today, who are said to prefer living in large urban centers more than members of past generations.
“John said, ‘If I can make it something that they can store in their downtown condo and make it affordable, yeah, there’s a huge market for that,’” Stubkjaer says.
Sea-Doo also appears to believe that a smaller, less expensive jet ski could be a hit with water sports enthusiasts. Its Spark model has a base price of $5,399, and the company says it’s light enough for many compact sedans to tow. (The Sea-Doo Spark does not come apart like the BomBoard does, so an owner would still need a trailer to transport it.) For comparison, three of the four other models listed on Sea-Doo’s website cost $12,000 and up.
West had sought to sell BomBoard’s machines under a direct-to-consumer business model, Stubkjaer says. In theory, eschewing dealership networks would be a way to cut out the middle man and keep the price of the BomBoard as low as possible. Stubkjaer says that if he’s successful in finding a buyer, it would be up to that party whether to continue with the direct sales approach, or to change course.
“We still think that’s the right strategy, but not everybody in the industry thinks so,” Stubkjaer says. “If somebody takes over [the company], they could choose to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to sell through dealers instead of direct,’ for example. That would be up to them.”
Stubkjaer says he’d be happy to help get an acquirer up to speed on what it will take to commercialize BomBoard’s compact jet ski.
“I certainly would help with the transition, if I needed to be involved part-time,” he says. “I’d love to do that. But that would be up to the buyer to decide on what they’d like to do.”
