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If you
plan on buying a boat anytime soon, I’ve got some good news for
you: The boatbuilding industry is finally beginning to embrace the idea—if
not the fact—of stem-to-stern warranties. If this sounds like something
less than a frontal attack on an issue that has rankled many a boat buyer
for years, it is. But at least there’s real movement in the right
direction.
As most
of you know all too well, the problem is that many new boats are covered
not by a single comprehensive warranty but rather by an agglomeration
of warranties from the many suppliers whose products go into the boat.
So, while a boatbuilder may tout its hull warranty, when it comes to the
refrigerator, stereo, genset, or engine, it often passes the buck to the
owner, forcing him or her to contact the appropriate company to have a
problem rectified. This is a real pain on a $50,000 runabout; on a $250,000
vessel it’s downright unconscionable.
At this
point you may be tempted to curse those damn dealers, but in fact, the
dealers have led the fight for all-inclusive warranties. While a few boatbuilders
already offered such protection, it was a paper by the Marine Retailers
Association of America (MRAA) advocating stem-to-stern warranties that
really got the ball rolling, according to Soundings Trade Only. Now it
seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, and MRAA deserves a pat on
the back.
The
Soundings article identified a number of builders who advocated such comprehensive
protection even before the MRAA paper, among them Formula and Island Packet.
The latter, which builds both power- and sailboats, has reportedly offered
a bow-to-stern warranty on all of its boats for more than two decades,
and Formula has been offering an extended warranty covering all components
and mechanical systems, except the engine, since 2000.
While
the drive towards one-stop warranties is certainly welcome news, it’s
also long overdue. Imagine purchasing even the most basic economy car
and, when the radio dies, being told you have to track down the manufacturer
to get it fixed. You wouldn’t stand for it. Many boatbuilders counter
that the automotive analogy isn’t applicable, especially in larger
boats that are as complex as any home. It is not at all unusual, they
say, for new-home buyers to have to deal directly with manufacturers of
such things as heating and air conditioning systems and appliances. That
may have been true a few years back, but in Connecticut, where I live,
all-inclusive warranties on new homes are the norm, not the exception.
And
besides, the boating industry is spending big money on trying to attract
new participants to the sport. It should be expending just as much effort
at keeping existing customers, and one good way to do that is to make
sure that whenever a boater has a problem, the first priority is to fix
it and get him or her back out on the water as quickly as possible. The
best way to do that is to make sure boaters need to go to just one place
to get everything on their boat fixed. Thankfully, it looks like that’s
finally going to happen.
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