Big things we can look forward to in 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disruptive force on just about anything, and not just here in Australia.

Some of the results have been surprising, such as a resurgence in boat sales that we hear, anecdotally, are approaching numbers we haven't seen since the 2008-09 global credit crunch that decimated consumer spending worldwide.

But things are getting better, and particularly in the boating world, there are a few changes happening that will improve the outlook for a lot of people keen to get out on the water.

What, then, will we look forward to the most? Here, boatsales.com.au looks into the most anticipated moves that we expect for 2022.

This year will be the biggest yet for Riviera and Maritimo, Australia’s big two luxury motor yacht manufacturers.

Each will use 2022 to launch their biggest models yet. For Riviera, it will be the Riviera 78 Motor Yacht, while over at Maritimo, it will be the Maritimo S75 sedan and M75 flybridge models.

The global market for ever-larger luxury long-range cruisers is growing, and both are happy to oblige.

We’re likely to see the Riviera 78 launched locally at the 2021 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in May, while the Maritimo M75 is likely to appear version later in the year before the sedan version creates its splash, possibly in 2023.

Both Riviera – which exports more than half the boats it builds and last year won an award for putting Queensland manufacturing on the global map – and Maritimo are still chasing the skilled craftspeople who will help them cope with swelling order books that, at the moment, reach well into 2023 and possibly beyond.

One of the unexpected victims of the global coronavirus pandemic has been the Australian boat show.

While some – Perth and Sanctuary Cove stand out – have been able to pull off the near-impossible and have staged an event over the last two years, for others such as Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, the wait for boat shows to return have been a rocky one.

At this point in time, a number of planned shows that haven’t staged since 2019 look likely to return this year.

The 2022 Sydney International Boat Show scheduled for late July will even have new managers, the same ones who plan for and run the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, so expect a new experience when it returns.

Melbourne will get an all-new event, the 2022 Discover Boating Showcase, in April, with plans for the bigger Melbourne International Boat Show to return in June.

This is the year that outboard engine maker Mercury tests the water with electrification.

But rather than go with a consumer-friendly battery and motor, instead Mercury will build, supply and support the electrically driven powertrains a new race series featuring foiling boats.

Just like in Formula 1, the race-hardened technology will provide plenty of feedback for the development of mainstream electric outboard motors, particularly in terms of how they use that power efficiently.

So far, Yamaha is the only mainstream outboard engine maker to look at electrification, building what looks like an amped-up trolling motor for low-speed cruising. Mercury's high-performance application will be at the opposite end of this technology.

But we also have to remember that last year Mercury also rolled out its biggest and most powerful conventionally powered outboard engine yet, the mighty 600hp Mercury V12 Verado.

This engine not only set a performance benchmark but also introduced some cutting-edge technology including a two-speed automatic transmission and a lower turning gearcase that allows the engines to be mounted closer together than if they turned like a conventional unit.

You don’t expect that Mercury would roll out all this tech and apply it to just one engine. Read between the lines, and it is also equally applicable to pretty much every high-performance engine in Mercury’s line-up.

We’ve also seen patents filed in the US that hint there’s more to come, including the possibility of a three-speed automatic transmission.

Mercury’s mic drop in 2021 is also likely to have spurred other outboard engine makers to attention, so maybe we can expect some revolutionary things from them this year too?

The pandemic has seen a profound shift in the Australian boating market. 

The rise of the so-called “staycation” – where people look for holiday experiences near to where they live – has resulted in unprecedented demand from people either new to boating or looking to get back into it after years of staying onshore.

However, with international borders starting to reopen, and some buyers looking at converting a little-used boat or jet ski into a European holiday, the used market should step up in pace.

Also helping things will be the re-opening of the global supply chains that have also been hit hard by the pandemic.

The disruption to global supply routes as international factories close to cope with COVID-19 outbreaks and the demand for shipping containers has significantly outstripped supply has hit everything from the supply of the materials used to build boats – a fair bit of the acetone used to make fibreglass resin was diverted into making hand sanitiser, for instance – and the bits boats need such as outboard engines.

Also hurting boats and jet skis has been a global shortage of the silicon chips used to make the sophisticated dashboards that boats and jet skis use.

The limited supply of new boats has pushed up demand for quality used boats, so the secondhand market is just as hard-hit as the new one.

However, with more people suddenly thinking about a skiing holiday in Austria or a few weeks of sun in the French Riviera, today’s boat in the driveway could be the funds needed for tomorrow’s plane ticket.

Whatever 2022 brings to the Australian boating community, it has to be better than the last two years.