Boating Industry Canada

Here, members of the Kerrwil team, Tom Kjaersgaard, Greg Nicoll, Ian Gilson and Andy Adams consult their crystal ball hoping to understand the future better – nothing appeared, so we are using new industry research and statistics!

ARE YOU SURPRISED?
WE WERE.

Totalling the new and transfer data we see that in January of 2007, there were 1,664 registrations, rising 17.1% to 1,949 in 2008 with virtually all the increase among new boat registrations – almost certainly a result of the extremely high Canadian dollar. In January 2009, transfers of used boats held up but new sales dropped 43.5% from the record-breaking 2008 levels.

On a year-to-date running total to the end of April in each year, we saw a total of 17,023 transfers in 2007, 19,353 in 2008 and 17,638 in 2009. If we accept

2008 as an exceptional year and take it out of the mix, 2009 is ahead of 2007 (a good year at the time) by 615 registrations. Specifically, new is down 8.3% while transfers (or used registrations) are up 16.4%.

At present, we have access to limited data. Other registration information gathered but not reported are what the dollar values are, what the boat sizes and types were and whether these were fiberglass or aluminum; all those dimensions would really clarify the story. But, it’s hardly a story of disaster!

Brock Elliott at Campion Boats in Kelowna was rocked to see that total 2009 registrations were actually ahead of 2007 numbers.

Brock raised the question, “What about the sizes of those boats? People are buying smaller boats in my opinion; 14 feet to 20 feet is where the market is now. The 24 foot and up…the larger boats…that market is really soft.”

Brock offered this interesting opinion, “Buyers seem to feel that they cannot afford to buy new.”

The global crisis of confusion and our strong used boat sales seem to bear that out, but maybe it’s because buyers are hunting for fire sale pricing. We spoke to Len Baronit at Yacht Sales West in Vancouver. He said, “Things are pretty bad. I’m still feeling optimistic but getting closure on sales is very difficult. You have to deliver boats now. August is too late. I’m getting 50% of the numbers I expected.”

Len shared a story about a used boat bought in the US for a third the price of a new boat. At first, it sounds really bad, but it was a low hours 2003 and when you consider the age and lack of US market strength, maybe it wasn’t such a shocking deal.