Aluminium Price Rise Puts Dent In `little Tinny' Sales
The Age
Wednesday November 8, 1995
THE basis of the boating business, the aluminium fishing or utility boat ``little tinny", with which so many Australians began their career in boating, has fallen on hard times.
For a quarter of a century, the little aluminium boat which is light enough to be easily manhandled ashore and propelled easily when afloat by minimum power outboard engines has been the backbone of the boat business.
When the Little America's Cup was run at Sorrento in the 1970s, it was Little Tin, the Sorrento Sailing Club's workboat, from which much of the organisation of the international event was carried out.
But sales of the seemingly ubiquitous boat, which Australia now exports to Asia, are languishing in its home market.
``I'm not sure what the problem is but the price rise in aluminium as passed on to the boat buyers is certainly part of it," said one of Victoria's bigger boat retailers, Steve Stav of J. V. Marine in North Road, Oakleigh.
``The cost of the aluminium content of the boats went up more than 30 per cent about a year ago and it looks as though the aluminium boats have hit a price barrier," he said.
Entry-level boat buyers were turning to fibreglass boats as alternatives, he said. The shift from aluminium to fibreglass in buyer preferences was noticeable at the recent boat show in Melbourne.
``We used to sell 20 `tinnies' at the show in the $15,000 to $16,000 bracket. This year we sold one," he said.
Buyers getting their first boat were the main buyers in the under-$20,000 market, he said.
The $15,000 to $16,000 price would buy a boat about four metres in length with a 30-kilowatt outboard engine and a trailer on which the rig could be towed by a family car.
The middle to upper boating market, however, was stronger.
Small businessmen were paying $30,000 to $40,000 cash in the new boat market.
``And we have a list of buyers for any boats we trade in and are available second hand in this price range," Stav said.
The $40,000 price range was working for Whittley Cruisers, too, according to Steve Whittley.
``We sell trailable cruisers from five to seven metres in length and it is the mid-range model which is selling best.
Including a trailer and an engine for the boat, the package chosen by most buyers for the 5.8-metre boat has a price of about $41,500," he said.
Most buyers chose a 135 engine (100 kW) which gave it enough power to pull water skiers but the boat was rated to carry the larger 175 engine (130 kW).
Sales of the best selling packages of trailer, boat and engine in Victoria this year were lower than last year.
Bob Carter, a spokesman for Mercury Marine, retailers of trailers, boats and engines, said that while the South Australian and Victorian markets were far from strong this year, the markets in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales were going well.
The sales difficulty faced by the ``tinny" is also found in the less expensive yacht market.
Off the beach boats sold well during the recession and also trailable keelboats.
``But there has been a big shift in the market in the past two years," said one yacht broker. ``Where there had been a good market for boats from four to eight metres long, today they can be bought readily.
``For yachts of more than 10 metres in length there is now a six- month waiting list," he said, attributing the switch to a combination of a reduction in the number of buyers using redundancy payments to buy their yachts and a redistribution of wealth as a result of the recession.
Brian Barnes, formerly of the Bosun's Locker, said that while the new boat business for yachts over 10 metres was good, so was the second- hand boat business for boats under 10 metres.
``A lot of big boats are being soaked up in Queensland by the charter boat business," he said. ``Unfortunately this business is taking much of the surplus stock from overseas builders rather than that of local boatmakers," he added.
Major leisure boating advances in future would include new engine technology which would be much kinder to the environment, according to Bob Carter.
``We have the Sarich technology coming in a year or so, which will dramatically reduce the pollution from outboard engines. The switch from two-stroke to four-stroke engines reduces some pollution but the Sarich system further reduces it by making possible direct fuel injection into the engines.
``There are two four-stroke engines in the popular 9.9 and 50 size range now available and by using technology taken from the automotive world of cars, the added cost on the boat engine is greatly reduced," Carter said.
``The Sarich technology will be more expensive because so far it's development costs have not been met partly by the motor industry.
``The Sarich direct fuel injection system, which tests show produces much lower emissions of pollutants, will carry a price premium. But another benefit for the boat owner will be the great reduction in the fuel consumption of these engines which are much more fuel efficient," he said.
Pollution from outboard engine and inboard petrol engines had already caused them to be banned from some European lakes.
Electric powered craft only were allowed on some of the lakes.
© 1995 The Age