratcliff said boat manufacturers have changed their production approach over the past few years.
"The large manufacturers have been streamlining," he said. "They didn't want to cut quality, so they cut models."
Instead of trying to fit products into every single niche, manufacturers focused on the most popular and appealing models and styles.
James Cassaday, who works with Ratcliff at Conrad Brothers, said that midsized bass boats are a good example.
He said the Nitro Z7, which costs about $25,000 with a 150-horsepower motor, has been a popular seller.
The Z7, Cassaday said, is big enough and fast enough to meet the needs of most tournament anglers - even some pros - at a significant savings over a top-of-the-line boat.
Local dealers pointed out that while manufacturers were being careful with production, they continued working on product improvements.
Rusty Richardson, who works in sales at Webster Marine, said that the boats and personal watercraft Webster will have at the show all feature technological improvements that have come over the past couple years.
"For example, Sea-Doo came out with its new IBR - intelligent brake and reverse - technology," Richardson said.
Lee Arnold, owner of Smith Mountain Yacht Club, said a runabout boat he'll have at the show features a hull layup process that uses technology similar to what's in the wing makeup of a Stealth Bomber.
"It's 30 percent quieter," Arnold said.
Also on the technological advancement front, boat engines continue to become quieter and more fuel-efficient.
While there are still some two-stroke outboards available, most use fuel-injection systems instead of traditional carburetors.
Some technological changes have been mandated.
For example, new regulations require boats with inboard motors manufactured starting this year to be equipped with catalytic converters.
The change will improve emissions, as well as improving overall engine fumes, but it will add about $2,000 to a boat's cost.
There are also new regulations for fuel tank vent systems.
In addition to more than 200 boats and personal watercraft, the show will also include a menagerie of vendors offering products and services related to lake life. A boating education course is also being offered Saturday.
