While economy pontoons have been among the best sellers in the last two years, some extremely high end models like the Harris Grand Mariner have also done well. (Harris Pontoons)
The National Marine Manufacturers’ Association (NMMA) is both industry cheerleader and watchdog, and the industry group put on cheerleader togs for the 2024 retail report released recently.
“Flatlining Is Good”, could be the headline of the report, which generally indicates that recreational boat sales stayed more or less flat from 2023 to 2024 and then declined a bit in 2024.
The reason that no growth is not seen as a harbinger of disaster to come—as it often is in various businesses—is that the boating biz went through an astounding boom during the COVID years, when many of us had lots of extra time on our hands and government-issued checks to spend.
Now, the party is over and things are back to “normal”, so not surprisingly there’s a slowdown—but not a bust—in sales.
NMMA reported total new powerboat retail unit sales in 2024 declined an estimated 9%-12%, to approx. 230,000-240,000 units in the U.S. Inflation and high interest rates were the big culprits, the association surmises.
In terms of boat sales trends, new freshwater fishing boats held steady in 2024 compared to 2023 at approximately 51,000-54,000 new units sold. The other two volume leaders in 2024 were new personal watercraft and new pontoon boats, estimated at approximately 70,000-75,000 and 52,000-55,000 new unit sales, respectively, but with projected final declines between 10%-13% in 2024 compared to the prior year.
These categories often represent a lower comparable price point and ease of use as they are typically towed to local waterways, signaling continued demand for boating among “value-seeking buyers”, per NMAA—in other words, the vast majority of us who don’t own yachts.
Note that value seeking may not apply to some pontoon boats—Mercedes class boats like the Harris Grand Mariner 250 go for over $225,000, well beyond the budget of most weekend boaters. Hey, put 20% down, finance it for 20 years (you can actually do this) and the payments are only about $1,460 a month.
I don’t know about you, but I’d have a tough time explaining that to the family finance committee, which is made up of my wife.
But there are plenty of pontoon boat packages like some from Tracker, including trailer, for around $30,000 for an 18’ model, $35,000 for a 20-footer with a 60-hp outboard. These boats are big enough for a family of four to tube, dayboat and fish, though they’re underpowered for water skiing of surfing.
Mercury’s Avator outboard matched to small, light boats makes a suitable package for small water fishing or dayboating at moderate cost. (Mercury Marine)
New e-boats, though slow, are quiet, affordable and eco-friendly, and there are more options than ever in the 2025 class. Mercury, at the heart of the internal combustion outboard business, also now has an electric outboard line, the Avator, that appears to be selling well.
In any event, NMMA projects, with a business friendly climate forecast for 2025 and beyond, more people will have more money to spend and will spend some of it on new boats, returning at least some parts of the biz to the plus side in growth.
More Boats You Can Afford: Canoes and Kayaks
While powerboats are pricey and for most of us require long term payments, canoes and kayaks are inexpensive and most can buy them straight up.
That plus rapidly spreading how-to on social media have made these the most popular watercraft in America over the last decade. Between 90,000 and 105,000 canoes and 350,000 kayaks are sold annually, according to industry figures.
Of course, a fishing ‘yak can be anything from a $200 Wal-Mart special to a $6,000 fully-rigged Hobie with pedals, electric motor and forward-facing sonar/GPS package among many other features.
But we are clearly buying a bunch of them. (I have two currently, in addition to my pontoon, and the ‘yaks get more use in spring when the bass are on the beds and big sea trout are in the shallows.) You can find some interesting how-to stuff here: https://americankayak.org.
— Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com
