FLIBS Yacht Sales?

I haven't heard of any larger sales or build contracts yet. Rich Lazzara reported sales of 4 vessels I believe. 3 x 78 LSX Fly's, and one LMC 76.

Again, with the smaller boats, but I heard of 12 sales at Azimut for the show.

I don't know of any BIG boats selling at the show. A good friend who's a broker at IYC said they sold 3 boats. Don't know the size or make.

On the last day of the show, I spoke with Eric Cashion, the marketing director at Hatteras. He said that Hatteras may have received upwards of 10 orders from the show. He also said they were joining YF in 2010 because they sold more boats than expected during their 2009 Summer Sales Event, in which YF was used to advertise the same.

The last numbers I heard from the Lazzara camp was on the last day of the show, with a possible 6 orders. No telling how many fell-thru at this point. Lazzara could have sold two more LSX’s to members of YF in recent months, but both buyers have since gone in different directions due to an 'oversight' by Lazzara’s accounting department. BTW… a total of 4 LSX’s were sold to YF members upon our feature debut of the boat back in 2006.

I heard Azimut sold a few boats, but can't confirm. In 7 years of publishing YF, I've had more contact with deceased relatives than anyone at Azimut.

I'm pretty sure Westport had sales. They always do. I placed a call to verify the numbers before the T-Day holiday, but have not heard back yet.

Any word on how Trinity did at the show?

As a follow up, I received confirmation that Westport had sales in the 26-meter and 40-meter range. I think this is an interesting indication of the brand and it's success. Westport, like many other builders, flourished in yachting's run-up years, but they are bridging the economy because a good product and value never falls out of favor.

What does that have to do with Westport? I've run a 112 and a 130 and am having difficulty with good product and value part. If you meant cheap and comfortable at the dock, that I can understand.

Henning, it seems there’s nothing you haven’t done or run. So let me ask you… have you been to Westport’s facility and seen their manufacturing processes? Are you even vaguely familiar with the engineering processes behind their builds? I am.

I’m a bit more familiar with Westport’s than most. My brother is in the market for a 112’ and I’ve joined him on several sea trials. They were not new boats and this is important. I would rather judge a build 5-10 years after delivery. How a boat holds up over time is more important to me than initial launch.

During our search, we’ve had the chance to speak with a good number of Westport owners and there was a common denominator among them. Often, they were people that had previously owned other yachts and learned a few things along the way. They were looking for a balance of name, design, layout, engineering, resale value, builder support and the expertise that comes from building the same boat, repeatedly. Quite simply, they were looking for a good product and a good value.

While I don’t have exact figures, I believe Westport has sold more yachts over 100 feet than any other builder in North America with about 140 yachts delivered. I think that speaks volumes. Can all these people be wrong?

Ask anyone who is even slightly familiar with Westport and you'll always hear two things: Quality and Customer Service. Both of which speak volumes.

And you are correct Carl, in the Westport is the largest builder by volume of boats delivered in the 40M+ range. I don't know where the reference is to it, but I know it's out there.

Carl,

I have been to the Westport facility and it is impressive. The place is clean and very well organized. It is impressive to see production boats of this size at various stages in the build. I think what was really interesting was standing on the hull of the 130' just coming out of the mold and seeing how big the boat really is.
So I guess the question goes back to Henning. Did you mean Westport or Westship?

Read an article this morning with Westport reporting 4 sales at the show, one 26m, two 34m and one 40m. This being in addition to six other hulls sold this year.

Nope, I've just been there out on the water and in the shipyards for repairs.

Bayliner sells a heck of a lot of boats as well, and there's a relationship. When your price point is half of that of the top market boats of the same size, you get those results. Most people in the market for a white boat are more concerned with the fluff than the quality of the underpinnings. If you figure in a keystone mark up in the industry, in order for them to be of the same quality at the top end boats means they would be making them in a non profit fashion. They can spread out the development and tooling costs over multiple hulls, but that only would account for maybe 10% in economic efficiency until you get into large production numbers. If I wanted a lot of size for my money, a Westport would be on my list. If I was looking for the highest quality it wouldn't. The quality I have seen is mediocre, not great, but not horrible either. I will admit that it's better than a Kingship.

