Denison Yachting this week released its analysis of the recreational boating market’s performance in the third quarter of 2022.

The company describes the quarter as ‘tumultuous,’ citing that boat sales dropped by 9.5% in the U.S., 19 % in Asia and 11% collectively in France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In addition, customers in China, Japan and Singapore bought fewer boats in Q3 than in any third quarter since 2015.

In a statement, the company said, “With uncertain economic conditions, supply chain constraints and an overall reduction in global trade, Q3 has been a challenging quarter for the boating sector. Nevertheless, taking pre-pandemic numbers as a baseline, the industry demonstrated remarkable resilience.”

Globally, customers bought 10% fewer boats than they did in the third quarter of 2021, representing a 30% drop from the record sales in the third quarter of 2020. However, numbers were only 9% below the third quarter of 2019.

In the United States, the Southeast, Gulf Coast, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions remained the most dominant yacht markets for the third consecutive Q3. Collectively, sales in these markets dropped by 10% from the third quarter of 2021 but still made up 70% of total sales in the United States.

According to the report, Southern regions demonstrated greater resilience than the northern coastal markets because of an influx of boaters to the south for the summer. Sales in the Northeast were 14% lower than in the third quarter of 2021, but sales in the Southeast dropped by just 5%.

The Great Lakes was the only region with higher sales in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year. Boat sales in this market accounted for 12% of the total U.S. sales, an increase of 9% over the third quarter of 2021.

On average, sales of center consoles, motoryachts, sportfish boats, trawlers and daysailers were 8% lower than in the third quarter of 2021. Center consoles were the best-selling boats, accounting for 42% of all boat sales in the U.S., up from 36% in the third quarter of 2021. On the other hand, motoryachts dropped by 32%.

Sportfish sales fell back to pre-pandemic levels, recording a 14% drop from the third quarter of 2021, while trawlers remained the same as last year. Day sailboats were down 20%.

Finally, luxury yacht charters were up by 20% in 2022 over the previous year. Denison expects the charter business to be strong in the year’s final quarter and beyond.