What is your realistic price for a new slalom tug? (v2)

[swc5150]

Sounds like the 20' Gekko without carpet, so mid $30's.

[Waternut]

I'll throw out the "what if" prospect and see what people think. Sounds like a lot of the cost of a boat now is bureaucratic related and has very little to do with performance or skiing.

 

I used to be big into the standup jetski world. If you're not familiar, there are really only 2 manufacturers of standup jetski's...Kawasaki and Yamaha. Polaris made some for a few years but quit. Kawasaki has recently pulled out leaving only Yamaha. None of the companies ever made a lot of money on these and most dealerships carried 1 or 2 if they were lucky and had trouble selling those.

 

Due to the problems related to 2 stroke engines, noise, and the stigma related to idiots on jetski's, the only way to really get into the standup jetski world now is through aftermarket resources. Funny thing is, an aftermarket hull is cheaper, lighter, stronger, and performs better. Sounds too good to be true but here's the catch. Since many states have banned the sale of 2 stroke jetski's now, the hulls are sold bare without any kind of registration. This means that they can only be used in special events or on private waters. They can be registered through a "homebuilt" process and it's not too difficult but it can be a hurdle for some.

 

I guess the point I'm trying to make is... The only way I really see prices coming down is to sidestep all of the regulations that are driving costs up and get back to what really matters to the people who are buying the boats. I don't know what the percentage of new comp boat sales are going to owners who will never put them in public waters but I'm guessing it's a fair number. If a large number of owners who buy these boats are having to adhere to regulations that aren't even applicable to them, all of these price hikes seem kinda silly. How many other sports out there have "competition" cars, bikes, boats, etc. that are legal? Why are our "competition" vehicles basically a stock version?

[Bulldog]

If a boat is only used on private land is it still subject to the EPA rules and such that the companies seem to blame on the high cost of making new boats? If not a boat with less of the $$$BS might work for private sites...just a thought.

[The_MS]

We sold 9 Yamaha stand up jet skis last year but 7 of them went to a rental outfit.

[rayn]

I might be thinking about this all wrong. But I paid 35k for a brand new 2001 response lx well equipped and with a trailer in 2000. If you just do rough math compounding 4% a year I get close to 60k. So those asking for a basic boat for less than 40k might be right but a little unrealistic. I agree that I am priced out of the new boat market with the prices the way they are but I was also priced out of the market when I bought this boat except for the help of a "sports related" work bonus and my 5year old trade in. However asking for a boat about what they were going for in 2000 is unrealistic.

[Ed_Obermeier]

@6balls wrote "There is no way in holy schmoley that I'm paying these dollars for a rapidly depreciating piece of recreational equipment with little to no performance or useful life advantage over one that costs half as much in the used market."

 

Ditto that. Especially when you can buy a good slightly used few years old model for under $30K plus not have anywhere near that level of depreciation. Example - I bought my '05 RLXI in late '08 for $28K, about $10K less than it sold for new. With the rising price of new DD's and seeing what the used market is bringing these days I'm reasonably confident that 7 years later were I to sell I could still get around $25K in resale without too much issue. Not a bad ROI IMO.

 

Remember, while a high percentage of BOS'ers may be serious tournament skiers it's likely that less than 10% of the full DD market are such. Most of us don't need the latest greatest with ZO etc and as such aren't willing to pay for something that doesn't demonstrably enhance the experience or improve an otherwise unusable competitive advantage. If I were considering going new (not/can't) Gekko and to some extent Centurion are looking more and more viable all the time, especially in a private lake setting (which I don't have).

 

At $50K plus the cold hard fact is that a significant percentage of the target market are priced out of that market. Whether expecting to be able to buy a new boat at what they were going for in 2000 is unrealistic or not, for a growing percentage of the target market it's simply out of range financially.

[ToddL]

The sad reality is that while inflation suggests these comparative prices, the cost of living is another factor. There are many core expenses which have gone up faster than salaries. When that happens discresionary and recreational spending suffers. People either cut back on participation or scale back their pace of consuming "latest model" items. I think these factors are behind many comments here. I believe there is demand for a MasterCraft BudgetStar, like I described above if it can compete with the used market's non-ZO boats.

 

With all the talk about traditional competitive skiing participation declining, and all the new boats which are sold to pull sets each year at tournaments, it just seems that the market would be saturated with used boats. We know what happens when supply exceeds demand. ZO stirred things up a bit, but in a few more years there should be a solid supply of used ZO boats in the market. At what point will the only new boats sold be ones solely to pull tournaments?

[Mateo_Vargas]

NASCAR has the Car of Tomorrow so maybe the answer to an affordable tournament boat is the Hull of Tomorrow? The manufacturers who plan to sell the AWSA approved hull used in tournaments for a set number of years would share in the development of the hull design and split that cost. They would then have the freedom to design the boat however they like from the waterline up and will differentiate on build quality, manufacturing process, materials, and innovative features. Marketing dollars would be reduced by eliminating the "our hull has more records than yours" ads and the pros wouldn't have to hold back on their performances when being pulled behind a non-sponsor boat. Tournaments would only need 1 boat and a backup instead of up to 4. How's this for thinking out of the mold?

[Tyler_R]

When I get my new boat next season I can't see myself spending more than 60k. My last one didn't cost half of that.

[escmanaze]

Very Interesting thread. For all the people who say they can't afford $70k for a ski boat, but they would be happy to pay 40, there is some kind of disconnect because I see a lot more of the big 3 flying off the lot than I do Gekko's and or even CP's.

 

I saw the LXR video today, and my first thought is that this boat is perfect for me. However, I'm such a freak that if the TXI wake is at all noticeably better, I might just be crazy enough to do something like that instead?

 

I do certainly think that the manufacturers are pretty good at knowing market conditions around them, so I'll be anxious to see what moves they make in the next 5 years. Hopefully that move isn't to just drop out of the market completely like we saw with stand up jet skis.

[jjackkrash]

Ski boats aside, thank god I don't wakeboard. At the Seattle show the Malibu dealer had a 24 foot wakeboard boat "on sale" for $167k, and it looked like "optioned" it would push $200k. For about the same price, you could walk across the Isle and pick up an ocean-worthy 2014 new Boston Whaler 315 Conquest Pilot House with twin 300 Verados, kicker, full electronics, cabin, head, etc. I just don't understand where the cost on these wake boats come from.