No disrespect Henning, I read in the forum that you're well rounded and have years and years on the water, however;
A) You're going to need to do a little better than "bayliner" to win this debate, albeit Bayliner to Westport is an Apples to Oranges comparison.
ii) You really aught do yourself the pleasure of visiting Westport's facility.
3) I'd highly recommend you step foot on their new 40 meter and pick it apart from a design, quality, and functional standpoint. If you'd like a meeting with Daryl Wakefield, PM me.

I would say Westport builds a good boat for the money. I hear they pound in a headsea. But, they are not in the same quality as crescent or Feadship by any means, but neither are they a Broward

100% agreed.
the 112' is a little wet heading upwind in higher seas.
The 130 is better.
The 'new' 130 (circa 2009/10) is even better with about a foot of height added to the bow and a slight modification to the spray rail.

I never said there was a direct comparison to Bayliner, but there is a relationship in both pricepoint marketing, and production economics. Westport uses economical methods to put their boats together. This is not alltogether a bad thing. I'm not saying it's going to break or is unsafe, and I don't say that about a Bayliner either. But the fine detail is missing. The nice way to access system features embedded throughout the vessel. The finish of the structure you don't see. Sticking your hand way back in a concealed opening chasing a leak and cutting yourself on sharp fiberglass that wasn't worked smooth, stuff like that. The framework behind that nice veneered interior.... I think they are a value for what they are meant for, but to me they are not synonymous with high quality.

The 130 you can't lift full of fuel. I had to rent an oilfield mud tank (brand new from the manufacturer) and buy a pump at the junk store, 600' of hose and rig it (130 hull 1 had no provision in it's fuel distribution system to pump fuel off the boat) and pump fuel off all night to get down to like 2000 gallons Westport said I need to be down to to haul it. That took me 3 days to arrange. I mean, if a person has to offload fuel to do an emergency haul, there should be a cam locked provision both sides and a discharge point on the fuel manifold to feed it. It's this kind of attention to detail that in my opinion is the essential difference between high quality and mediocre.

Quality is not only about structure, it is also about attention to detail, and that takes time which is money, and that's why the competing boats are twice as ecpensive. And again, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Besides, lots and lots of mediocre boats are out there that the Westport is better than, and none of any of the ones I've been on regardless of maker have gotten it all right with no faults in design and workmanship. If you've been to Westport, hop around the corner to Delta and look around. I've never been there either, but I've been on their boats, including an old crabber that was turned into an OSV. I'll bet you see a whole different way of buildings boats than you do at Westport. Look at the details of the Delta. How the windlass is mounted. That's always a good first indicator of a boat's philosophical bent. Your anchor gear is often you last line of defense from a situation going from bad to s-t. Does it look like it will go above and beyond to get you out of a bind? (raises another issue of mine, why do yachts carry anchors designed to drag?) Also look at the plumbing and wiring.

I worked on a 160' Delta. It was very stable, very quiet and the woodwork looked great. But behind the scenes some of the stuff they did I was REALLY surprised to see on a megayacht. If you went in some of the designated storage spaces in the interior. I'd see the joinery shimmed with 4 different pieces of scraps from the build process. All different shapes and sizes of 4 totally different pieces screwed and glued together and then the joinery built on top of it. They went in the dumpster and got cut off scraps from the build process and used them to shim the interior.

As the present Captain of a 130, I think I might have something to add. Is my boat perfect, no, but what boat is? I think you can pick apart any boat out there, I have worked on and run boats from the US, Italy, and Holland. I will have to say my 130 is one of my favorites and more importantly the owners love it, and when the time comes they will buy another one!

In every boat there is a price point trade off, I could point to several things on my boat that were, but do to the way they build boats and mostly get it right, I think they have a great business model. When you figure a new 130 costs 19 mill. and they equivalent Feadship is closer to 30 mill., in todays economy the Westport product seems to make sense. Of all the builders in the US, I would say they are the most successful. They have built over 30 130's, too many to count 112's and the 50M is sold out for the next 3 years if you want one. (and these are not Spec. builds)

There are many Capt. out there that are boat snobs and talk bad about anything that's not a Northern European build, which is fine. On the other hand, the amount of Capt. that I have met that would love to be running a 130 are too numerous to count!

Cheers!!