Posts: 410
Location: With my son on the water | But lets look at this from a consumer stand point.
1. First fishing is a hobby therefore for most guys there is a budget involved. (It's tough to drop $30K plus on a hobby, most wives will not go along with this){Sure some guys can but that is a limited number}
2. With cost of materials (labor & benetfits) manufactures have there hands full trying to maintain costs. I worked in manufacturing most of my life and cost is always an issue. (Workers always expect a pay raise, health insurance is going up, but consumers expect finished goods to cost less) Throw in a struggling economy and it is even tougher. Any materials related to Oil have gone up 150% in a very short time, which is many of the materials in boats. (Look at what bag of lawn fertilizer cost this year compared to last)
My point is, I wish we would focus more on improving the layouts and features of our mid size boats but we always focus on bigger. Don't get me wrong bigger is great but it also comes with some cons (Initial cost, insurance, gas mileage of the boat, storage, ability to pull the thing, ability to sell it when that time comes) Take a look around when you fish and take note of how many people are in boats? Most of the time it is 2, and a lesser amount of time it is 1 or 3 so do we really need 20 foot boats and will we be able to manufacture them at a price point that anyone can afford? I have run 16 footers all my life and we have fished LOTW for many weeks with three guys. Was it great? NO, did we manage? YES (Would I recommend it?) NO. But I don't know that a bigger boat would have improved things much? (Three muskie lures flying at once is a challenge)
We also need to understand that for most of us every boat we buy we will eventually want to sell, therefore we need to think of being able to sell a boat when we buy a boat.
I have fished out of the current Esox Mag about 50+ times, every time with three guys and it is a fantastic boat just the way it is and it is very affordable. (Always for a weekend so it wan't bad) (Would I like to do that for a full week?????) It is probably the perfect muskie boat. I have never fished big water with it but people tell me they do. But I live between Green Bay and Lake Winnebago, it is probably a physcological thing but the only boat you see on those waters is a deep vee with most of them being 16 footers. This is the reason I have never bought an Esox Mag because it would be tough to sell in my area. I am sure this applys to others and areas too? So this is probably one of the reasons people prefer a vee over the Esox Mag and maybe even the X-190?
That X-190 is a darn nice rig but a bit out of my price range as it is over $40K to bad for me but see my point? To me the perfect hull and the largest most people ever need to go is the 1760 (nice length and width) , I hope to own one soon. But it would be nice to see a combination of the (Esox Mag and X-190) features incorperated into that hull, it is close already. (9 ft rod storage, double tanks, tons of storeage, etc)
I know many times we wish and voice our dreams on here so I am not trying to cause a debate, but I think we realistically need to understand what we ask manufactures to give us in the future because of the limitations.
And we also need summer fast!
Have a great day as it is again below freezing......... |
