Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Where Are the Boats?


While in Hammond the other day I noticed how many boats were coming and going. It seemed that every other vehicle was towing a boat. Then on my drive home I noticed how many boats people had parked in their yards and driveways.

OK, here is the strange thing when you put it all together. With all the water we have here and with all the boats I see in the area there are no boat dealerships in our county. Sure, you can get buy an outboard motor at John Deere. You can get your propeller repaired in Warrenton, but you can't purchase a new boat other than a kayak.

I've been to lakes where there were marinas with boat sales. You can even buy a boat on the TV Highway in Beaverton with no water in sight for 30 miles. How come there are no boat dealers here? If this community can support three new car dealerships it should be able to support a business that sells fishing boats.

7 Comments:

Blogger JustRex said...

That is really odd. Down here every body of water big enough to float a bobber has a boat sales place next door. Hell, last year when my office flooded Tracker tried to open a branch office and the water patrol was outside checking licenses. Instead of cleaning it up I should have just opened a local guide service.

7:45 AM  
Anonymous auntie said...

we have one in chinook. the best!

8:20 AM  
Blogger richpix said...

I guess you mean boats for the average Joe. If your budget is large, there's always Pacific Expedition Yachts at Tongue Point. Prices range from $700k to $2 million. These would be twin-hull kayaks. ;-)

1:30 PM  
Blogger richpix said...

I forgot, they have a website:
http://www.pacificexpedition.com/

1:35 PM  
Blogger Jessica Marie said...

Good point! :)

12:47 AM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Darev, yes, it the lake is big enough for a 10 HP engine, there is generally someone there to sell you a boat.

Auntie, Good, but aren't you surprised we don't have one on this side of the river. Most folks from Oregon don't go over there to shop.

Rich, that's news to me, but that is a custom boat maker. There used to be a lot of boat builders here, but I'm talking about boats that people use to out to Buoy 10 or the boats people use on Coffin berry Lake.

Jessica, there's a business opportunity for you.

7:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Columbia Boatworks used to build boats to order for you. I think the only one doing it here still is J & H boatworks, but they only do steel and aluminum

11:02 AM  

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