�� Boat / Marine Dealership Acquisition & SBA Underwriting Financial Model
Underwrite a boat / marine dealership acquisition the way it really works — not as one revenue blob. A dealership is four businesses under one roof, and the iron is not where the money is. This is a lender-ready, 5-year model for buying a single-store boat dealership with an SBA 7(a) loan, built around the two lines no existing template models: the boat floorplan interest and the fixed-ops absorption ratio.
The engine. Revenue and gross are built bottom-up by department — new boats, used boats, F&I (per deal × finance penetration) and parts & service — each at its own margin, so Gross Profit falls out of the mix. In the base case the new and used iron make ~79% of the revenue while the F&I and service departments make ~48% of the gross profit. That is the honest dealership thesis, and the model prices it. The revenue split tracks the public marine consolidators (OneWater FY2025: new 62% / used 19% / service+parts 16% / F&I 3%).
The floorplan, modelled explicitly. Boat inventory is financed on a revolving floorplan line (Wells Fargo CDF, Northpoint — ~100% of invoice at ~5–8%), kept separate from the acquisition loan. Floorplan interest = average inventory at cost × advance rate × floorplan rate, where average inventory = unit cost × days-in-stock ÷ 365. Days-in-stock and the floorplan rate are stressable drivers — the carrying cost that explodes when rates rise and boats stop moving (marine turn averages just ~1.0×; a healthy dealer runs ~2.3×).
The honest headline: the down-cycle. The base-case DSCR looks comfortable at 1.55x — because the acquisition loan is small versus cash flow; the inventory risk lives in the floorplan, not the loan. So the model runs the test the seller’s good-year P&L never will: a normal marine unit down-cycle (−20% volumes — boat sales fell ~20% in 2009) through the fixed overhead, which cuts SDE by ~30% and drops DSCR to 0.89x. Boats are discretionary and cyclical; the bankable story is fixed-ops absorption + floorplan discipline + the down-cycle, not a leverage-amplified cash-on-cash.
What you get: an 11-sheet Excel workbook (works in Google Sheets — no macros, no add-ins, no external links), a PDF user guide, a 3-way profile toggle (outboard & pontoon / full-line & cruiser / used & fixed-ops heavy), an SBA 7(a) capital stack with the 10% injection and $5M-cap checks, a real amortisation schedule, the fixed-ops absorption ratio, the floorplan interest coverage, a DSCR stress grid across days-in-stock × floorplan rate, and a conservative 5-year exit with the equity multiple. Every formula is recomputed by three independent engines (67/67 checks pass).
Honest by design. SDE margin is held at a realistic ~5% (boat dealers run thin); units-per-store and the revenue split are industry-representative estimates drawn from OneWater / MarineMax public filings; the cash-on-cash and equity multiple are stated as leverage-amplified and cyclical; there is deliberately no IRR. Educational planning tool — not financial, investment, tax or lending advice. Verify the seller’s tax returns, the floorplan agreement and your SBA term sheet before relying on any number.