Yacht Sales in Connecticut Gaining Momentum

Even as Connecticut enacts a tax on yacht purchases, sales of large boats picked up steam this summer according to a new report, with local yacht brokers saying the new tax could leave them stranded from the action.

Connecticut wraps up the 2011 Summer boating season with the Norwalk Boat Show September 22-25, sponsored by the Long Island City, N.Y.-based National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). It is the last boat and yacht show of the season for the association before the New York Boat Show scheduled for January 4-8, 2012, followed by the New England Boat Show in Boston February 11-19, 2012. The Connecticut Marine Trades Association has scheduled its own Hartford Boat Show for January 28-30.

The Norwalk Boat Show arrives even as the industry runs up the Jolly Roger on a new 7% luxury tax on boats selling for more than $100,000, which dealers say will simply drive buyers to New York, Rhode Island or another state to make a purchase.

According to Yachtworld.com, sales of yachts measuring at least 55′ were up 44% through August compared to the same eight-month period in 2010, as tallied according to the dollar value of transactions. Boats measuring between 45′ and 54′ also enjoyed stronger sales this summer.

At the Norwalk Boat Show, some 200 boats and yachts are listed for sale, including 15 yachts measuring 55′ or more with the largest being the Apreamare Yachts Maestro 82, a motoryacht sold by Sunseeker Club Inc.

Some 1.1 million new and used powerboats and sailboats were sold nationally in 2010, according to the NMMA, down 4% from 2009. With the economy still teetering, Congress extended to 2013 a boat-dealer financing plan offered by the Small Business Administration, while raising loan caps to $5 million from their previous level of $2 million.

Last winter the NMMA saw the majority of its 15 boat shows increase in attendance, which it said was an indicator that buyers were toeing the waters once more after the Great Recession. Echoing these attendance increases, exhibitors at the association’s shows reported improved sales over 2010, strong leads and more attendees looking to make a purchase.

Boat show attendance does not always correlate with sales, case in point the New York Boat Show, which suffered a 6% decline in attendance last January coming off a year when sales of boats and equipment increased 5% in the New York between 2009 and 2010.

The NMMA does not break out sales data for Connecticut or New England. At the height of the last business cycle in 2007, Fairfield County area residents owned some 43,300 boats.

More than 175 companies are registered as exhibitors at the Norwalk Boat Show, more than 20 of them located in Fairfield County. That includes some that are floating services rather than boats and accessories, including the Westport office of UBS and the Stamford office of AXA Advisors.

In addition to the regular spate of how-to seminars on boating and safety, the Norwalk Boat Show also offers talks, this year California teen Abby Sunderland is on hand to recount her attempted solo sail around the world, which ended when a rogue wave dismasted her yacht.

Source: Westfair Online, Alexander Soule