Miami Boat Show - Floating Condominums

[coot]

Originally Posted by maxingout

I"m not talking about the catamarans. I'm talking about the marketing of the catamarans. I didn't hear anything from the sales people that really addressed my concerns as a person who takes a catamaran offshore.

Just to clarify, did they simply fail to volunteer the information you wanted, or did they actively avoid answering your direct questions?

Sales people tend to talk about what they think the customers are interested in and what differentiates their product from the competition. If the competition also has a well-built boat, and most customers ask about amenities first, then I don't find their behaviour surprising.

It may be that other people evaluate the boats differently than you do. When I look at a boat, the first thing I do is walk around the boat. If I hit my head too many times, I don't care how well built it is. Similarly, if my wife says "this is an ugly boat" (she never hits her head), I also don't care. This might lead a salesman to think I am more interested in amenities, up to the point where I ask how you gain access to the oil filter.

I hope you weren't offended by my comments. I wasn't talking about the cats. I was talking about how they were marketing them.

In my experience, the term "floating condo" is usually intended to give offense. If you were not aware of that particular usage, then we now have a clue to where some misunderstanding might come from.

[Sunspot Baby]

Isn't is possible that the sales people are presenting the information their uninformed buyers most want to know.

There have been a couple of threads on this forum about people with more money than sense.

Caveat Emptor.

George

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by DtM

I am always intrigued by these discussions and the seeming distinction between charter/production boats and "bluewater" boats.

Is the suggestion that an FP Athena or FP Mahe 36 could or should not cruise offshore, for example Sydney to Lord Howe and then to Noumea.

No, but that's not what the majority of buyer will do with them. IMHO, most of these production boats that so go offshore will have been bought second hand, and the manufacturer's really arent too interested in these buyers. What the manufacturers are interested in is new boat buyers, and the majority of new production boat buyers buy boats to put into charter.

It's not about what the boat is capable of doing, it's about what kind of buyer the manufacurer is aiming at.