Wealthy buyers keep boat sales afloat

With customers such as the Vickers -- five-time boat buyers -- business was expected to be brisk at the 35th annual Newport Boat Show, one of the fanciest yachting get-togethers on the West Coast. This year, a record 350 or so vessels are bobbing on display through the weekend.

For the more modest seafarer: a 98-foot mega-yacht priced at more than $6 million, decked out with a hot tub, granite counter tops, duel Sub-Zero refrigerators, a 200-DVD changer and passel of flat-screen TVs.

Yacht shoppers "are not worried about the payments on their house," said Duncan McIntosh, who produces the event and publishes several boating periodicals. "They're not affected by what us mere mortals have to worry about every day."

Boat show spokesman Don Franken said there were more giant yachts on display than ever, with more than 60 boats greater than 60 feet in length.

One boat broker said likely buyers tend to own their own businesses -- hence the healthy foot traffic at noon on a weekday. About 10,000 visitors are expected through Sunday.

"If I had a time card to punch, I probably wouldn't be here," said William Saxton, 55, of Bellflower, with some understatement. He runs an industrial maintenance business and was shopping for his first boat -- aiming for the $500,000 range -- for weekend trips to Santa Catalina Island.

As with houses, boat prices have been slipping downward, making it a buyers' market -- if you have $1 million to spare, that is. And like high-end houses, extravagant boats are still selling to extravagantly wealthy buyers.

"People that are prepared financially to take advantage of that are getting good deals," said J.R. Means, owner of Bayport Yachts in Newport Beach.

Means said business had been booming, and although slightly fewer people are expected to visit the boat show this year, he anticipates more serious buyers.

In other words, what recession?

"Most of the people that we deal with have the ability to do what they want to do when they want to do it," said Chuck Hovey, who runs Newport Beach-based Chuck Hovey Yachts.