Second Lives And More
During a recent 10-day trip to Sweden to cover a pair of poker runs, I didn’t see one brand-new high-performance V-bottom or catamaran. In fact, I’m reasonably sure that the newest boat I encountered was a 2014 Outerlimits SL 44 that transported my hosts and me on an unforgettable day trip into the Stockholm Archipelago.
Pre-owned performance boats find great homes abroad—and that’s excellent news for everyone involved.
That doesn’t mean the Northern European go-fast powerboat market—and with a region leading six to seven poker runs a year Sweden presents a solid baseline for comparison—is necessarily “behind” the United States market, where it all begins. There are far more used performance boats on the water here, too, than 2017 and 2018 model-year products.
Just take a look at the images from last weekend’s Offshore Powerboat Association Traverse City Invitational Poker Run in Michigan. Now, count the 2017 and 2018 new model-year catamarans and V-bottoms in those photos. Then do the same thing with the Boyne Thunder Poker Run—also in Michigan—and the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run in New York.
Three of the summer’s hottest were downright loaded with older boats, right?
and then