The economics of boat building (high labour costs and strong dollar)are truly the issue unless there is the possibility of huge volumes. With smaller production runs, you need to reduce costs somewhere - which leads to the idea of overseas production. On the other hand the Express seems to keep a higher residual value as a result of its strong fleet interest in SF and Detroit. I think the average resal has been about 20K ?

It is interesting to note for comparison sake the effort in vancouver (cda) to market a new version of Gary Mull's 22 ft as the rocket 22. The price quoted is $34,950. With factory commissioning and basic extras thats 38,715. and to encourage sales there is an initial 15% discount. Given the apparent interest in the E27 that type of price would likely generate some sales? (www.rocketboats.com)

I have no connection to rocket, it is just that I have been looking for a E27 on the east coast for a while, and have noticed the high resale values, lack of product, and alternatives. Of course selling a boat outside of major home waters would undermine the strength of the class but work to keep residual value high there.

So is there an entrepreneur to consider Canadian production?

:: Pure economics. Labor is just too expensive in the
:: states to produce a boat. Really that is almost true for
:: anything these days. But in our case, it just costs too
:: much for materials and labor to produce a boat. The cost
:: of labor in New Zealand is much less which makes it a
:: possible deal to make happen. The problem lately is the
:: value of the US dollar is going through the toilet so it
:: doesn't go as far as it did a few years ago when this
:: was all started.
::
:: Until we can get a few people to ante up and order a few
:: boats, people who want them are going to have to pry
:: them out of the hands of the people who aren't sailing
:: them. Send me an e-mail and I will gladly provide a list
:: of boats and owners who are not out on the starting
:: line.
::

:: -Jason

::