Withdrawal Symptoms

An increasing percentage of first-time buyers appear to be selling their boats and leaving the sport, creating a new sense of urgency among industry experts who want to see a stronger focus on retention efforts. Historically, first-time buyers have been more likely to sell than boaters who have participated in the sport for years.

On average, roughly 20% of new-boat buyers will have sold their boat after four years, says Jack Ellis, founder and managing partner at Miami-based Info-Link Technologies. That figure has now ticked up to 23% or 24%, according to an analysis Info-Link did in late January for Soundings Trade Only about people who purchased a boat during the pandemic sales surge. Although the percentage is only slightly elevated compared with similar analysis done just one year ago, Ellis says, the fact that so many newcomers bought boats during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns may be creating a perception among dealers that a startling number of people are leaving the sport compared with years past.

“It’s not an exodus,” Ellis says. “Yes, the percentage of people selling their boats is slightly higher, but the primary thing is that because there are more of them, it can feel like more of them.”

There’s no way to be certain why the percentage is creeping higher, experts say, but anecdotal evidence suggests that a combination of factors continues to weigh on consumers. High prices from inflation are causing people to cut back on discretionary spending, paired with an increased feeling of anxiety and a general sense of being time-crunched that prevents people from using their boats at all.

“There appears to be a decline in boat usage,” says Matt Gruhn, president of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “The dealers are talking about it, that throughout all the ups and downs of our industry, boat usage has largely stayed the same. They have this anecdotal evidence that the boat ramps aren’t as busy. The waterways aren’t as busy. There’s no data, but it seems like there’s some kind of a decline.”

Ellis says there’s also a growing rumble about people who want to sell their boats but can’t afford to take the kind of loss that they likely would have to endure. “They’re having a difficult time coming to the reality that this boat that they paid sticker for is worth considerably less now,” he says.

Last August, Boats Group listing data revealed a year-over-year spike of nearly 40% in preowned boats that were just a year old. These boats were holding their value because they’re so young but were coming up against deliveries of brand-new models to dealerships with better financing deals and purchasing incentives.

Dealers may be hearing from a growing number of would-be sellers who feel trapped in that situation, with late-model boats that are depreciating faster than they expected, Ellis says. Those conversations may not yet be adding to boater-retention percentages in actual data, but they could be adding to the perception some dealers have of a significant problem building. “We can only measure what happened,” Ellis says. “What I don’t know is how many people would like to get out and they just can’t, because they can’t stomach selling their boat at a $30,000 loss.”

MRAA and the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation have been working for years on trying to identify what happens between an excited newcomer taking delivery of his first-ever boat and that same person wanting out of the sport altogether within a few years. “I think the problem is happening after they buy the boat,” says Stephanie Vatalaro, RBFF senior vice president of strategy and operations. “There’s not enough happening after that to support their journey in boating. They need to be given more information, more resources. They need to be nurtured.”

RBFF is planning to start three pilot programs this year with different types of events, training, educational opportunities and other ideas to try and determine which solutions might work best. “We want to test out some of these messages that we have gotten from the research and then showcase to the industry how they worked,” Vatalaro says. “We think that creating these best practices and then showcasing them will get people’s brains turning and inspire them. If it’s getting more customers, they’ll want to do it, too.”

Gruhn says MRAA is also working on problems related to the customer experience that may be frustrating newcomers, including long wait times for repairs, even for minor problems. “We have, in our industry, workforce issues. We have shortages,” Gruhn says. “At the end of the day, the problem is not the workforce shortage; the problem is the customer-service issue. If we don’t have enough technicians to repair boats and get people out on the water, they’re going to sell their boats and go do something else.”

Dealers who place a greater emphasis on enhancing the customer experience tend to be successful, he adds. For instance, Gruhn once visited a dealer in Texas whose goal was to get his customers out on the water five times each season. Something about that fifth day using the boat in a single
season solidified in people’s minds that the keeping the boat was worth the expense. “He had raft-ups. He had events at the marina. He had on-water events,” Gruhn says. “He had activities that they could do on this really big lake, so he’d do geocaching treasure-hunt things. He had multiple events every month just in an effort to get them on the water.”

Vatalaro says RBFF research shows a lot of people saying they drop out of boating because they’re strapped for time. That response is problematic, she says, “because you make time for the things you love.”

To counter the feeling that leads to selling the boat, RBFF is working on ways to remind people about the great times they’ve had on the water, provide educational resources that help them have fun, and offer cost-effective, beginner equipment, such as fishing rods, to help new boaters make the most of the ownership experience. “We’re working closely with MRAA as we get these case studies and learnings,” Vatalaro says. “We’re building content to go in their education hub, so dealers will have access to it.”

As that information continues to be compiled, Gruhn says, dealers can be thinking about providing better experiences for new-boat buyers in all kinds of ways that might be helpful. “We don’t really have detailed data on what dealers are doing better or worse on boater retention, but there are definitely best practices on how dealers go about providing a world-class customer experience,” he says. “There’s dealers who have a consistent, predictable sales process that focuses on customer needs. There’s a delivery process whereby the dealers provide really good education — the features, the functions, how to use the boat, making sure the owner feels comfortable docking in close quarters. There’s regular follow-up among dealers to their customers where they’re checking in with them to see how the customers are doing and if they’re having any problems.

“When we had the Great Recession and people were not buying boats, they were still using their boats,” he adds. “They were less likely to take a long trip, but they were anchoring out and playing in the water with their family and friends. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the economy. Being on a boat is fun. We have to find ways to show people that this is an option for them.”