Big Northeast marina chain going ‘clean’ — P. 16 Q&A: A boating lobbyist with 650,000 helpers — P. 40
November 2008
®
Price of a
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(last six months)
$131.41
$136.32
WWW.TRADEONLYTODAY.COM $5.00
$110.21
$111.83
5/02 6/27 7/18
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8/29 9/26 10/13
Will the ‘bailout’ have buoyancy?
Industry veterans eager for an end to downturn they call the worst ever
INSIDE
Boats vs. bucks
AP PHOTO/RICHARD DREW
Traders work under duress on the New York Stock Exchange floor this fall as
stocks tumbled again, amid another brutal week for investors. The turmoil in the
financial markets only added to the difficulties confronting the marine industry.
ANALYSIS
By Beth Rosenberg / Staff Writer
b.rosenberg@tradeonlytoday.com
It has been a tumultuous late summer
and fall in the both the marine industry
and the economy as a whole. Volatility
best describes a time when the largest
one-week drop in the history of the stock
market was followed on Oct. 13 by the
greatest single-day gain.
As we go to press in mid-October, a
great deal of uncertainly remains. But this
much is true: Many boating industry veterans say the current financial landscape is
perhaps the roughest they’ve experienced, and these are people who survived the gas crisis and proposed weekend boating ban during Jimmy Carter’s
presidency, the 1987 stock market crash
and the luxury tax of the 1990s.
“This is the worst that I’ve seen in my
career in terms of the overall economic
See Bailout, Page 42
Florida voters will decide Nov. 4
whether they prefer a traditional
working waterfront (boatyards et
al.) or a greater revenue-produc-ing use of that prime land (luxury
condominiums). The marine industry calls the outcome critical to
its future. Page 8
Marine finance upheaval squeezes dealers
Now, even cleaner
Much more stringent, California-like
regulations on gasoline engine emissions take effect soon, but the marine
industry says it is up to the challenge.
Among other changes, the new rules
signal the demise of the carbureted
2-stroke outboard. Page 10
Contraction in both the retail and floorplan sectors adds to challenges
No liking this Ike
Editor’s note: This is where things stood in marine finance in early October. The banking environment, however, was changing on almost a daily basis, and the situation
may have changed in the interim.
By Reagan Haynes
As financial institutions drop out of marine industry finance,
dealers say credit has tightened and they worry not only that
interest rates will rise, but in some cases fear they will be
forced out of business.
KeyBank, which announced in late September it would
leave both retail and wholesale marine finance, is the most recent example in a long line of top- 15 financial institutions that
have scaled back or abandoned marine lending altogether.
“Certainly it isn’t good news anytime any of the lenders pull
out, and it has created a whole additional level of fear, and we’re
all dealing with that right now,” says Fred Pace, managing partner of Legendary Marine, which has four locations in Florida.
Now, many say, it takes a bulletproof customer to secure financing: a stronger credit score than before, money in the
bank, a debt-to-income ratio no higher than 40 to 50 percent,
a down payment between 10 and 20 percent, higher income
See Finance, Page 45
Hurricane Ike stormed across the
Gulf Coast Sept. 13, ravaging boats
and marine businesses in several
states. The storm destroyed or damaged some 15,000 craft and is
blamed for $175 million in boat damage in Texas alone. Page 24
HEARD IT HERE FIRST
“We didn’t lose any inventory, and I’m thankful
for that. We’re back in business; we’re just
working without a building rig
— Baytown, Texas, dealer Bob J
on the aftermath of Hurrican
PAGE 24 ”ht now.
ohnson,
e Ike
Economy-size IBEX
The economy is what people were
talking about at the International
BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference in October, and is probably
the reason attendance was down
14 percent. Page 32
