In its recent WaterLife newsletter, the Northwest Marine Trade Association highlighted a September uptick in boat sales in Washington based on the University of Washington Sea Grant data. The state’s Department of Licensing preliminary September data was recently added to the Recreational Boat Sales Dashboard.
According to NMTA, September saw growth in both new and brokerage sales in terms of units and value. New-boat registrations for September increased 18.9% in units and 39.9% in value compared with September 2024. Brokerage registrations in grew 20.4% in units and 45.5% in value.
“The sales data reported in WaterLife is all new (dealer) and used (broker) boat registrations for just Washington state,” NMTA president and CEO George Harris told Trade Only Today. “The data comes direct from the Washington state Department of Licensing and is maintained and reported by the University of Washington Sea Grant. The data does include boats sold by out-of-state dealers and brokers that are registered in Washington. These are defined as new import (dealer) or used dealer import (brokerage) if you go to the Sea Grant site. We do not report the person-to-person or driveway-to-driveway sales in the WaterLife reports, but that data is available at the UW Sea Grant website, too.”
“Unfortunately,” Harris said, “I think the September new boat registration numbers in units are an outlier.”
He said third-quarter new-boat sales in units were down 6.1% compared with the same period a year ago. Year to date (January to September) new-boat registrations in units (4,348) are down 22% from the 2015-2024 average (5,540).
“Note, new boats registered in units that are 27 feet and larger are up 1% for 2025 compared to the 2015-2024 average,” Harris said. “The value of new boats being sold is definitely increasing, and this shows the dramatic increase in new-boat prices over the past three years.”
The NMTA report indicated that the total value of new boats registered year-to-date has risen 13.3% to $393.3 million from $347.1 million. Year to date, brokerage registrations are up 14.7% in units and 19.2% in value. Combined, new and brokerage sales year to date are up 1.3% in units and 15.4% in value.
“The mood in the Northwest depends on who you talk to,” Harris said. “Broadly, I think brokers are doing well as boat buyers shift to used boats large and small for better value. Dealers that sell unique Northwest-built boats are doing well with serious cruisers and anglers here in the Northwest and across the country.”
