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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 ...

By Adam Quandt The boat business has found itself booming over the last year. Sales are up across the board for both new and used boats. But what does that mean for the entertainment components designed to bring the boaters’ experience to the next level? Audio options offer one of the easiest points for boaters to make some simple upgrades ...

By David Gee With a history dating all the way back to 1930, when the first “inboard/outboard” was introduced by Johnson Motor Company, the sterndrive space has seen constant investment, improvement and innovation. And that continues today, especially since the pandemic drove a record rise in boat sales, and perhaps reinvigorated the sterndrive category. “We’ve continued to see consistent demand ...

By Adam Quandt While many parts of the country deal with snow and freezing temperatures, it’s hard to think about the coming warm months and another season of personal watercraft riding and selling. But that’s exactly what powersports dealers are doing, after an unprecedented year of PWC sales last year. The most recent statistics from the National Marine Manufacturers Associations ...

In an effort to further boost its students’ endeavors to launch their careers when they graduate, The Landing School in Arundel, Maine, has dedicated a section of its website to videos and resumes showcasing its student body. The Student Resume pages include short clips of each participating student discussing their ideal job and their experience, with a resume available under ...

By Adam Quandt The show must go on. Much like nearly every other association in the boating industry, the Association of Marina Industries (AMI) was faced with a tough decision in its annual AMI Conference & Expo (formerly known as the International Marina and Boatyard Conference and Expo, or IMBC). As the global pandemic continues, AMI made the decision to ...

When we told Dan and David Bair, the second-generation owners and operators of Quality Boats of Tampa, they won the Top 100 Dealer of the Year Award for the second year in a row, our most immediate question was how does it feel? “It feels just as exciting the second time as the first,” saidDan enthusiastically. Enthusiasm is something that ...