6 ball bearing bait casters are cheap. They used to be 250 bucks, now you can get them for a 100 easy. Covers and props have moved in price in 10 years. Neither have battery chargers. There have always been high dollar rods and high dollar baits. The only three things that have gone up tremendously are oil, trolling motors and boats. Oil I think we can understand why, or least expect, trolling motors have made tremendous improvements in 10 years so I guess I can kinda see it. But 60K or more for a boat? Hardly. What's the excuse there other than a whole bunch of stupid people that paid this rediculous money. I bought my first and last new boat in 00 for 31K. I could live with that. That same boat the year before was 27 to 28K. The next year it was 33k, then 35k the year after. That is flat rediculous.

Now here is a guy thinking with his dipstick. When the new CAFE standards take effect, with California standards non-the-less (whose fuel prices are the highest in the lower 48), it's going to be awfully tough to pull that 21 ft. 250 hp boat out of the water with a Prius or a 150 hp Ford Fusion. You'll have better luck pushing the whole rig out of the water with the boat motor.

You might as well suck it up and get a new pickup while the dealerships that are being forced out of business are trying to get rid of their stock, even though you know the government is going to stick it to you down the road for owning a gas guzzler. You know they are going to have to tax the heck out of you anyway, might as well get a new truck out of it.

I must admit I am intrigued by the idea of a solar/battery powered bass boat, which you know has to be next on the agenda. It should have one heck of a hole shot and the fish will never hear you coming. I just haven't figured out how you are going to tell which one, if just one of the batteries goes bad. Do you disconnect them all and check them independently or do you just replace them all as a unit? That's going to have to be a LOT of batteries and a potentially huge explosion. They would probably have to figure out a way to capture that hydrogen gas. HEY, a hybrid bass boat!

Who knows where we will be 10 years from now. There may be a lot of companies in Genmar's shoes.

Ranger sold 69 boats last month in the Texas/Louisiana region. That was 5 more than they sold in May of 2008.

Ranger will be fine.

Excellent post. This is the reason I never took up golf. I can't afford two expensive hobbies.

Be interesting to see who is next.... Now that Genmar has fired the 1st shot I think a few more will follow suit, it is a quick way to eliminate some of the debt and if it works they will emerge a lot stronger of a company.

I used to buy a new boat every year, they were always Rangers, in 02 I think it was $32k, in 04 it was $44k and in 05 it was $52k, I switched boat brands due to some issues and bought my 07 for less than my 04. I now plan to drive it for 3-5 more years and see what happens.

Yer not telling me anything I don't already know. I ran Rangers for 22 years and two months ago I bought my Cat, and I'm lovin it.

As far as who's next to go belly up, I really think its the pleasure boats that brought genmar down, so I would expect that it is either someone who has pleasure boat lines, or a motor manufacturer who owns boat lines.

How heavy would that thing be? You'd have to have something serious just to pull it around, nevermind a ramp.

Regardless, I'm not too wild about high voltage/water together, anyway...just saying.

solar/battery powered?? those batteries would wiegh a ton

Bankrupcy seems to be the way of the world.....file a few papers, quit paying debts (lawsuits too), and start fresh....man these companies got the life of luxury.

They can just run trail and error until they get the prices right I guess!?

At first I felt bad for all the people without jobs who loose out when companies go bankrupt, but most other people who fall upon hard times must work it out themselves...pay off debts and move on. Companies now days have too easy of a way out.

I wish I could go spend a few million in debt and file brankrupcy and start all over again...fresh and free from debt.

Sorry for my early morning rant....I'm just tired of bailouts!

I think your right here. I'm sure 90% of us can name every bass boat manufacturer out there. There is no way even looking we could name all the pleasure boat brands and this includes pontoons. The market is saturated with overpriced, worthless boats. Boat dealerships sell way more of these than they do bass boats. And I understand there is a ton of cost involved with building a performance bass boat. But there is no way they should cost 60k.

Maybe you wouldn't need as many batteries. If you are running it of solar that deck space could hold alot of solar panels. Of course you couldn't go fishing when it's raining or at night, haha.

Genmar has 12 boat lines, of which 3, Champion, Ranger, and Stratos are bass boats, and Triumph is a fishing boat. I wonder how many of the 12 are actually making money?

Approx 30% of the cost of a new rig is the outboard engine alone.

When will the price of those $15,000-$20,000 engines come down...oh, and have you priced any of the new big (225-300hp) 4-strokes, Verado, Honda, and Yamahas!!???

Like I mentioned earlier, it will be fun to re-start this thread again in three or four years when we'll all be ranting over the 2012 Ranger 22'er with a 275hp 4-stroke coming in at $74,500!!!