New Bill Yeargin Interview

[SNMike]

I assure you, while not as simple as tying your shoe, adding an old boat to the line is a lot simplier than CC would like you to believe. (unless the factory is at full capacity on their production schedules right now, and I am fairly certain they are not) This is more marketing driven than anything; they dont want a low cost "old design" boat to be associated with their current big-bucks lineup.

The orders they have now will take them until the end of March to deliver.

Regards!
Mike

[CradGen2]

Thanks Jeff, but interesting interview. I have to many comments to respond.

I agree with the comment about building the best ski boat on the market, but I think there will be a time when price vs. quality will become a factor. This is especially true with the warranty policy. I believe there are other ski boat manf. with longer warranty periods with boats costing less.

I guess we are buying the BENZ of boats, but as the BMW, Lexus and lets just say Nissan catch up, who knows. Chattwake is moving on to another (never thought I would hear that). Now I’m not a WBder, but I have friends that do big tricks on their 210, but do the same tricks on other boats just as well. They like their Nautique wake better, but I chalk that up to being the home wake.

I have zero doubt the Ski 200 is the best in class. Other then I just like my 210 look, style and quality, I have ridden in other wakeboard boats that are also very nice. Put a PCM in some of those other boats and well?????

I hope that some of the improvements include cost out opportunities. I don't mean building less of a boat, but could include supplier contract re-negotiations. 60K for a closed bow 200, seems a bit high. I remember in 2000 you could get a CB 196 in the low 40K range on a trailer.

All and all good interview, thanks Bill.

[MattieK27]

The orders they have now will take them until the end of March to deliver.

Regards!
Mike

Mostly promo boats?

[SNMike]

Mostly promo boats?

No sir!! Customer orders I'm happy to say.

[G-man]

I met Bill this weekend at an event at Buxton Marine. One of the questions I asked was if the Sea World Reunions would be coming back. They won't be happening on a corporate sponsorship level. Sad that this didn't make it into the 4 year plan. Now if boat sales returns to previous levels the reunion could come back. He is an easy person to meet and talk to.

[Chattwake]

Chattwake is moving on to another (never thought I would hear that). Now I’m not a WBder, but I have friends that do big tricks on their 210, but do the same tricks on other boats just as well. They like their Nautique wake better, but I chalk that up to being the home wake.

Haha my ears were burning. To be clear, there were several reasons why I switched to Axis, but the main one was money.
While I was getting a boat at cost every year, I was buying the boats myself with my money and having to take out a large loan every season. At the end of each year, I had to sell the boat and get enough to buy a new one. The 230's just kept getting more and more expensive and I wasn't comfortable having borrow more and more. There is just too much risk in having to try to sell an 80-90+ thousand dollar used boat every year. The price increases just got to be too much. To put it in perspective, I bought my '08 230 and sold it in the low 60's. I sold my '10 in the 80's to basically recoup the same equity.

I will always love the 230, and there are obviously options that it has the an A22 doesn't. However, I was able to get an A22 with every option available, z5, tricked out trailer, custom gel coat, big motor, etc. for approximately 40% less than my cost on a 230 would have been. Frankly, I don't think an A22 is 40% less boat. In the grand scheme of things, I look at an A22 as the equivalent of a pre '07 SANTE - not in terms of size, but in terms of necessary options and creature comforts. The older 210, like the pre-picklefork XStar, came with basically everything you needed to wakeboard and surf (cruise, ballast, tower, good motor, good hull) and was priced accordingly. I just think that for those of us who are focused on actually wakeboarding, we don't need alot of the frills that have driven the price up on various manufacturers' boats over the past two or three years.

I wish nautique the absolute best and I think that they make an amazing boat. I had no major problems with any of my 230's and I was always able to sell them and get my money back. However, CC just priced themselves out of my budget in light of the other options the market now has to offer in terms of boats that make a great wake. Lets face it, five years ago, one of the main reasons why wakeboarders bought a nautique was because the 210 made such a great wake and there weren't many other boats on the market that could also produce a similar caliber wake. That's just not the case anymore.

[swc5150]

It'll be interesting to see how many would-be 200 buyers are picked off by Centurion's Pro Carbon too. We all know tournament boats have been priced as high-ticket items, but at some point, the top of bell curve will be hit. Since I've been aware of ski boats, it's seems the price increase annually was normally around 3% (give or take). That has definitely changed in the last decade.

[ClemsonDave]

There was a larger than normal increase from '09 to '10 due to the 200. While I do think it is very expensive, I can see where the additional costs are. From '10 to '11, there was less than a 4% increase. Having said all that, I do think there is room for an entry level tournament boat.

[swc5150]

Price increases seem to have hit the wakeboard market much worse than we ski guys, although the boats are much larger and more advanced than the early versions. If one is patient and works with their dealership, the price of a new 200 doesn't sting quite as bad as it originally appeared. A base model should set you back roughly what a deck out LE 196 would've. An OB Limited is priced higher, but it's not really comparing apples to apples with a 196.