Forecast 2015: Ed Champion — Lake Ozarks Marine
When it comes to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, the real boating season only lasts so long—many locals still get out during the winter, but it’s by no means busy. That said, if luck is on the community’s side, the season starts Memorial Day weekend and lasts through much of September. But if you’re Ed Champion of Lake Ozarks Marine, the season never stops.
Ed Champion of Lake Ozarks Marine said it is a definite advantage dealing with the freshwater boats from Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.
Because, whether he’s selling a boat or taking one in on trade, hauling a boat to a customer in another state or visiting the Sunsation Powerboats shop in Michigan, things have been busy for Champion and the Osage Beach, Mo., company, which sells a variety of used boats and is the lake’s source for new Sunsation and Ultra Custom Boats models. With a good feel for the new and pre-owned boat market, we asked Champion to participate in this series.
Because, whether he’s selling a boat or taking one in on trade, hauling a boat to a customer in another state or visiting the Sunsation Powerboats shop in Michigan, things have been busy for Champion and the Osage Beach, Mo., company, which sells a variety of used boats and is the lake’s source for new Sunsation and Ultra Custom Boats models. With a good feel for the new and pre-owned boat market, we asked Champion to participate in this series.
What do you see happening in the performance boat market in the next year?
Click image to enlarge and for captionThe used boat market is still strong and carrying well into winter—in fact, we’ve been pleased with the response even with the holidays upon us. The luxury of having thousands of freshwater boats at our fingertips definitely gives us an advantage.
The lenders appear to be with us, too, as our local resources can lend back to 1997 with approved credit and money down. New performance boat sales have still been slow in our area. The Sunsation open bow and center consoles seem to be the boats getting the most action right now of the three lines we carry (Ultra and Chief Powerboats). We have been working with customers, some of which have already gone to see Joe and Wayne Schaldenbrand (the brothers who own Sunsation), to get them to the factory to see how the boats are built. New in-stock boats are hard because most of our buyers want specific options, so for that reason we’re expecting to move mainly custom-order boats.
We hope to have a customer meet-and-greet in January in Florida with Chief Powerboats to debut the new 42-footer that Bobby Saccenti, the legendary offshore racing world and national champion, and TNT Custom Marine just got ready for the water.
Overall, we are excited to see what 2015 brings and look forward to it. I’d be remiss not to mention the great loss of life in 2014 by many well-known individuals in the powerboat world. That’s a trend we don’t want to see continue.
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Complete Forecast 2015 Series
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