- Oct 6, 2006
- 12,150
- Boat Info
- 1996 450DA
- Engines
- 3116 Caterpillars
I've been fortunate enough to go thru a couple of Sea Ray factories more than once. I am from a volume manufacturing industry so I noticed the parallels to the industry I spent years working in. One reason Sea Ray prices seem high is strictly volume related. A typical larger Sundancer will have between 30 and 50 individual fiberglass molds for hull, deck, hatches, hardtop, dash, underside of dash, head module, etc., etc. The mold cost is in the millions $ for larger boats; some less for smaller boats. The molds are fiberglass and can be used only a finite number of times before they must be replaced. The cost of the mold is amortized over the anticipated volume of boats that will be produced using that mold. Production volumes in 2005 may have been 55 boats a week; today it is more like 6 per week. If a mold set costs $1.0 mil and lasts lasts 3 years before it is retired due to model changes, and if the factory works 48 weeks a year, then the amortized cost per boat in 2005 would have been $125; on today's volume, the cost/boat would be $1150. Just on the basis of volume and not considering the higher cost of mold perparation in 2015 vs 2005, each new boat carrries 10X higher mold cost than the boats did when everyone was buying them.
One could make the argument that we, the buying public, is the reason boats costs are so high, but I seriously doubt that the higher cost of new boats ends up in increased margin for Sea Ray.
One could make the argument that we, the buying public, is the reason boats costs are so high, but I seriously doubt that the higher cost of new boats ends up in increased margin for Sea Ray.