Brunswick selling off Sea Ray brand

And that's awesome! In fact, so awesome I smell a hint of BS. But statisticaly, she is an anomaly. Most people do not experience that kind of luck.

You are right about the anomaly. Because most her age don't put as much effort in. And no luck here. She busted her butt, so much so that I have told her to ease off a little so she doesn't burn herself out. She sent me a text with a pic of her last pay stub...$99,408.99 (dated 12/8/17) and still one more pay to go. That particular check was $7484.18. Obviously I can't post a pic of it here and even if I did well I could probably have got the image from the internet. But believe what you will.
 
Wow....That was a read....Think I need a cocktail.

My only hope, is that whoever buys the company, regardless of market trends, does not sacrifice the Sea Ray brand/quality to make cheaper/chinsey boats. I'm scared it will go like the Mariah brand, once a quality boat, sold off to Sea Fox, another company banks on the brand, and makes a crappier version, and now, dead and gone.

There has been a heck of a shift in AZ markets, new runabouts are not the cool thing to have. Its all tow boats (Wakeboard/Surf) and Pontoons.

The trends are making me realize one thing. It will drive the parts markets ever higher. Look at what has happened to autozone and O'reilly, they realized people are keeping their old stuff longer, and just fixing it. They are doing great (According to their stocks) but the new car sales markets and aren't that strong. I feel Brunswick is following this business trend. People aren't buying as many new boats due to price tags, but are doing a lot for repair/restoration. That means if you are the leading supplier of parts, you are going to have a lot of business.

Just my $.000001
 
Could be the beginning of the end for searay.
The money is in the bank before the keel is blocked.
Follow the stock mkt. the bucks are there. Not enough retired to buy for cash to support the operations of Searay.
Searay needs to stay in the boat business they are good at and be the best of any builder
 
Interesting, could be better, wonder if the Mercruiser bond with SeaRay will be broken. Not that I specifically dislike Mercruiser, but would nice to see some other options. I've been looking to replace my 185 and besides SeaRay I've been looking at Cobalt, you can order with either Mercruiser or Volvo. They also just were bought by Malibu Boats and I hear so far it's been nothing but good things for Cobalt. I guess time will tell.

We have a 2015 Cobalt R5. You won't be disappointed. Great boats!
 
We have a 2015 Cobalt R5. You won't be disappointed. Great boats!

Yes, looking for a used R5 or a 242. Marina I am at sells them and the more I see the more I like. Not impressed by the newer stying of SeaRays.
 
Yes, looking for a used R5 or a 242. Marina I am at sells them and the more I see the more I like. Not impressed by the newer stying of SeaRays.


Interesting. We are the opposite. We just this fall picked up a new SPX SeaRay, having been unimpressed with the Cobalt and Crownline offerings.
 
Yes, looking for a used R5 or a 242. Marina I am at sells them and the more I see the more I like. Not impressed by the newer stying of SeaRays.

Well, everybody's needs and tastes are different, but for a day-boat/runabout, Cobalt is easily our favorite.
 

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Interesting. We are the opposite. We just this fall picked up a new SPX SeaRay, having been unimpressed with the Cobalt and Crownline offerings.
SPX is a price point boat, Cobalt's are definitely not. If it meets your budget, does what you need, that is what really matters.
 
I don't think much of this really surprises me. Keeping a boat is a major expense and I don't think Sea Ray has done very much to improve on this.

But part of me isn't sure how they could have, really. Cruisers are a mishmash of parts from dozens of vendors. No boat builder actually makes toilets or generators or bilge pumps or air conditioners, etc. I think it's in the nature of the product to be fairly complex and a design challenge to make work, let alone make work with easy maintenance and repair.

I suspect Sea Ray could use this as a chance to reboot the product line both for market demand and to make their own products like cruisers more affordable. Breaking away from Mercury will be a good thing because they could totally reboot their propulsion with other engines. I'd like to see a Sundancer with jet drives and I don't see why they couldn't partner with Hamilton. Hickley has made it work and I think water jets reduce maintenance and damage risk and couple easily to joystick control systems.

They could also work a lot harder a designs that make maintenance easier.
 
Used to have a jet powered boat. Hardest boat to dock or handle in tight situations I have ever been on.

I put some fins on, helped a little bit. But when you killed the power, wind and/or current would spin you like a top. Oh, and on all I have seen there is no true neutral.
 
With a single, I find a jet much more maneuverable at minimal/no speed when set up with dual hand controls. It allows simultaneous operation of steering and bucket with higher rpm's. You can spin them on a dime and actually walk them sideways with some practice. Fuel economy and crap restricting the intake were the biggest downfall for me. Best for shallow water imo.
Will be interesting to see what happens with Sea Ray. They have a lot of fans and for good reason.
 
Maybe totally off track here - but thinking Sea Ray announced Jets in mid 20's boats 3-4 years ago. Partnership with a german company. Then they seemed to go away.
 
Used to have a jet powered boat. Hardest boat to dock or handle in tight situations I have ever been on.

I put some fins on, helped a little bit. But when you killed the power, wind and/or current would spin you like a top. Oh, and on all I have seen there is no true neutral.

I had one too and agree that low speed maneuvering could be a challenge. That being said, Hinckley has done a great job with jet maneuverability with their jetstick control system.

I think larger jets (other than Yamaha or other runabout types) usually have a gearbox of some kind which can enable a true neutral that disengages the impeller. I'm not sure if they include a reversing gear or not, although I can see where it would be helpful to blow out obstructions on the intake. That was my only gripe late in the season when weed growth got high, although I think a weed cutter on the impeller shaft might have helped.
 

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