Summer weather was slow to arrive in many parts of the country, and many boat builders had a slow start to the season. However things began to turn around quick as July and August rolled in. Boat sales increased dramatically in August and the cold and wet spring experienced by a lot of the country was quickly forgotten.
From the data gathered from 26 early-reporting states, most of the growth over 2012 was lead by sales of Aluminum pontoon and fishing boats and outboard fiberglass boats. Average sales in the main powerboat segments rose 11.8% in August, totaling 769 boats, bringing the total to 7,286, from the same month in 2012.
Pontoon sales had the largest gain, with a 23.1% jump. Sales of aluminum fishing boats gained 12.4%, and sales of outboard fiberglass boats from 11 to 40 feet climbed up 9.6. The only negative on the report remained slow sales of 14-30 ft. inboard and sterndrive fiberglass boats. This group saw sales fall 6%. Larger Cruisers and Powerboats of the 31-40 ft range saw larger gains of 44.3%, although the total sales on these and powerboats of the 40-62 ft. class were much smaller than the previous classes.
Industry wide sales in the 26 states where data was gathered totaled 12,732, which is an overall increase of 12.8%, totaling 1,445 more boats sold over last August. As usual states in warmer areas such as Florida and Texas were the best performers, reporting 1,989 and 1,977 sales, respectively, Fleshing out the rest of the top tens states, Michigan ranked third with 922, California (856), North Carolina and New York (both with 657), Georgia (643), South Carolina (532), New Jersey (466) and Tennessee (445).
Although final data from 24 states is yet to be available, the industry is looking like it will surpass the totals for August 2012, when 17,984 boats were sold.
<img src=”http://images.powerboatnation.com/boatsales0924.jpg”>
