It’s less than 24 hours since my flight from Florida touched down after a whirlwind week at the Miami International Boat Show. Overall, there was a lot of enthusiastic optimism from the trade this year, despite the multitudes of uncertainty currently facing it.
Top of mind among the folks I spoke with were the recently announced tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum imports that could potentially hurt boatbuilders along with accessories and components makers. “Some of us are better-prepared than others,” one components and accessories leader told me. “We shored a bunch of our supply chains during Covid and the last round of tariffs, but others may not be so lucky.” Our next issue will feature a deep dive on tariffs and their potential effects on the industry.
In better news, the continuing issue of inflated dealer inventory seems to be improving. “We’re almost back to normal,” one fishboat dealer told me. “Our 2024 inventory is almost gone, and our builder has told us they’ll be more conservative about the numbers they ship in 2025. I’d rather have less to sell than running our floorplan with super-high interest.”
I was excited again this year to be asked to serve on the judging panel for the Miami Innovation Awards. The panel, composed of journalists who belong to Boating Writers International, arrives the Sunday before the show and spends two days walking amid the forklifts and cherry pickers, hearing elevator pitches on new products from manufacturers and boatbuilders. While many people say technology and innovation have stalled in the industry, we saw lots of better mousetraps, including a new gyrostabilizer that spools up in a third of the time previously required to realize stabilization. I don’t think the industry is resting on its innovation laurels — not even a little.
Show organizers announced at the industry breakfast that the Herald Plaza and Venetian Marina venues next year will move to Miami Beach’s Indian Creek, where a separate event made its home for many years. Trying to get back and forth from the Miami Beach Convention Center across the water has been a challenge during the past few years because of Miami traffic, so the new location will make it easier for attendees to see more of the show. The commitment is three years at the new location.
Though we don’t have official attendance numbers yet, show floor and dock traffic felt light, at least in the ramp-up to the weekend. Still, exhibitors I spoke with felt as if the quality of the attendees was high. “We’ve had a lot of buyers and lookers,” one exhibitor said. “And the people who have tapped us for help seem ready to buy or are contemplating purchase in the next 12 months. That bodes well for 2025. I think it’s going to be a good year despite challenges.”
The RV industry is facing some of those same challenges, and in this issue, we take a look at what that industry has in common or can offer to help the marine trade. Our anchor feature tells the story of my midwinter visit to Elkhart, Ind., where RV and marine components and accessories manufacturers and boatbuilders churn out billions of products every year. It was minus-8 Fahrenheit when I landed in Chicago, and it only got colder the next day in Elkhart. Still, three companies opened their factory floors and offices so I could get a glimpse of what they do. The fascinating look into their worlds starts on Page 22 in the print edition of Soundings Trade Only.
This time each year, we also investigate the boater retention equation to see what we can do as an industry to keep the folks who buy boats in the sport for as long as possible. There’s been an unfortunate loss of boaters in the recreational ranks, but there are strategies we can implement to reverse the trend line. You can get a look at these strategies staring on Page 34 in the print edition.
Senior editor David Conway provides excellent reporting on Correct Craft’s centennial celebrations and the company’s history beginning on Page 26 in the print edition. The Florida company is a $1 billion-plus operation with boatbuilding facilities across the country. How the team got there is an intriguing story, filled with plenty of examples of leadership that prevailed when faced with adversity.
That ability — to overcome adversity — was tested by a lot of things in the past 100 years, from the Great Depression to the 1979 gas shortage. It felt good at this year’s Miami show to hear so many industry leaders talking about how they plan to overcome the challenges the trade is facing today. Enthusiasm and optimism can go quite a long way.
