For most folks, the decision to build a custom boat is one that evolves over years, sometimes decades. Often the linchpin is retirement, kids leaving home or some other milestone. Unfortunately when eager owners are ready to get their dream vessel under construction, often the good boat yards are not ready to immediately accommodate them. Many faced that sad fact two years ago. Remember: that’s back when the economy seemed to be soaring? Money in hand and ample enthusiasm were not sufficient to overcome the simple fact that boatyards had no building slots available. If that wasn’t bad enough, prices quoted were also generally higher, as one would realistically expect based upon the laws of supply and demand.

In that atmosphere complaints were many. "I want a boat. I want it now. I can’t live with these kinds of delays." Many dismayed. Others postponed. Some simply abandoned their dreams.

Enter the new economic world that events have forced upon us. For all of us it has been a time of caution and concern. For a select few, however, it’s also been a time of opportunity. In the last eighteen months, I’ve worked with several owners who have realized that now is the perfect time to get their dream boat built on a schedule and at a price more favorable than would have been imaginable only a couple of years ago.

My prediction, in months to come when the magazines and pundits begin to reassure us that the economy is again pumping, is buyers who have been sitting on the fence will once more decide "…now’s the time". Unfortunately, as in January 2001, the good yards will have to politely ask them "…Please step to the back of the line."