Features

Now in its fifth year, Boating Industry’s annual recognition program of strong young leaders in the marine industry shines a spotlight on a unique group of individuals leading the pack. Selected from around 200 nominations from across the industry, this year’s group features prominent young professionals form all segments of the marine industry from boat dealers to manufacturers and everything ...

By Adam Quandt Boating Industry was recently invited down to Mercury Marine’s famous Lake X, for an exclusive look at Mercury’s new 600hp V12 Verado outboard. Between test runs of the new engine on various boats, Boating Industry had the chance to catch up with Mercury Marine president Chris Drees. BI: You’re two years in at the helm at Mercury ...

By Wanda Kenton Smith Marine marketer Victor Gonzalez is heavily involved in the web development scene and teaches programming, design and web development online to anyone looking to enhance their skills.  He’s pretty good at his day job too. The director of marketing for Sportsman Boats recently helped his company earn the coveted “King Neptune” Best-in-Competition Award from Marine Marketers ...

By David Gee In this ongoing series about smart boats, we are going to explore the smart boat space in general, and also interview the entrepreneurs and executives who are trying to make your boat smarter and boat ownership easier. This is a Q&A with David Villegas, co-founder and business development director of Boatrax, a Florida-based telematics service provider. BI: ...

By Adam Quandt For the last four years, BRP’s Sea-Doo has taken training dealers in its largest market — Florida — to a whole new level. “Florida is one of the biggest marine and personal watercraft markets in the world and there are over 1,500 people moving to Florida every day, with most of the movers seeking sunshine and fun ...

By David Gee When Ambrose Weeres, a rural Minnesota farmer and grain mill owner strapped a plywood sheet to two columns of 55-gallon steel drums to create the first pontoon boat in 1951, the idea was a relatively simple one. “I worked on it and designed the tubes, then a raft, and kept going until I had a boat,” explained ...

We might be into 2021, but the team at Boating Industry isn’t quite done celebrating the 2020 Boating Industry Top 100 Dealers. Boating Industry announced the 2020 Top 100 Best in Class Award winners via video on March 24, 2021. “The 2020 Best in Class winning dealerships are truly dealerships that set the standard in particular areas of the business,” ...

By David Gee What will determine success for your dealership during this 2021 selling season? The overall economy? For sure. Consumer confidence? Check. Workforce issues and challenges? Yep. That trio hovers at – or near – the top of the list nearly every year. But this year, two new entrants rear their ugly heads: inventory, or lack thereof, and the ...

By Adam Quandt Boats are getting smarter. This is a trend that isn’t going away. Over the last five or so years, we’ve heard the term the “connected boat” more and more across the industry. But what is the connected boat and what does it mean for the future of the industry and boating as a whole? As technology and ...

By Wanda Kenton Smith Kristen Frohnhoefer, president of Sea Tow Services International, Inc. and the Sea Tow Foundation board of directors, was raised in the family business, but came aboard full time in 2003 after a teaching career. She has worked in virtually all aspects of the business and oversees internal operations. Besides selection as the 2020 Darlene Briggs Marine ...