The National Marine Manufacturers Association announced its September New Powerboat Registrations Report, showing new powerboat retail sales down 0.9% on a rolling 12-month year-over-year (R12M YOY) basis and up a healthy 5% on a rolling three-month year-over-year (R3M YOY) basis through September. Total new units sold in 2019 (through September) reached 251,000.
“With optimal summer weather arriving later in the season for most of the U.S., we saw an encouraging pickup in new powerboat sales in July, August and September. This pickup offset some of the lag in certain segments the first half of 2019, putting us back on par with where retail unit sales were this time a year ago,” said Vicky Yu, director of business intelligence for NMMA. “Sales of new personal watercraft, wake sport boats and larger saltwater fishing boats continue to lead growth, while sales of new freshwater fishing boats remain down from year-ago highs.”
Insights from the September report include:
- New personal watercraft sales up 7% R12M YOY and up 11% R3M YOY.
- New wake sport boat sales were up 7% R12M YOY and up 13% R3M YOY.
- Sales of new larger fiberglass boats were up 7% R12M YOY and up 13% R3M YOY, driven by saltwater fishing boats 27 ft. and above.
- Sales of new aluminum powerboats were down 6% R12M YOY and down 0.5% R3M YOY, reflecting a softening in freshwater fishing boat sales.
For more information about the NMMA report, visit nmma.org.
