Hatteras New Models?

[capttonyf]

Well with all said. I still did not get anyone to say they wanted to take out there check book and go talk to Hatteras about a new design. But wait there may be brighter days coming. If anyone would ever like to spend a weekend on there boat talking to me about this. Please stop by New Bern on your way North and South. I really like meeting the vintage customers.

As Pascal mentioned, People are lining up with their check books, they're just not doing it at Hatteras unfortunately. Hopefully if things continue progressing in my life the way they are, I will be one of those buyers with my check book out in a few year but again unfortunately, I'm not quite there.

I hope your correct that brighter days are coming because I am one of the people I mentioned before that has spent alot of time on these boats, have alot of fond memories on these boats and most importantly I trust Hatteras Yachts and the people that built them. I have a great appriciation for Boats in general and especially Hatteras Yachts and I look forward every year to see what's new and what will be offered in the near future, not just from Hatteras but the Industry as a whole.

Even though I can't run out and buy it at the Ft. Lauderdale Show. I'm very excited to see the New GT70 just as I would be equally excited to see a New 42ft to 50ft Motoryacht or Converitble.

The Bring Your Check Book and lets talk theory is flawed. Not many people will ever show up at your front door asking to buy somthing that's not available or even yet concieved in theory. Maybe a few Custom Sportfish Buyers but not the majiority. The boat has to be built and shown to people at a show or a dealer so they can See, Smell, Touch and even Ride on it before they will buy it or order one decorated and powered to their liking.

There are buyers out there for these mid sized boats if Hatteras would build them, I know of a few right off the top of my head. One guy sold his 2004 60C and puchased a 1982 46HP because he didn't need such a big boat for him and his sons to fish off of and he wanted it to be kept behind his house in Tampa instead of a marina, and the 60C was to big and wouldn't fit. He has told me he would like a new updated version of his 46 Hatteras but it's not available so he'll have to continue on with his 1982. I suggested a New 48 Cabo or 46 Viking but he said no thanks I've always had Hatteras's except one 33 Blackfin for about a year and it's what I like and what I want. He is a guy who would buy a New $1 million dollar plus 46ft boat if it was available. But I can Guarantee you he's not going to show up in New Burn, Hoping, Begging and Pleading for Hatteras to take his money. But if he could climb on one at a dealer or a show and take it for a ride and prove to himself it's a newer, better designed and better riding version of what he has I'm sure he would then, pull out that "Check Book".

My point is Buyers aren't going to show up begging, they're just going to take their business to the company that wants it the most by having a good quality, competativley priced product available to meet there needs, today, not maybe if I beg really really hard.

On a lighter note, hopefully one day soon I will be able to stop by in New Burn and meet you. It's been a few years since I've been there and would look forward to meeting you and talk for awhile.

Captain Tony.

 

[fissioneng]

We looked at a 55 at the Annapolis Boat show two years ago (can't recall the brand) that I would have loved to own but again, way beyond our means.

Probably a Fleming? I'd buy a used one in a minute if I could afford it. Continuous refinement of the same design over a long period of time based on owner comments. Great business model.

 

[Artzco]

This has been an interesting thread with great input and I've enjoyed reading many of the comments. However, Hatteras (the new Hatteras mgmt) will work for the market share that allows them to grow and introduce models driven by market input from potential buyers, focus groups and industry trends. As Pascal points out, go where the money is and look at the boats.

The next year or two will show where Hatteras is headed.

 

[MikeP]

"Probably a Fleming? I'd buy a used one in a minute "

YEP! that was it - Fleming! I was impressed.

 

[capttonyf]

Probably a Fleming? I'd buy a used one in a minute if I could afford it. Continuous refinement of the same design over a long period of time based on owner comments. Great business model.

This is my point to Hatteras. Flemming is a very nice boat, and Hatteras LOST a Client/Friend of mine, a long time Hatteras Owner to Flemming last year. His last Hatteras was a 65C that he had a Captain take care of for him. He decided to retire and wanted a New 48 to 55 ft CPMY that him and his wife could care for and handle on there own so they could cruise and part time live aboard as a couple without the need for crew. So they bought a Brand New 55 Fleming. Why??? Not because they were unhappy with Hatteras, it's just Hatteras had nothing available in that size range let alone a traditional style boat in that size range. He showed up with his Check Book and handed it to Flemming.

 

[Artzco]

This is my point to Hatteras. Flemming is a very nice boat, and Hatteras LOST a Client/Friend of mine, a long time Hatteras Owner to Flemming last year. His last Hatteras was a 65C that he had a Captain take care of for him. He decided to retire and wanted a New 48 to 55 ft CPMY that him and his wife could care for and handle on there own so they could cruise and part time live aboard as a couple without the need for crew. So they bought a Brand New 55 Fleming. Why??? Not because they were unhappy with Hatteras, it's just Hatteras had nothing available in that size range let alone a traditional style boat in that size range. He showed up with his Check Book and handed it to Flemming.

With 20 more orders of that size Hatteras might form a new focus group.

