The first thing that came across my desk, so to speak, today was someone selling an elderly Oceanic 30 cat for $45K.
It got me thinking…
The fact is the Oceanic was never much of a boat and thirty years ago you could pick one up for pennies on the dollar say $10-15K because no one wanted one,
Two things happened since then that makes a boat of this ilk sell for a way too large chunk of money.
One is the “hipness” factor of cats in general in that the hype is so abundant (or should I say deep) that a large percentage of folks believe that even a pretty awful cat is better than an exceptional monohull therefore worth more.
Secondly, that since a large proportion of cat owners don’t really sail that much (motoring being more their thing) that such downsides like the piss-poor windward performance of a design is no longer a factor in what people what people are looking for and a glorified pontoon boat with a mast is now selling for a premium because it’s a cat.
Just thinking out loud…