Boating-Industry Insider » Economy

What was the only state where marine spending increased in 2009?

Mike Davin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:40:34 +0000

This week, the National Marine Manufacturers Association released its 2009 Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract.

Boat biz helping to ease economic pain

Liz Walz — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:12:17 +0000

As boat builders and their suppliers hire more employees in an effort to ramp up production, they are contributing to a trend that is helping to lower the nation’s economic stress.

Drop in gas prices and other good news

Liz Walz — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:17:26 +0000

For more than two weeks, the average price of regular gas in the U.S. has been dropping, according to USAToday.com. As of yesterday, the average price of a gallon of regular gas was $2.76, the newspaper reported in an article today, and some analysts are predicting it could drop further, perhaps even as low as this time last year, which was about 30 cents per gallon cheaper. Read more >>

The boating industry’s green shoots

Liz Walz — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:15:12 +0000

A few weeks ago, a former boating industry executive contacted me, asking about the state of marine business in the U.S. He is a friend who left the United States a few years ago to take a position within a different division of his company based in another country. Since his e-mail, I’ve been thinking about how to answer him. Read more >>

When something’s got to give, how do you decide?

Mike Davin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:00:37 +0000

Today's economy has led to all sorts of tough decisions with seemingly no good alternatives.

Dealers doing better than last month, but that’s not saying much

Matt Gruhn — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:55:33 +0000

While dealer net profits through July are off 60 percent, the rate of decline appears to be slowing. Through June, net profits, year over year, were off almost 86 percent.

New boats for a new economy

Liz Walz — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:31:13 +0000

I was driving in the car yesterday when a story came on National Public Radio about Columbia, Ky.-based houseboat builder Majestic Yachts. It’s no surprise in this economy that it was a sad story, at least at first. The article began by profiling Faye Womack, a former employee. She was part of a 27-person boat production team until orders stopped coming in last summer and CEO Jim Hadley was forced to lay off every single employee. He and the two other owners spent the winter trying to find odd jobs to pay the factory’s bills, according to NPR. Read more >>

Is Boating Nearing Its Inflection Point?

Contributing Blogger — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:21:14 +0000

Certainly new boat sales have suffered over the past several years, and the current economic recession is inflating the problem. However, there are other, more troubling, undercurrents in the boating industry that will dramatically influence the future prosperity of this industry.

It’s time to stop “duckin’ bullets”

Contributing Blogger — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:20:05 +0000

By Peter Granata, President, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance — There’s a new bandwagon pulling into town, and if you’re too busy ducking bullets you may not notice it. If you hang around the boating industry long enough, you’re bound to experience a cyclical downturn. This most recent version has to be the worst since 1980, and many agree that this one is the worst, period. Nonetheless, the point is that it is cyclical. The industry will come back, although it’s probably going to look different than it was. Read more >>

What I did on my summer vacation

Liz Walz — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:11:20 +0000

After the alarm went off this morning, my husband and I were talking about how fast the summer is going this year. This is an annual conversation, and as usual, I’m reluctant to acknowledge that it’s almost over. The difference this year is that I’m much more satisfied with our summer. Last September, we decided we would devote this summer to family time with our son, Nathan, now four years old. What we couldn’t have anticipated then was that our family’s cabin in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York would be available for so much of the summer. Because the cabin is shared by my mother, her three siblings and their children, we typically make it up there for one week of vacation and two or three other weekends. This year, as of the end of Labor Day weekend, we will have spent 24 days up there. Read more >>