US boat sales soar, but Australia appears to stumble

Industry figures revealed this week show around 420,000 buyers in the US who had never owned a boat before popped the ownership cherry in 2021.

Data compiled by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and market intelligence group Info-Link showed first-time recreational boaters accounted for around 34 per cent of new and used boats changing hands in the US in 2021, meaning total new and used boat sales hovered around the 1.2 million mark.

More significantly, this is the second year running where the number of first-time boat buyers has bumped past the 415,000 benchmark set a decade and a half ago in 2007, shortly before the US-based global credit crunch sparked a worldwide recession that, among other things such as sending carmakers GM and Chrysler broke, decimated the recreational boating industry.

According to the NMMA, first-time boaters were still “driving growth for the recreational boating industry and further reinforcing heightened demand for boats since the outset of the pandemic”.

However, even though the longer-term forecast for the North American market does not remain as glossy, it is still bright.

“The boating industry has seen tremendous growth the last two years as more Americans discovered the freedoms, special moments and accessibility of the boating lifestyle, giving us valuable momentum and creating a strong foundation,” NMMA marketing and communications senior vice-president Ellen Bradley said.

“Maintaining this momentum is especially important given potential headwinds including competition for consumer spending in the leisure market, inflation on everything from gas and groceries to furniture and apparel, continued supply chain disruptions, and the war in Ukraine,” Bradley said. 

“The industry should be thinking strategically about how to manage through these impacts while reinforcing efforts to retain new boat owners, engage long-time customers, and attract the next generation."

That means sales are expected to soften as the pent-up demand for boats is met, although with a big backlog of orders and even more first-time buyers queueing up to buy should see numbers fall only slightly during 2022.

Back home, the Boating Industry Association no longer keeps records of new boat sales in Australia. However, the strength of the US boating market is definitely having an impact here.

Several Australian-based US boat distributors have complained that they are losing sales after struggling to get enough new boats imported here to meet customer demand, while Australia-based boatmakers are unable to get enough of the running gear they need – specifically US-made outboard engines, boat wiring looms and even digital gauges for the boat’s dashboard – to fit to the products they build.

Boatsales.com.au has even heard reports of customers offering thousands of dollars more than a boat’s retail price just to jump to the head of the queue, and of others who flip a boat for more money than they paid for it after just months of ownership.

The cost of sending boats from the US to Australia has also increased sharply as the number of containers on ships plying the world’s ports fall short of demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Local Mastercraft distributor Mastercraft Boats Melbourne announced this week it had new stock of ski and wake sports boats in its showroom for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Australian boat builders are also paying more for accessing the materials they need to build their boats – aluminium prices are up around 30 per cent compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the same goes for the cost of fibreglass after key inputs used to make resin were diverted to meet – of all things – a growing worldwide demand for hand sanitiser.

The BIA was asked for comment on the strength of Australian new-boat sales.