"This wasn't affecting the people who bought the boats," he said, "but the people who built the boats."

Since then, owners Bob and Bill Healey retooled their processes for efficiency, and now nearly all the parts that make up a Viking - except for some mechanical and electronic parts like the 82's MTU V16 engines and Bose surround sound system - are made and assembled at its Bass River factory.

Viking Yachts is a division of Viking Associates, which now has holdings in other industries, such as electronics, real estate and energy, so it can withstand a slump in one sector.

No matter how efficient and diversified they are, though, when people are buying fewer boats, it inevitably means they don't need as many people building them.

"By trimming our work forces, we're just going back to efficiency. It's what we have to do in this business climate," Frederiksen said. "It's just a difficult market, and boats are always discretionary income."

Inside the 82, Frederiksen sat at the bar and slipped blue plastic booties over his sneakers so he wouldn't dirty the brand new carpeting. On the floor was Bill Gibbons, a 33-year employee and now a senior engineer, who was opening a brand new power converter as if it was already Christmas.

"This is just a magnificent boat," he said, seemingly surprised even though he was integral in its production. "It really is."

There is already an interested buyer in Atlantic City for this particular 82, which costs about $5.5 million, but before he can buy it, the company will use it as a demo model. On Saturday morning it left for a four-day trip to Florida, where it will be shown to a few of the 13 clients who already have paid deposits on their own 82s, as well as premiere in February at the 2009 Miami Yacht & Brokerage Show.

Viking doesn't make boats that have less than seven figures on their price tags, and Frederiksen said a typical Viking customer is buying his or her fifth or sixth boat. For these clients, the question whether to buy a new yacht isn't decided by their own income, but if they can find someone a little less wealthy who will buy their used boat.

"In order to move up, you have to find someone to buy your (45-footer) if you want the (50-footer)," he said. "It's not that they can't afford it, they just might not be interested in being a two-boat owner when they can only use one."

"Boats are expensive toys, and it costs a lot more, proportionally, to the guy who's buying the 45 than the 50."

After washing the boat and wiping its windows, Dave Wilson, who heads the design department with his father, Bruce, walked through the electric sliding door into the cabin. Wilson is another longtime Viking employee, who started working in the factory crafting furniture for the yachts and worked his way up.

"They call it the School of Hard Knocks," he said, explaining how he learned boat design. "The University of New Gretna."

By midafternoon, Wilson and the rest of the crew were mostly finished prepping the boat for its voyage south. It was an ironic image, as the multimillion-dollar yacht sat in the shadow of casinos reeling from the recession, resting before it would be previewed by some of the world's wealthiest boating enthusiasts.

But it seems even with a dire economic forecast, there's still always someone waiting to cast off.

"It's like fishing," Frederiksen said about the yacht business. "You know the fish are out there."

E-mail Lee Procida:

LProcida@pressofac.com