[Rhodes22-list] gb business

[stan]

//
> // ///general boats policy change/
> This being of major importance to Rhodes owners and wannabes, it will 
> be presented in 3 short segments so as to not interfere with normal 
> List activity.
> Part One: Understanding the Industry:
> "What's to understand? It is just like the car business."  Many of us 
> share this common, 180 degree mistaken view in almost all aspects of 
> comparisons:
1.    Sales.   We all know millions of cars are manufactured each year.  
Counting /every *size* //sailboat/ made in the U.S., take a guess at the 
grand total of all sailboats built last year. I will settle for the 
nearest ten thousand.  "American sailboat production last year hit its 
*highest* level since *2008*, roughly *7,000*." A number so 
insignificant, no one notices it alongside the cars built figure.

2.    It's the Economy.   99.99% of Rhodes owners and wannabes 
characterize themselves as "middle class". They cannot function in our 
society without owning or having access to a car. Budgeting reflects 
that fact of life.  At the slightest hint of a drop in discretionary 
spending funds, the first item to be lopped off the family wish list is 
a sailboat; a car, the last.

3.   Life expectancy.   In years past we went to the annual automobile 
shows for the fun of seeing the new look in driving. New designs were 
uncloaked yearly; cars did nor last that long and we were back in the 
market.  Today the looks of new cars emerge less frequently, some on a 
six year term as the manufacturer sees this as the timing for an owner 
to be needing a new one.  Most all of us buy a new car a meaningful 
number of times in our lifetime. The life expectancy of today's 
sailboats is greater than that of its buyer.  Most "sailors" buy a 
sailboat once, maybe twice, in their life.

Bottom Line.   If anything, the sailboat business has more in common 
with the housing business where a change in location is dictated by a 
job change or a family need for something larger, or smaller; changes 
that happen once or twice in a lifetime or not at all. Given this 
background on how diverse automobile and sailboat manufacturing are, the 
next time you are about to take issue with GB's business plan vs Ford's, 
take a second look at the above factual partial list of the differences, 
and bite your tongue.  If others tell you, "GB should not do something 
because GM does not do that", bite their tongue.  Coming: A boat being 
built vs a historic footnote.  As always, if anyone has any comments re 
this or the next and/or final installment, I am ready to listen - and 
respond.

stan