 

[Boatsb]

Now I get it. Someone selling a convertible wants a single level motor yacht and Hatteras should have one available incase he wants to buy it.

Kind of like when I got rid of my infinity g. If infinity would have been smart they would have made a diesel pickup I liked but instead I bought a dodge. Infinity lost a sale.


let's be realistic. Hatteras needs to reestablish a niche that's the not only profitable but sustainable. Building boats to our ideals is not going to work. If there is evidence of an untapped market for classic motor yacht style can they address it? Is there better opportunities in the sport fish arena?

Im pretty sure someone at Hatteras hq is looking at these options.

 

[saltshaker]

Hatteras has a lot of catching up to do period. They lost the mid size MY market and gave the SF market away. While Hatteras declined, Viking soared. Viking has been beating Hatteras for a while now and up until the last 7-8 years, hasn't even built a comparable boat. Viking has done an amazing job of marketing and growing by keeping thier customers in mind. Viking builds new boats for current Viking owners to move up to and Viking owners are very loyal to the brand. Seems to me that the loyal Hatt owners are here. We keep buying the older ones and if no one buys the used ones, then the new ones won't sell either. Seems like that's the direction things have been going. Personally, if I was in the market for a brand new boat I'd be looking at the 60GT or maybe even the 54GT. But I'd also be looking at what Viking had to offer. Today I'd say the Hatt still wins but Viking keeps updating, improving and releasing new models. They've come a long way from the fast, stiff and wet boats that put them on the map in the mid to late '80s.

 

[capttonyf]

Now I get it. Someone selling a convertible wants a single level motor yacht and Hatteras should have one available incase he wants to buy it.

Kind of like when I got rid of my infinity g. If infinity would have been smart they would have made a diesel pickup I liked but instead I bought a dodge. Infinity lost a sale.


let's be realistic. Hatteras needs to reestablish a niche that's the not only profitable but sustainable. Building boats to our ideals is not going to work. If there is evidence of an untapped market for classic motor yacht style can they address it? Is there better opportunities in the sport fish arena?

Im pretty sure someone at Hatteras hq is looking at these options.

You bought a Dodge? Just kidding, in all seriousness though Infinity is a luxury car maker not a full line auto maker like Chevy, Ford, or Chrysler. Hatteras on the other hand was a full line boat builder and they had clients that switched between Motoryachts and Convertibles. Many owners had both, a 70 to 80ft MY and a 36 to mid 40's express fish or Convertible. The point I was making was it didn't have to be a single level MY it could have been any style CPMY in the 50ft+/- range. It's just Hatteras didn't build it. His Convertible was a cruiser also and not fished, but he wanted a good handling boat that was quicker than his previous boat a 74 Hatt CPMY. Flemming and a few others had what he needed Hatteras didn't. But I do agree with you that they're reader hung it and have to start somewhere and I think what their doing with this new GT line is great. Like jack said, they gave away their market share of boats, and I believe it's because they fell asleep at the wheel while companies like Viking were building and designing like they were in a race for the checkers at the Daytona 500.

 

[Tinman]

Now that you mentioned it, Hatteras did lose their position in the midsize MY market. They could be selling a Fleming style MY today, which is a popular design. We don't fish much anymore and are planning on switching from our 50C to a mid 50 Pilothouse MY with a aft deck. Have looked at a couple of Fleming's, great boat, but too pricey and want a larger ER with more headroom. You have to wonder the reason why Hatteras cut all those MY models out of their product line? How about a Pilothouse Yachtfisher?

 

[Boatnut]

IMHO, Hatteras lost it when they went into the MY market. After all the convertible was what made Hatteras. Now their management seems to want to go bigger in the MY market. The competition is stiff, with so many MY builders who started ahead of them. The market appears to be demanding motor yachts, and Hatteras is kind of a late bloomer in the market. As for corporate, all the care about is the bottom line, not much thought to the future it's all about how fast can more profit be turned. Hatteras is certainly not the only quality manufacturer that suffers from this corporate mentality.

 

[GJH]

"Probably a Fleming? I'd buy a used one in a minute "

YEP! that was it - Fleming! I was impressed.

Flemings are very nice Chinese boats, but very small for a 55 footer. Just as a reference here is a 55 Fleming lined up transom to transom next to my 56:

We looked very closely at Flemings when we began our search 11 years ago. The master was unacceptable "crawl in" placed in the bow; about that of a 42' SeaRay. Also, a crawl through engine room.

Our conclusion was that they are really great boats to be underway in, but there was no way we could make one our house. I know a guy now who is well on his way to ordering a new Hatt 60MY; he too rejected the Fleming as too small, and wasn't that thrilled with the 65 either. Apparently Fleming has a new 58 coming out to address a lot of these issues.

