How Strong is the Market for DCB's? Horizon Motorsports IS ALL IN

work2ski · Aug 20, 2014

Thanks for the story Dave, Always interested in hearing how the market is doing.

Wanted to clarify something though. You said that DCB had only built 1 boat on spec at the beginning, then mentioned that North Coast Performance has been hugely successful with spec builds. Is this the first West Coast retailer to do it>

BTW, how many boats does DCB build a year?

DH

RiverDave · Aug 20, 2014

work2ski, DCB as a company has only ever built 1 stock boat for themselves to sell. As in a build without an order for a customer. North Coast Performance Marine is a dealer for DCB, but isn't part of DCB the company. So when they ordered their spec boats, to DCB it is another custom order for a customer. To NCPM it is a build with no customer. Now that Horizon has stepped up and done the same, it shows that the dealers have enough in the market to order the boats without a customer build, knowing they will be sold in short order.

DCB builds approximately 30 boats a year from what I understand, but DCB Rigger on here would be better suited to answer that.

work2ski · Aug 21, 2014

Thanks for clarifying Dave, Glad to hear the market is stong enough for dealers to be buying boats of this quality and price without a customer yet. Congrats to DCB for having the demand too.

BeerMaker · Aug 26, 2014

work2ski said:
Thanks for the story Dave, Always interested in hearing how the market is doing.

Wanted to clarify something though. You said that DCB had only built 1 boat on spec at the beginning, then mentioned that North Coast Performance has been hugely successful with spec builds. Is this the first West Coast retailer to do it>

BTW, how many boats does DCB build a year?

DH

I was thinking the same.

sirbob · Sep 2, 2014

Dave,

I have been thinking about this article for a few days and something that keeps coming back to me is the question of "are they really building a spec boat?"

Now before I say what I'm thinking, let me say that I don't think there is anything wrong with what I am about to suggest - In fact if I was a builder / dealer I would do the exact same thing....

What I'm getting at is if I take your headline as I think its intended, your suggesting that Horizon Motorsports is SO convinced the market is back / picking up / doing much better / etc. that the only motivation they would have to build this boat is that they could sell it and make money doing it. I know you did not say it that way, but it seems like that is what you are implying.

I wonder how much of this financial commitment to the market (building a spec boat) worths $100's of thousands is really a business owner building a nice boat that he can use as a demo for himself and his company until the time comes along that he can sell it to somebody else at a break even or small loss.

In other words, this looks more to me like a business owner using the tax code and business expense write offs that are available to a business owner to enjoy a boat that he might not actually have the cash to just go out and buy. (the reality is that the ownership might have enough $ to buy three of them or more - I don't know them, thats not the point)

Again, I don't think there is anything wrong with that (heck, look at the press he got from this one article alone) not to mention the people that will stop into the shop to see it and the "halo effect" that selling a boat like that will bring to his dealership... it would seem like he has a very legitimate case for spending the businesses money on something that has the added benefit of providing himself a great boat to enjoy until it sells.

I guess I'm just not quite as convinced that the market has come that far back that Horizon is stocking boats requiring this much cash (I get paying interest on flooring cost etc.)...

That said - good for them! I hope they sell it and make a nice profit and quickly order up another one (or two next time!) Its good for everybody that enjoys our boating lifestyle from the guys laying the glass to the folks at Cambells that are selling the gas to run it.

RiverDave · Sep 4, 2014

sirbob said:
Dave,

I have been thinking about this article for a few days and something that keeps coming back to me is the question of "are they really building a spec boat?"

Now before I say what I'm thinking, let me say that I don't think there is anything wrong with what I am about to suggest - In fact if I was a builder / dealer I would do the exact same thing....

What I'm getting at is if I take your headline as I think its intended, your suggesting that Horizon Motorsports is SO convinced the market is back / picking up / doing much better / etc. that the only motivation they would have to build this boat is that they could sell it and make money doing it. I know you did not say it that way, but it seems like that is what you are implying.

I wonder how much of this financial commitment to the market (building a spec boat) worths $100's of thousands is really a business owner building a nice boat that he can use as a demo for himself and his company until the time comes along that he can sell it to somebody else at a break even or small loss.

In other words, this looks more to me like a business owner using the tax code and business expense write offs that are available to a business owner to enjoy a boat that he might not actually have the cash to just go out and buy. (the reality is that the ownership might have enough $ to buy three of them or more - I don't know them, thats not the point)

Again, I don't think there is anything wrong with that (heck, look at the press he got from this one article alone) not to mention the people that will stop into the shop to see it and the "halo effect" that selling a boat like that will bring to his dealership... it would seem like he has a very legitimate case for spending the businesses money on something that has the added benefit of providing himself a great boat to enjoy until it sells.

I guess I'm just not quite as convinced that the market has come that far back that Horizon is stocking boats requiring this much cash (I get paying interest on flooring cost etc.)...

That said - good for them! I hope they sell it and make a nice profit and quickly order up another one (or two next time!) Its good for everybody that enjoys our boating lifestyle from the guys laying the glass to the folks at Cambells that are selling the gas to run it.

Sirbob, that is a good post (sorry didn't see it until right now)

Let me take the main question out of the post here

What I'm getting at is if I take your headline as I think its intended, your suggesting that Horizon Motorsports is SO convinced the market is back / picking up / doing much better / etc. that the only motivation they would have to build this boat is that they could sell it and make money doing it. I know you did not say it that way, but it seems like that is what you are implying.

That is exactly what I am saying.. Build the boat on Spec, NOT as a personal boat.. If you put much more then a few hours on them, then a few test drives for serious customers, and the values drop exponentially on these deals..

RD

sirbob · Sep 4, 2014

RiverDave said:
Sirbob, that is a good post (sorry didn't see it until right now)

Let me take the main question out of the post here

That is exactly what I am saying.. Build the boat on Spec, NOT as a personal boat.. If you put much more then a few hours on them, then a few test drives for serious customers, and the values drop exponentially on these deals..

RD

I guess i'm not that convinced the market has come that far back - although, i'm not a dealer that is fielding calls and don't really have the pulse of the market as well as they may have. I hope they sell a bunch of them!

Nice to see you getting back into your rhythm...:thumbup:

How Strong is the Market for DCB's? Horizon Motorsports IS ALL IN

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