Quintrex “ready for summer” as new boats appear on the horizon

Quintrex is believed to be close to its launch of a new range of boats featuring flat transoms as part of BRP’s global roll-out of an all-new outboard engine that packages like an inboard one.

The new “Stealth Technology” Rotax engine is also spawning a new generation of Quintrex boats built to make the most use of it.

Quintrex has already announced the new engine will be fitted to three Freestyler bowrider models – one all-new model that will come only with the new Rotax engine and two others that buyers can choose between the new Rotax or a traditional outboard engine – that are due on sale next year. The Freestyler bowrider is one of Australia's most popular boats.

Publishing its second-quarter results this week, BRP said Telwater’s new-boat production was “ready for the upcoming Australian boating season”.

The results for the first half of the year, which ended on July 31, also show that sales fell across all of BRP’s powersports products, with the Asia Pacific region that includes Australia falling by 3.0 per cent compared with the previous year – although not as much as its rivals.

Of note, two out of every five buyers who add a BRP product to their driveway or garage are new to the brand.

On a positive note, supply issues that have limited BRP’s ability to build products such as jet skis – think semicionductor shortages, higher prices of aluminium and fibreglass, and the cost of and delays to delivering – all showing signs of improvement.

A highlight of BRP’s first-half performance has been the Sea-Doo Switch, a jet ski-pontoon boat hybrid that has taken the North American market by storm since its introduction last year.

Orders for the Switch – which has not yet been earmarked for the Australian market – have already numbered three times what BRP expected them to be.

On the Australian front, Telwater’s half-year result is down almost 10 per cent for the half-year, BRP’s financial results show,  with performance down in the “high single-digit percentage” for the year to date. Telwater is believed to be behind up to three out of every five new boat sales in the Australian market.

No other details about the Australian market’s performance were released. A spokesperson for Telwater said its retail sales had only been "slightly impacted" by restraints in its supply chain.