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With new materials and manufacturing methods, the boats themselves are inexpensive to own and operate. Some 20% of all boats are currently made of tough new plastic materials such as Fiberglas, which can be molded into any shape, impregnated with a dazzling array of colors. Today's inboard and outboard runabouts are as flashy as any Detroit automaker's creation with upswept tail fins, wrap-around windshields, foam-rubber bucket seats, airplane-type controls—and they come at bargain prices. With mass-production assembly lines, do-it-yourself boat kits, and half-finished boats that the buyer completes himself, a family can buy a 14-ft. speedboat for as little as $307, can build itself a 20-ft. cabin cruiser for less than $3,000 v. the $5,000 (and up) price of a similar boat a few years ago. The cranky outboard motor of yesteryear now comes with a pushbutton starter and plenty of horsepower. Once a 25-h.p. outboard was considered big enough for any occasion. Today, Evinrude, Johnson, Scott-Atwater have engines as big as 40 h.p.; Mercury Outboard even has a mammoth six-cylinder, 60-h.p. outboard in production, and predicts that 100-h.p. outboards will soon be on the market.
Picture Windows. The trend to mass-appeal and family boating is nowhere more evident than in the design of big cabin cruisers. Of Chris-Craft's line of 68-odd stock models (up to 56 ft.), only 16 boats could be called utilitarian fishing craft—all the rest are designed for snappy good looks and family fun. The yachtsman's wife, not the yachtsman himself, is the customer the boatyards want to please. Says a Chris-Craft executive: "Instead of portholes, we have the marine counterpart of the picture window. Men were satisfied with heads and galleys which were functional but inconveniently located. Women won't have it that way; they want galleys in the open, where they can call up the deckhouse easily, and they want plenty of space. The galley has automatic hot-and cold-water systems, dish racks, food-storage cabinets and the main cabin has wall-to-wall carpeting, overstuffed couches, and a TV set."
The boom has grown so fast that many boatmen see a leveling-off period while marinas catch up to the demand. But once the marinas are built, there is no limit to the yachtsman's joy—or the boatbuilders' business.