Genmar Holdings chairman Irwin Jacobs believes he has the answer to the industry's "disastrous" floorplan and retail financing problems. In a letter sent out to the industry earlier this week, Jacobs called for all boat manufacturers, dealers and vendors to lobby the federal government to include the boating industry in the financing program offered to General Motors Acceptance Corp.
"If the U.S. Government required GMAC to include the boating industry's needs for both wholesale dealer floorplan financing and retail financing, I believe the recreational boating industry would see an immediate end to the continuing downturn," Jacobs wrote.
He said it would only take a small fraction of the money the government gave to GMAC to support the boating industry.
For the initiative to work, however, he said every marine company, from all sectors of the industry, must speak up and write to their local, state and congressional representatives.
"No one seems to be telling our life-threatening story to the Obama Administration, and if nothing is done very soon to correct the floorplan and retail financing problem for our industry, I predict it is only a short matter of time before what I call the boating industry's life-threatening tsunami could put its final blow on the entire industry for decades ahead," Jacobs wrote.
