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| Basin Shipyard |
By LEN BOSE
It’s time to take a cruise around town and report back to you regarding the local marine industry. Quite often after hello, people will ask me how the boat business is going.
I start out by stating that as a salesman, the market is always active and booming. If you would allow me to review, this is how I believe the market will change this year, as I have discussed my options with marine surveyors, insurance brokers, lenders and shipyard managers.
We all have seen the COVID boat buyers enter the market over the last two years, which had increased demand on the brokerage market, especially with a supply chain affecting the new boat market while grinding production to a halt. During my cruise today, it is good to see the new boat dealers able to fill an inventory lot and slips. At the same time, the phone started ringing with boat owners asking to list their boats. This cycle has held true with most boat owners – keeping their boats for two years then quite often leaving boating because they have changed how they use their time or realized the high cost of slips and maintenance. In other words, they have stopped using their boats. We should have a good feel for what the boating market is doing at the Newport Beach In-Water Boat Show this April 27-29 at Lido Marina Village. Again, I have to paint everything rosy, so let’s hope we see plenty of new and brokerage boats attending. Denison Yachting will have a large display, so please stop by and ask my managers, “Where is Len Bose?”
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| Fast Exit II |
The shipyards around town are busy as always. While walking through Newport Shipyard, I noticed two boats getting ready for the racing season. One of my favorite boats – the Far 57 Ho’okolohe owned by Alyson and Cecil Rossi – is in the paint tent and appears to be going through the whole boat. By now, John Raymont has to be the shipyard’s best friend. This Ker 51 Fast Exit has a new bow design and is one fast-looking machine. Fast Exit has one of my good friend’s Brad “Wheels” Wheeler signed on as navigator, so I will be pulling for Wheeler this season. Basin Shipyard is packed with boats, and if I was to guess, they are a couple of months out already. Don’t let that keep you from calling the owners Derek or Dave New. In fact, Dave referred me to Dave Estiri of Sea furniture (714.979.1454) who is helping me with a client’s exterior cockpit upholstery. To all my readers, Estiri is the man for any and all of your marine upholstery needs, so call Sea Furniture.
Continuing on my cruise, I noticed that the large charter boat fleet has been reduced to about a dozen boats, but that’s no real surprise. COVID had to have hit this industry the hardest. I also made a couple of calls around town with the word being that the lower bay dredging project will be going out to bid very soon, which keeps confidence high that the dredging will start within the next 90 days or sooner. Waterfront homeowners should mark their calendars soon to get in line to use the CAD to dispose of any unsuitable materials, should they be considering dredging their slips anytime soon. In roughly two years, the CAD will be available for one short period of time to dispose of these materials inexpensively. After that time, the CAD will be capped and not reopened.
On the sailing racing scene, we are sheeted in and maxing out with this Saturday’s RC Volvo 70 Mid-Winter, being sailed at Mason Lake in Irvine. This Sunday, the NHYC will be wrapping up its winter series, followed by next weekend’s NHYC Corkett Harbor 20 two-day regatta. That leads into our harbor’s Mid-Winters on February 25 and 26. Hold on, it looks like things are shaping up for another great season.
Sea ya.
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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
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