Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
MIAMI – Through October, most boat segments tracked by Info-Link Technologies Inc.’s Bellwether Report continued to make modest gains, with only the ski boat segment losing ground, according to the company’s most recent report. The company’s rolling graphs of year-over-year changes shows sales remain significantly below the highs of a few years ago, but have slowly crept back from the depths of the recession. The graphs can be viewed at: http://www.info-link.com/bellwetherreport.asp.
The gains started in July, when all segments except PWC were either slightly up or flat. In October, ski boats were down and PWC was flat, but all other segments were slightly up.
Unit sales of powerboats 15 feet in length and above were down about 30 percent during the 12-month period ended Oct. 31.
Within the outboard boat segment, unit sales were down about 28 percent during the same period, while the sterndrive/jet boat segment sales were down about 33 percent, the personal watercraft segment was down about 26 percent, the outboard sportfishing segment was down about 32 percent (a four percentage point gain from September) and the ski boat segment was down about 29 percent (a two percentage point loss).
The bellwether report is based on new U.S. boat registrations in geographically dispersed states representing roughly half of the U.S. boat market.
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