Atlantic City Boat Snow

[Sea Ray Mark]

This really sucks! The one thing I look forward to that gets me through the winter and we have two feet of snow falling.:smt013 I hope I can get there on Sunday. Anyone been there for a report??:smt089:smt100 Mark

 

[gerryb]

Was there last night. Hardly anyone there. Lots of very sad sales people. Marinemax had sold FOUR boats as of closing last night! They expected no one to be there this weekend either so it will go down as one of the worst events ever for them. Sales guys from most of the models all went over to Angelos for dinner afterwards and seemed to be drinking a bit more than usual....MM did cut back on the number and size of the boats there. The largest size boat was a 330. That was different from the last 5 years where they always had at least one sedan bridge and sometimes eight! Formula Regal and Chaparral had a total of 4 boats over 40'.

One other observation. The deals on the new boats were indeed better than in years past. They were offering up to 30% discounts. Never saw them get that aggressive in years past but the problem of course is that the price of used boats is still too much of a value for most boaters to compel them to buy new. The year one depreciation hit is MASSIVE...

 

[Sea Ray Mark]

Gerry, that's what I thought. I know the timing of this storm is bad for me but I really feel bad for all of the venders and sales people that really need something positive to help them get through the tough times. It's really tough being kicked when you're down. Mother nature can be cruel. Mark

 

[Mr Salt]

I went to the show this afternoon. Like most shows it was way down in size. People were doing deals as they expect the show to be closed on Saturday. I can remember the year there was a 540 Cockpit Motor Yacht in the convention hall not this year nothing big. No one had anything big there. There were not mnany people but I wrote that off to a Friday afternoon.

 

[Alex F]

Were there enough new 2010 models or was there display of the same boats we've seen in September 09?

 

[comsnark]

One other observation. The deals on the new boats were indeed better than in years past. They were offering up to 30% discounts. Never saw them get that aggressive in years past but the problem of course is that the price of used boats is still too much of a value for most boaters to compel them to buy new. The year one depreciation hit is MASSIVE...

Is that 30% off of MSRP?

Or is that 30% off of the normal 30%-discout-from-MSRP?

I am toying with heading that way today (saturday). Maybe I am under false illusions what conditions are like down there


Edit: Never mind. Just checked. It is indeed closed today.

 

[douglee25]

I bought tickets in advance for the show.

I woke up on Saturday at 7AM to find about 15 - 18 inches on snow on the ground. I spent 2 hours digging out my house along with 6 neighbors.

I run inside to change and race to the train station to catch the train to AC. I double checked the website and the show was still on.

I'm on the train and I'm half way to AC when I decide to pull up the website again on my phone.

They cancelled it! Mother $^*(&*er!!! I don't think I can even go to the show on Sunday because I'm already tied up.

Damn!

Doug

 

[giff1]

I went to the show Thursday to beat the snow. Disappointed and sad. The show was only half the size as past years. Many big name manufacturers are gone,out of business. The big boats will never be back at the show agian because they would come by water. AC has closed the docks and the lift has been sold. I guess the AC show will never be the same agian.

 

[rondds]

That's odd - the sales guys at the Javits show said the AC show is usually better - there were a suprisingly large number of > 30' SRs at Javits, all from Surfside 3 on Long Island. I guess they can do one or the other but not both.

Angelos! Great place for eats and Zagat Rated.

 

[autovette]

Does Angelo's have Ziti?

 

[Alegria]

Yes and braciole.... Unbelievable! Just like Grandma used to make.. Was down there for a boys weekend at the casino's and it was delicious!!!

 

[rondds]

Hey Autovette - if you want to know where the F'in ziti is, get over to Angelos.

 

[autovette]

Do I get the t-shirt ?

 

[Alex F]

We went to the show today…… wow …….the worst we’ve ever seen. It looked like a show of smaller fishing boats, jetskies, lots of bowriders and only few pleasure cruisers. Regal and Chaparral had one 45’er each. SR had 350DA as the largest boat. They told me that AC sold the lift and they couldn’t bring bigger boats. I later thought that this got to be a BS story they came up with. How would Chap and Regal bring those 40’-45’ boats, if they had to use the same lift? There were also few sailboats, btw this was the first time we’ve seen them at AC boatshows. Beneteau/ Jeanneau had a display of nice 35-45’ers. 45 was the largest sailboat I’ve ever seen. Looked very nice and quality made at $370K asking show price.

I guess, I wasn’t paying close attention how SR is playing the game of numbering their new models, but this “new scheme” is very strange. The 350DA is my 320DA with new bells and whistles, 2009 43DA the sexy model that was on the cover of magazines is now 470DA for 2010. What’s the story here guys?

The show got boring pretty fast for my crew. It was useless even with intend of searching some products like fridge (I was looking to find a good bargain on cockpit fridge installation). We found only one vender and the lady had no clue about the products.

The biggest puzzle that we were discussing with my wife is how the hell they’re looking to sell anything if they got nothing to show? When we went to in-water show in September we saw a boat we could see ourselves owning at some point and were excited to discuss it for some time. Not to mention the fact that we really liked new 43DA (now 470DA). After this show, we could only discuss how much roomier our 320 feels compare to new 350 and how we liked the 45’ Beneteau. Are we supposed to be happy and thankful that SR was even there? B/c it looked like majority of other known brands weren’t present at all. BTW, the MM was from Summerset, there was nothing from Brick location, as I recall.

 

[Sea Ray Mark]

The show was pretty sad on Sunday. The best part was getting my new owners club hat (oh boy). If Sea Ray keeps going in the same direction they won't need a travel lift to get their big boats to the show they'll just slap a 450 sticker on the 350 (that used to be the 330, that's the same size as the 320).

 

[comsnark]

Well. . .don't forget that along with the rebadging comes the change in price.

The "discounts" offered by MM didn't strike me as being impressive. In fact, the Formula's seemed to be offering similar pricing. My takeaway after looking at the various boats was that both Chapperal (sp?) and Formula have some pretty impressive offerings.

I also was quite surprised to see the blowboats. Those Benetaus are sure georgeous boats! I can't fathom, however, how much business they can generate by bringing premium sailboats to a powerboat show that emphasizes runabouts and jetskis.