Max123
Well-Known Member
Agreed, everyone scoffs when someone brings up buying a welded boat from China on the cheap, but no one wants to pay the cost of buying local.
Talk to Lifetimer, Silverstreak, Jasper, Jaxon and others. They can all build you a lovely boat to whatever level of finish you want - the one thing in common from all of these guys: it won't be cheap. The cost of skilled trades is up (if you can find people at all), cost of leasing industrial warehouse has doubled over the past 4 years (read the recent post by the owner of Monaro), people are also tapped out after a few years of inflation and back to more normal post-pandemic finances.
Anyway, I won't throw stones at someone trying to get back $0.80 on the dollar for a 2-year old boat, even if there is some initial sticker shock. I think the main criticism of the COPE boat, is that they built something highly specific, with a very narrow potential market of buyers. Low supply, low demand is particularly unforgiving in a slow market. They may not get their $0.80 back, versus if they were trying to sell a 2 year old Whaler.
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