April Sailboat Sales Up
April is looking pretty good for sailboat brokers according to Yachtworld.com. Yesterday I took a look at boating stats in general. Today, I want to review brokerage sailboat sales for the month of April where once again the market looked good yea...
April is looking pretty good for sailboat brokers according to Yachtworld.com.
Yesterday I took a look at boating stats in general. Today, I want to review brokerage sailboat sales for the month of April where once again the market looked good year over year.
US brokerage reports showed an increase in unit sales from 425 boats in April 2009 to 547 boats in April 2010. That number is very close to the high in June 2009 of 550 boats so maybe this will be a good summer for US brokers. Valuation of all sailboat sales in April increased by 34 percent from $27 million to $37 million.
Boats in the 26- to 35-foot category were up 24 percent with 282 boats sold. The 36- to 45-foot category did the best - up 57 percent with 187 boats sold. Year to date, the 36- to 45-foot size has had the greatest percentage increase, with 630 boats sold, a gain of 36 percent. Overall valuation has increased even more. In the 36- to 45-foot size, total sales are up 72 percent, from $11 million to $19 million.
One counter trend was in the category of boats over 45 feet which slowed down to a volume of $5 million in 2010 as compared to $8 million in 2009. But as I remember, that category did very well the previous month so it might be a question of available inventory because year to date, sales have increased among boats this size from 92 boats in ’09 to 118 in ’10. Valuations are also higher, up from $23 million to $31 million.
2010 sales volume overall has been consistently above 2009 levels and not far behind 2008. As Yachtworld puts it, “If brokers can sell 600-plus boats during the summer, they’ll be at 2008 levels, although still well below 2007, when 700 to 800 boats were sold during each summer month.”
