Right now, large V-bottoms in great shape are hottest ticket in the pre-owned performance boat market. Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Though it’s not nearly as fun as taking fast boat rides or as creatively satisfying as writing columns and news stories, a healthy portion of my professional life is spent on the phone. As relatively new to journalism as the digital world is, the old-school reporter’s practice of simply picking up the phone every day and “working your beat” to find out what’s happening and what’s new has not been improved upon. Information technologies such as text messaging and email have made things more efficient, but there’s no substitute for just picking up the phone.
Among the folks I routinely check in with are those who sell new and pre-owned powerboats. My regular call list includes Mindi Doller at Doller Offshore Marine and Randy Sweers of FB Marine Group—both based in Florida—as well as Brett Manire of Performance Boat Center in Missouri. As you’d expect, they’re different people with different personalities but lately they’ve been singing the same tune.
They need clean pre-owned V-bottoms no more than 10 years old to sell because demand for such boats has never been hotter. For Doller, the biggest and most current customer craving is for “V-bottoms 44 feet and larger with big power.”
and then