As I have written many times here, a raft of guys building their boats in the Orient, such as Tony Fleming, took the motoryacht and LRC market from Hatteras by building handsome, traditional looking boats at good prices. Offshore, Marlowe, Grand Banks, Outer Reef, Selene, Hampton, Ocean Alexander and so on and so on. I think under the "stewardship" of GenMar and then Brunswick they thought they had a strategy of building a bigger Clorox bottle to step the Carver and Sea Ray crowd up. They didn't build a smaller Hatteras MY for a long time because it overlapped with the higher end SeaRays.

It will be interesting to see what the new guys do, now that they are not bound by this so-called strategy. They seem to be attempting (though a lot of this move began before the sale) to clean up the styling a little as witness the new 70. At some point they are going to have to rip market share away from the Chinese in particular, even some of the Italians (Pascal, the Italian bent you see in Miami is not indicative of other parts of the country, BTW). At least the production economics, which includes shipping costs, is beginning to swing back our way a little bit.

 

[Pascal]

I went for a walk around around the dock here at Atlantis this morning, and this is what i saw in the 50 to 100'

2 azMutt
1 ferreti
1 sea ray
1 ocean Alexander
1 Fleming
4 Viking sportfish
2 custom sportfish
1 Viking cruiser
1 Lazzara
1 grand Alaskan
2 sunseekers
2 Johnsons
1 fairline
3 or 4 others I don't recall the brand but they were not from New Bern...

Pretty much a Typical sampling of what I see every day

The only hatteras in the marina is a 20 year old 70ish MY...

Hatteras needs to wake up.

 

[SeaEric]

It has been my observation that big sportfish boats don't seem to be selling anywhere near the volume of big motoryachts. If Hatteras is going to survive they have to try to build what sells.

 

[capttonyf]

As GJH mentioned above, "I think under the "stewardship" of GenMar and then Brunswick they thought they had a strategy of building a bigger Clorox bottle to step the Carver and Sea Ray crowd up. They didn't build a smaller Hatteras MY for a long time because it overlapped with the higher end SeaRays."

This is excactly what Hatteras is doing with Cabo and their Sportfish Line and precisely why I feel this stratagy is wrong. Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, Get customers into your brand early, treat them right, and allow them to grow within the same brand. Don't have a field of used car lot type salesman standing with Babes in Bikini's on the side of US 1 holding up "All Boats on Sale Today Only" "Free Boat Washes For a Year" Signs. Or Like Furniture Stores with their 10 times a year "Going Out Of Business Sale" to sell them a 35ft Sea Ray and expect that to be the buyer of the future for your larger yachts. It's a different type of Clientele. Not that one is any better than the other, it's just different. Different type of boaters that use their boats in different ways, Example: intercoastal bar hopping and sand bar anchoring, compared to travelling and Fishing far Offshore.

Not knocking Sea Ray, they along with boats like Bayliner, Regal, Chapperall, etc. are great boats for their intended purpose. On the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh were I grew up my father owned 2 Sea Rays, a 268 Weekender and a 330 Sundancer along with numerous Bayliners from 18 to 32 feet. My first boat was a 22 Ft Pontoon boat that he took on trade when he sold one of his Bayliners and he gave it to me. These were perfect boats for there, affordable, shallow draft and lots or Beer Holders,,, I mean Cup Holders. And as good as they are for the river a Rigged Out GT60 would be as out of place on the river as a 28ft Bayliner would be fishing the BBC's out of Atlantis or Boat Harbor in the Abacos.

My point is these production boats as great as they are for weekend party boats. They are not a good transition for attemping to bring new clients into the Hatteras Brand. They're all boats and they all float, but they truely have different capabilities and design intensions in mind.

 

[capttonyf]

Not to keep dragging this thread out forever, I just Hope Hatteras makes the proper and correct decisions to move that back to Prominence within the Boat Building Industry.

Hatteras had always been to me anyway, the boat builder that set the standard for everyone else to follow. I always believed and continue to that the boats of their past, while not always the fastest or most efficient, were the best and most sound sea boats available. A boat you could trust and have confidence in if the sea state changed that so long as you respected the conditions and your speed you would make it home safely. They also had the best set up of systems, components and building methods that made maintenance easy, and longevity and intgrity of the vessel intact for many, many years to come.

A testament to why so many are still motoring around today. Not many builders have 20 to 50+ year old boats cruising around that are still sea worthy and in beautiful condition.

Like I said I have big hopes for Hatteras and their future growth, Fingers Crossed.

 

[GJH]

A new 80MY just went down and up the Neuse river on sea trial this morning.

 

[fissioneng]

Flemings are very nice Chinese boats, but very small for a 55 footer.

George, I would say your 56 was very large for a 56. That extra 2 feet of beam does it all. Your wide body 56 makes a 1510 model seem small.

The interior of the Fleming looks huge compared to my 43, but we don't live on it. Good points about that. Also, I agree about the engine room space, but as I said, it's spacious compared to my 43. Tony Fleming sure has been successful with them. Anyone know how many they've sold? I think it's over 200.

 

[Artzco]

A new 80MY just went down and up the Neuse river on sea trial this morning.

Here are pictures of a new 80 Hatteras just posted.

 

[Artzco]

More pics