I was looking at prices this summer and the more I looked the more my 1986 Skeeter 18' looks good. One day I like to get a 20' but its going to have to a real good deal at the right price.

You may get lucky and have enough left for some gas to put in it! Just once though.

For me a bassboat is nothing but a mobile fishing platform. Convenience, storage space, stability, and mobility are the main things that I�m concerned with. More, and more I�ve come to believe that the best fishing platform for my needs is something like the Pond King. The only down side to this vessel is that it lacks the storage space that I insist on. If I could get one and have a 8'2" rod locker installed on one side, and additional storage, and a live well (at least 40" long) then the Pond King would fill the bill for me.

Now this is WHAT I�m talking about:


I can�t see the bassboat market continuing to go the way it�s been going for the past 50 years. Back in the day when I was a boy, a bassboat was a Super Skeeter with an 18 or 20 horse motor on the back, a skull paddle, and maybe a green box fish finder. Ever couple of years the boats would get bigger, either longer, or wider, or both, and the outboards would get more ponies. Of course very much of what has driven the bassboat market since at least the mid-70s has been �big time� tournament fishing, but this too is facing a ceiling.

My best guess is that the market may turn to something along the line of the Blue Wave Multi-Species 57 with a max horsepower rating of 150. I suspect that for many, many bass anglers that this would be as much boat as we�d ever reasonably need.




Oh well that�s my two cents....
TFP

Well the way i see it is if your willing to pay that much for a boat then you must be making a career decision. I mean you better be goin pro in order to account for the cost. For the most part guys on here cant afford this and second are not good enough to go pro. Guys talk about ten years from now. The way its goin these boats will be $100,000. Come on now for a hobby that is way to much. They have to raise the price to offset the low sales. Duh maybe its do to the prices. My .02

Even crazier than the price of a new boat is how some folks can/will buy a new one every two years or so. Now I'm not calling any of you guys out, because its your business what choices you make with your money. How do these guys do it, finance it for 15 years? I sure would like to upgrade to a bigger boat, but like most of you guys am going to keep my search limited to a well cared for boat that may be 7 yrs old or maybe more. My 1992 17ft paid for stratos sure is easy on the pocket book.

I can have my '02 Ranger fully restored for less then half of what a new one would cost me.Just the boat not including the motor.

I plan on keeping it for a long time.

Now if I hit the lotto it would be a different story.

Some people just have "stupid money" and can spend it as they please. Then there are others that just finances every last penny and live in debt up to their ears. I work in the finance world and see credit everyday. Just the other day I saw a single mother that made 60K a year and she had a 1st mtg for 267K and a 2nd mtg for 62K, plus she had your normal credit card and car debt too. I seriously don't know how those people live day to day.

As for the boat prices, I've made this statement before. Those 45K and higher bass boats are just plain not worth the price, not any where close to it. If you go purchase a brand new corvette coupe and break that puppy down to parts and do the same with a bass boat at that price you would laugh at the difference.

More power to you if you can buy one brand new..heck if I had stupid money then I would too but since I don't I guess I will post this topic and go fishing in my little 17 foot 8 inch 2006 Skeeter that I got for a steal!

I can understand why people with memo programs and other sponsorship programs buy new boats, but dealers realize that fewer boats are being purchased, that's why the boats are being made cheaper and cheaper, but yet for the same price due to inflation.
New boats are ridiculously priced, but until they start hurting (boat companies) the prices will stay high and until the economy recovers, we are doomed with high prices for boats.

You are experiencing the same thing I did back in 2004. The last new boat I bought was a Ranger 373V Bassmaster Classic back in 1987. I paid $18250 for it brand new, and for comparison, I paid $62500 for my first brand new house back in 1983. In 2004 my beloved 373V burned up in a boat shed fire. No way was I going to pay 35K for a new boat. By the time I was willing to pay $35K for a new boat, they were up to $45K.

That said, I do not ever see a new boat in my future. I bought a clean, 2 year old used Basscat Pantera IV back in 09 and got it for about 15K less than in cost new 2 years before. I expect that boat companies are going to get into the leasing business before long, only because hardly anyone can afford new boats these days, and the demand for good clean used boats is going to skyrocket.

Don't forget the main reason boats that expensive can be sold to people is the 10-12 year payment schedules that kill you on interest but make payment manageable enough month-to-month.

Even a $70,000 boat is roughly $600 a month over 10 years.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine $600 a month for 10 years for a boat. By the time you get it paid off, you've just finished paying $70,000 for a boat that's now worth $15,000. You'd be upside down for at least 3-4 years I'd think?

You didn't pay $70,000 for a boat that is worth $15,000 because you forgot to calculate the interest that you would pay if you financed the boat. Lets say you financed the $70,000 boat for 10 years at 8% which I think is modest in the boat world right now...here are the numbers:

Monthly payment: $849.29
Total Interest paid: $31,915.18
Total paid over life of note: $101,915.18

Resale at $15 to $20k.....that is a huge hit financially. that is why I also bought used (2000 ranger). It is paid for and I am very happy. Plus I have a lot of $$$ in my back pocket for anything I want.

Yeah great point bassmaster150. I thought $600 a month for 10 years for a $70k note sounded low. After running the quick numbers, that's only $72k. There's no way a bank takes that risk for $2k. It's probably much closer to what you said.

Same reason I bought my $5k 17-footer. There's no room in my budget for an extra $100k. That being said, all those 3-6 year old boats for half of retail are still fairly good deals if you keep the boat long-term.

Good luck if the prices continue rising. I figured it up last night, I paid 41K for my Ranger 520 new in 2002 the same boat now is 74K that is about a 45% increase (5.56% per year) in 8 years!If they keep going up at the same rate in 10 years the same boat will be 113K! So in 11 years you might have enough to buy it and cover taxes!

Heck i'm debt free and want a new boat. I can go pay cash for a 60-70 thousand dollar rig, just not willing to fork it over. Mine still fishes well and I'm going to fish it into the ground. Wish they would put one together without all the bells and whistles that run up the price.

Unlike most I'm not interested in a 75+ mph boat(65-67 maybe). Want a nice one that keeps me safe in rough water, gets me where I want to go in a reasonable time frame, and priced to keep my wife off my back.