October 29th, 2009
The spacious main cabin below, decorated with bleached oak paneling and apricot Ultra-Suede chairs, resembles more a luxury apartment than a yatch charter galley. The striated teak and holly floor conceals the two diesel engines, while sliding panel cupboards reveal a color television complete with a video recorder, and a stereo system.
On one side is a navigation station done in black Formica with matching black chair. Satellite navigation reveals the ship’s location to within plus or minus 500 feet anywhere in the world.
In another corner of the Sailing Yachts is the galley, complete with refrigerator, freezer, and trash compactor. Inside the cupboards china and crystal stemware are held secure from the ocean’s ornery thrusts by oak pegs.
Through the galley, and into the master stateroom, one sees a double berth covered in the apricot Ultra-Suede. In the closet is another color television and the air-conditioning controls, as well as a water desalinator. Small night lights at ankle level are sprinkled throughout the boat. Nearby is a full-size bathtub.
There are three other bedrooms and two more bathrooms in the forward part of the boat.
After a tour of the queenly yacht, one cannot help wondering who can afford such a luxury. “Surprisingly,” says president Moyers, “our current market is a lot of young people who have made it early.”
Back on shore, dockmaster Charlie Rich, who had never been on a sailboat until coming to work for Hinckley four years ago, pauses in rigging a Sou’wester 50. Squinting into the early afternoon sun, he grins, “Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that they don’t pay the help enough to buy ‘em.”
One reason is that the collapse of condominium sales has prompted many hard-pressed developers to turn condos into time-sharing resorts. This has created a glut of projects. In 1981 there were 600 time-sharing resorts in the U.S. This year there are expected to be 825. That adds up to 5,000 more units to sell, which translates into 250,000 more weekly sales.
Despite this oversupply, other marketers still see profits at the end of the time-sharing rainbow. Since March, Thomson McKinnon Securities Inc. has had several of its brokers in Florida selling time-sharing at resorts owned by Fairfield Communities, the industry’s larges developer. Total sales to date: one.
Coldwell Banker, a Sears, Roebuck affiliate, is more ambitious. Its Atlanta headquarters has hired 28 real estate professionals and has equipped them with portable TVs as part of an in-house marketing campaign. If sales go well, selling through Sears stores is a possibility. Coldwell is banking mostly on middle-class customers — the kind likely to finance the purchase rather than pay cash.
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