Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Hinckley is doing well with the jet boats....

A couple of months ago the word on the street was that they had a one year backlog of orders. The jet boats seem to be selling as well as they ever have. In 2015 I believe launched three sailboats (2 Bermuda 50s and a 43DS). I don't know if they have any more sailboats in the pipeline. Of course, Hinckley and Morris are hardly representative of the sailboat market. Their boats are semi-custom afterall and correspondingly expensive. I don't think you can buy any new Hinckley for under $1M. Morris boats are cheaper with the M29 starting in the low $200K range, the M36 around $400K and the M42 up in the $750K+ range. Their more traditional boats (ocean series) are very expensive. Now days if you want a new smaller sailboat the market is dominated by Benneteau, Catalina, Hunter/Marlow and Jeanneau. I don't think Sabre is building many sailboats (if any) now. There has been a shift in sailboat manufacturing away from smaller boats to 35+ footers. In the smaller boat market Benneteau offers the first 20 ($35K) and first 25 ($70K) and the Benneteau Oceanis 31 ($115K). Catalina offers more small boats like the Capri 22 ($23K), Sport 22 ($22K), Sport 275($77K) and 315 ($131K). Marlow/Hunter's smallest cabin boat is their 31 with a base price of $130K and a sail away price closer to $180K. Jeanneau offers the Sun Fast 3200 ($135K). Note these are all base prices. A fully equipped boat is quite a lot more (Marlow Hnter 31 is an example. Compare these prices to used boat prices and you will see why you don't see a lot of new smaller sailboats. You can buy a pretty nice Hinckley Bermuda 40 for the price of Marlow Hunter 31. Few young families can afford even the smallest new sailboats with any kind of accommodations.

I think there is still a market for one offs, but wood remains a small niche player in that market. It is also worth mentioning that the sailboat market remains a small fraction of the powerboat market.

To answer your perhaps rhetorical question, "Would you invest ina fiberglass sailboat builder? I think the reasonable answer is NO!

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