Yacht sales are up in Orange County.
So are prices.
“People can’t get the deals that were being had two years ago,” said John Woolley, senior sales consultant for Newport Boats in Newport Beach.
Signs of an improved market include:
• Fewer repossessed and short sale yachts on the market.
• More in new boat sales and fewer used boat sales.
• Stepped-up boat production by manufacturers.
• Increased sources for yacht financing.
There also are lower slip vacancies. Those range from a 3% vacancy rate at Pete’s Landing Marina in Huntington Beach to 10% at Bayside Village Marina in Newport Beach, according the Long Beach Marine Bureau.
Meantime, boat registrations have been rising. The Department of Motor Vehicles recorded an almost 6% uptick last year to 61,270 boats, approaching the 70,000 registrations on the books before the recession crashed upon the industry like an unwelcome rogue wave in 2007.
Sales are still way off from prerecession years, but they also have been ticking up during the past two years.
Newport Boats sold more boats between May and August than in the prior 18 months, Woolley said.
Orange Coast Yachts in Newport Beach also reported increased summer sales.
“I sold three boats personally in August,” Orange Coast salesman Jim Birschbach said.
Birschbach said smaller yachts priced at about $100,000 have been popular with cash buyers. Yet Orange Coast Yachts also has a sale pending for a 79-foot yacht priced at $3.8 million.
Nationwide, sales of 26- to 35-foot boats were up 2% from a year earlier to 1,121 yachts in August, while sales of 36- to 45-foot boats rose 1% to 596 yachts, according to YachtWorld.com. Prices rose 7% in the smaller-boat category and by 12% for the bigger yachts.
The improving market has brought out yacht sellers who waited out the downturn to get a better price for their boat.
Suezett Schulha, who operates Wienerschnitzel franchises in Huntington Beach and Irvine, had her yacht on display at the recent Lido Yacht Expo at Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach.
The annual show is put on by Irvine-based Duncan McIntosh Co. and features new and used yachts of 26 feet and up. Schulha’s 38-foot 2003 Silverton yacht is priced at $190,000.
Lou Mencuccini, owner of South Mountain Yachts in Monarch Beach, is helping Schulha sell her yacht.
Mencuccini handed out 120 brochures with information about her yacht during the show and scheduled second appointments with several prospective buyers.
Holiday Outlook
Sales tend to pick up around the December holidays, when many people spend their year-end bonuses on a yacht, he added.
“I do more sales in December than June,” Woolley said.
Newport Boats recently received a selection of 2013 models. That could lure more buyers into a market still recovering from some recession-shaped conditions not unlike the real estate market.
The yacht market was flooded with repossessions and short sales, driving down prices. Sales fell 24% nationally in 2009 and another 14% in 2010.
Some stores shut down as the market bottomed. MarineMax Inc., a Florida-based public company, closed its Newport Beach store during the recession.
Manufacturers cut down on production, and financing dried up.
Lending Up
“That’s changing, according to Jeff Long, vice president and regional manager in the Newport Beach office of Trident Funding Corp.
Trident connects buyers of yachts 35 feet and up with lenders. Its average loan size is $200,000, and Long said the market is definitely improving.
“Our business is up 30% over last year,” he said. “People are starting to feel a little better about the economy.”
