Value-priced boats helped boost sales in July as categories like aluminum fish, personal watercraft and jetboats all had strong months. They helped propel a 10.3% increase in July sales with 12,564 units, compared with 11,387 in the same month last year. For the total recreational boating industry, July 2023 saw 24,668 new boats sold, an increase of 19.6% over July 2022’s 20,625. That brought the year-over-year numbers to 181,858, which was 2.6% higher than 2022’s 177,229. That’s the first time this year that the overall numbers were on the plus side.

“Our payoffs were up 10%, which means the value of the boats sold were a little more on the value side,” says Chad Lyon, managing director of Wells Fargo commercial distribution finance. “We feel like that whatever promotions and incentives were run, they were impacting the less-expensive units.”

His comments were based on data provided by Statistical Surveys, a Michigan-based firm that compiled information from 32 states, representing about 61.66% of the U.S. recreational boating market.

For the second straight month, aluminum fish had the strongest numbers among the main powerboat segments, with 2,777 new registrations in July compared with 2,133 last year. That translated to a 30.2% increase and narrowed the year-over-year growth comparison to nearly even, with 25,020 in 2023 versus 25,240, a difference of 0.9%.

The folks with money kept spending, with 15 yachts larger than 66 feet sold in July, a 15.4% increase over last year’s 13. Pontoon boats came in third with 4,204 new models sold, a boost of 8.1% above July 2022’s 3,890.

Personal watercraft continued to make a big recovery from last year’s supply-chain struggles, with 8,755 new registrations in July, a 43.4% jump over last year’s 6,105. This brought the year-over-year sales to 55,428 for 2023, a 28.8% gain over 2022’s 43,039.

Following that trend, jetboats also continued to rebound, with sales of 523 in July versus last July’s 403. The year-to-date figures for jetbaots were 3,493 in 2023, a 5.2% gain over last year’s 3,320.

Lyon says a combination of improved weather and late-summer incentives likely contributed to those figures. “I think it took a little bit of time for the collective industry to get to the point where they realized they needed more enticers than they had budgeted for,” he says.

Sales of electric boats short-circuited in July, with 10 new models, a 54.5% decline from 2022’s 22. Sailboats were also down significantly, with 101 new registrations, a 24.1% drop compared to last year’s 133.

Overall current registrations in the United States numbered 24,668 compared with 20,625 last July. Florida continued to lead the way with 3,716, followed by Texas at 3,006, Michigan’s 2,112, Georgia at 1,482 and California at 1,344. 

This article was originally published in the October 2023 issue.