[Rhodes22-list] Now Comes General Boats

[David Culp]

Mike:

It sounds good in theory... but in my case, I am in Texas and a long way
from the East coast where most of the Rhodes reside.  I have a friend who
owns sailingtexas.com and if I needed a quick sale in an emergency, I would
probably do better to advertise there.  We have a lot of sailors down here
and the idea of trailering the boat halfway across the country is not
appealing to most people.  Also, the boat is unique here and that would help
move it in this area.  Of course, I would notify the List and Stan in case
they had someone; but in reality, I think Stan would rather just collect the
revenue and not get involved in most third party transactions.  I think if
Stan gets a call for a used boat, he is going to push the recycled ones he
has.  Why wouldn't he?  I would.  If the prospect was reluctant on a recycle
and my boat was a better fit, maybe Stan would steer them my way if he knew
he was going to get the 5%.  That would be my hope.  Anyway, I think this
looks like a potential for a conflict of interest when you get the factory
involved in third party sales.  I know I would rather handle the sale myself
and forward Stan the 5%.  The buyer would be happy to know that the boat was
registered, certified or whatever with General Boats-me having paid the my
fee to accomplish it.  Hopefully the buyer would carry through on their end
and I would emphasis the importance in doing so.

If  GBI devises such a program I think it should have the following features
at a minimum:

If your boat is registered in the LoRo program, you should be able to call
or email GBI with your hull number and GBI should know the history of it and
how it is equipped so that there is no guessing on their end as to
configuration or parts needed.  The data base could be set up based on
a questionnaire that owners would fill out on registration.  This would be
good for Stan because in my case for instance, I have IMF and the GBI furler
WITH the luff groove.  The older ones only had a tube and no groove.  If I
call or email with a question about sails, then he would know exactly what I
had by pulling my data sheet.  If a new owner buys my boat, he/she may have
no idea about the furlers that GBI put on the boats before and so they would
have to go through that research all over again and ask Stan questions
taking up his time.  Let's say that I changed my furler out to a later model
CDI.  Then I would forward that info to GBI and my record would be updated
accordingly.  I think it would be comforting for a registered owner to call
GBI and hear "oh yes, we know your boat".

There needs to be some type of financial incentive such as a parts discount
or free shipping or something!

Of course, Stan has always been good about giving advice no matter what, but
if the boat is registered-no one should ever feel guilty about taking up his
time with questions.  He also,  will feel better about it because he has
been compensated for his time.  When a question comes up, he can pull your
sheet and then "your boat" will be there right in front of him including
pictures too, if they can be attached.  It will take him less time to field
and answer owner questions.

Thanks,
David Culp






Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 07:11:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Cheung <mikecheung at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Now Comes General Boats And
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Message-ID: <24847343.post at talk.nabble.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii


A number of interesting ideas have been proposed.  I must say one thing the
whole "LoRo" discussion has done is make me even more happy that I bought a
recycled R22 direct from Stan.  I got a great boat and, presumably, GB made
some profit on the sale.  I have the peace of mind that knowing I can call
Stan whenever I've got an issue gives.

However, that thought does lend itself to a LoRo related idea.  Perhaps a
more direct approach of letting Stan be the broker on most if not all Rhodes
re-sales is the way to go.  This, of course, like any LoRo scheme, would
have to be voluntary.  But if enough of us "held hands" and pledged to sell
our boats only through GB, then they could: (a) provide the buyer with some
assistance in assessing & comparing different age Rhodes and (b) make a fair
profit on that service.  It would also put GB in the position of knowing who
owned many of their boats so they could direct market improvements,
innovations, specials (mast stub/pop top support combo for example), etc.
Now, GB already does a good deal of the latter on their website so this add
on might be of limited value to them.    Still, the direct marketing ability
should further enhance GB's position relative to any third party vendors who
develop or wish to develop Rhodes 22 specific products by providing ready
access to many Rhodes owners.  With a little work GB could easily have a
"used Rhodes" section with available boats listed with pictures, etc. on
their website and could tier the boats in terms of (for example): brokered,
surveyed (i.e. evaluated by GB), GB certified, recycled, demos, and brand
spanking new.

Personally, should the time come to sell Muireann, I would expect that GB
would be able to get me the best price with the least amount of my time as
things stand now.  If GB had a more formal brokerage program going with ads
& pics on their web site, I would expect they could be even more effective,
and hence to me as a seller, even more attractive.  In that case, well,
maybe no "hold hands and pledge" is needed since enlightened capitalism
should take over and do the trick all by itself.

My $0.02.



-----
Mike Cheung
s/v Muireann 1993/2008 Rhodes 22
--
View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Now-Comes-General-Boats-And-tp24834537p24847343.html
Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.