Sea Ray put up for sale by Brunswick

In that article, Brunswick mentions sport boats, cruisers, sport yachts, and yachts. What are examples of each of those?

("Yachts" obviously not in the British "anything with sails" sense of the word...)

-Chris

So now all that's left is 19-40' runabouts and small cruisers and no exports. The timing of this with the tariff was not coincidental. Sea Ray with suddenly 20% less business was worthless and it's survival questionable. Perhaps after Brunswick takes a huge charge this year, it survives as a very small boat builder for Marine Max.

All boats without cabins, 19-29' primarily are sport boats.

Sundancers 26-35' are Cruisers.

All Sundancers 40' and larger are considered Sport Yachts.

The L-Class boats are Yachts.

Those are Sea Ray's definitions.

As a small aside, this is the closest they have come to declaring they will no longer be building Meridians. They ceased production on their two remaining models a couple of years ago but never formally announced it.

They only wish their sales were even close to those two brands though.

Didn't happen overnight. Was under consideration. However, the immediacy of the decision may have been precipitated by the tariffs as it closed other doors.

Picture this. You're talking to them, negotiating. Suddenly, an event takes place reducing their business significantly. All the negotiations to that point are useless, you're starting over. Any possible leads they had died. Also, the tariffs impact the larger boats disproportionately as a larger percentage of them were exports.

So, as Brunswick, you have Plan B all along. Some hope of Plan A. This eliminated any hope of Plan A materializing.

Do you believe Beneteau would have purchased Glastron and Four Winns for the same price they were paying if suddenly this had taken place in the middle of the talks?

For those curious, here's the list of products in this round of tariffs. More expected soon. A lot of people being hurt badly and boat builders are among them.

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2018/may/tradoc_156909.pdf

I don't believe this. Searay made sedan bridges all through the late 2000s.....and they were very good boats.....the 52' and the 58'. Problem is, with the new L series they stepped too far out of their core...….very dark cave like interiors.....too much crap going on.....poor performance and plenty of quality and warranty issues.

The Muricans can never manage to compete with the likes of Azimut, Ferretti, Sunseeker, and Princess for a modern motor yacht.

1. Because the Muricans always want a quick buck ASAP to there investment.
2. Boat business and stock market never work well. It is a difficult market and stock investors are not patient. Sea Ray is part of Brunswick and is in the stock market.
3. Integrated practical design which has been the theme introduced by the Italians from the 80s has never work well with the Americans.

The Sea Ray L-series was an ok design but it did came on the market twenty years late. I mean even an Azimut 55 looks more modern from the outside to L 550.

The sale started months ago. The cancellation of the sale plan just happened and the tariff talks didn't just start today. We're already receiving insight into possible July tariffs.

Riviera and Maritimo deserve a separate analysis versus the Euro makers and what Sea Ray has done in the last seven eight years.
They did not go head to head against Europeans, and build a yacht on a sportfishing platform design with an enclosed bridge.
They also added more blue water cruising capabilities thanks to bigger fuel tanks and a bit smaller engines to a similar size Euro craft.
Riviera started Euro influencing the interiors at around 2005. Maritimo followed suit.
I am not sure how Riviera and Maritimo sell in the USA, but here in Europe the few they sell are for customers who want a sportfish look but are not really into the sport and do not want to pay the Viking and Hatteras premiums which comes from a wider beam and bigger engines length to length.

Sea Ray could have won the game but they needed to do the Beneteau Group and hire a European (Italian) designer to do the entire L-line from top to bottom.
But that would have meant reducing profits.....

What is it that the European and Australian brands are doing to call it a "modern Flybridge/Pilothouse configuration? What's better?

Out of my league, but even for a "lottery boat" I can't say I'd ever buy a boat that looks like a Fairline, Princess, Sunseeker, Sealine, Azimut, Ferretti, nor likely a newer Riviera or Maritimo.

What is "integrated practical design" in this context? What makes models those brands a "modern motor yacht" -- assuming you don't jut mean new model engines and systems and so forth?

From reading, it seems like Azimut has poisoned the well for Italian boats in the U.S... but that mostly seems to be about build quality, fit and finish, ease of replacement parts, etc... again, not from any first-hand experience on my part.

-Chris

Riviera and Maritimo sold very few yachts here compared to everyone else. They're a postage stamp in U.S. yacht sales and Riviera went out of business due to lack of sales and had to be restructured.

What you're saying at MarineMax pushing the Euro lines over Searay isn't true. MarineMax has a vested interest in pushing Brunswick products considering Brunswick kept MarineMax out of bankruptcy in 2009 by investing $190 Million in cash in them.

Searay simply really missed the mark on the L series.....but they have sold a lot more than everyone believes.....I've run at least 9 different 59' L's myself!!!!!!!!!! They really missed the mark mainly on the interiors.....they're like a cave. Americans don't want a DARK interior that you can't see anything in...…..the euro boats use dark woodwork as of late but then very light fabrics and floor to ceiling windows that let a ton of natural light in. Quality issues are another big issue, and the length of time of warranty repairs (marinemax is mostly to blame for this end of it) that has limited sales. Lackluster performance is another reason. Another large yacht manufacturer in the Brunswick line walked away from Marinemax for this reason. There is one participant in this very thread who would have bought a brand new 65' L, if it weren't for the quality issues and warranty repair issues.