James Nolan Associates Inc.

Facebook, Twitter and ‘Advantage programs’ are not normally associated with boat shows but the NMMA is using all three to reach the consumer, the trade and the press.
The NMMA Advantage is an exclusive online, interactive inventory showcase available to a dealer or NMMA boat manufacturer member who exhibits at an NMMA show.   They can feature [...]

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The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is generating a considerable amount of speculation and rhetoric about the consequences of the spill’s impact on a wide range of activities and industries including boating.  In order to find out how the situation is affecting boat sales and usage in the area Boating Business spoke with [...]

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Mark Knopfler is on tour over here and your correspondent went to see him perform in Portland, Oregon.  It was a great show, the crowd loved it and a good time was had by all.  Knopfler is in his early sixties and, as you might imagine, the vast majority of the audience who have followed [...]

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The 2010 Sailing Market State of the Industry report on 2009 sales was recently released by The Sailing Company (Cruising World and Sailing World) and the numbers it contained were dreadful.  7,076 sailboats were built in 2009 down 4,351 boats from 11,427 in 2008.
6,055 boats were built in the under 20ft category (down from 9,160 [...]

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As has been widely reported the auction of the Genmar assets raised just over U$76 million and saw Platinum Equity get most of the brands, Irwin Jacob’s J&D Acquisitions get Marquis and Carver and Mastercraft get Hydra-Sport.  A week later J&D Acquisitions did a side deal with Platinum and bought several former Genmar assets including [...]

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A large part of the growth of the recreational boating industry over the past few years was driven by people buying boats who could not afford them.  A major and lingering consequence of this is that the industry’s distribution system was built to satisfy that growth that has now gone.  The present route to market [...]

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The Ft. Lauderdale Show that has just ended was watched by many in our industry to see what it might portend for the future.  It could be argued that it was/is indicative of the “new reality”.
One succinct explanation of the “new reality” for the trade is given by Bill Thompson, a veteran of the marine [...]

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Pusser’s Rum “Painkillers” are a signature item at the Annapolis sailboat show.   Visitors to the show wander around with the distinctive mugs in hand while exhibitors send one of their team to bring a round of “Painkillers” back to the stand.  Drinking them has been known to cause attitude adjustment and to introduce emotions such [...]

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     IMTEC was the big recreational marine trade show that literally everyone went to.  It was held once a year in Chicago around October time.  The big difference between IMTEC and today’s trade events is that boat builders took  their new boats and designs  for the following model year so that their dealers could see [...]

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The recent announcement by the NMMA that they are expanding the 2010 New Orleans Boat Show to include fishing, hunting and other sporting and outdoor industries heralds a new impetus for boat shows that consciously cater to other outdoor activities.  
             The primary reason for this move is clearly that there are too many boat shows [...]

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The June 1st decision by Genmar to file for Chapter 11 protection of the US Bankruptcy Code meant that it was unable to service its debt and/or pay its creditors.  The filing gives Genmar a period of time (usually 120 days) to propose a plan of reorganization while providing it with protection from creditors by [...]

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On May 26, Trade Only Today, the e- newsletter service of the US B2B print magazine, Soundings Trade Only, published two stories that appear, at first glance, to contradict each other.  The first headline said “Boat sales dropped in April” while the second said “Consumer confidence on the rise”.   So what’s going on?
     Both headlines [...]

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     There are still no discernible signs of a recovery in the U.S. recreational marine market.  Powerboat sales are down 45% from where they were five years ago and the recent move by Genmar (builder of 15 powerboat brands) to file Chapter 11 reorganization protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court has created further turmoil.  The [...]

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 Boat shows like all other market sectors are feeling the impact of the downturn, thus show cancellations are on the increase as their planned dates get nearer.  The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) is the largest producer of boat shows in the U.S.  It recently announced some major changes to its boat show calendar.  First, [...]

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The Sailing Company (Cruising World & Sailing World), part of the Bonnier Marine Group, released its 2008 North American Sailing Industry Study at the recent Miami boat show.  It is a sobering report. Aggregate sailboat production in 2008 was down 19% or 2,731 units from the 2007 total of 14,158 to 11.427 units.  Compare this [...]

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Thom Dammrich, President, National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) gave a candid overview of the boating industry in the U.S at a press briefing at the end of the opening day of the Miami International Boat Show. 
He started by getting the bad news out of the way – 2008 new boat sales down 28% in units [...]

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The recent decision by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) to redirect most of the funds allocated to the Grow Boating Initiative (GBI) has created a great deal of discussion.   The rationale for this decision was given in a letter dated October 16 sent by Thom Dammrich, President, NMMA to NMMA boat and engine manufacturer [...]

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Everyone recognizes that 2008 was such a dramatic year for the recreational marine industry that its effect will be felt for a long, long time.   The unfortunate reality, however, is that the negative effects of 2008 are not yet over and more damage is still happening.  It will likely be April or May, for example, [...]

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One of the more important indicators of the current market downturn is the number of dealer casualties but it is also the one of the hardest to find out with any degree of accuracy.  The big failures, like the bankruptcy filing by Olympic Boat Centers (A very big Bayliner/Maxum dealer in the Pacific Northwest), are [...]

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The financial meltdown over here has many people in the trade believing that the recreational marine industry is fundamentally doomed.  The bad news diet of brand and job eliminations over the past few months had created a negative mindset.   When Key Bank announced at the end of September that they were following Wachovia and others [...]

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The money that is spent on the Discover Boating advertising part of the Grow Boating campaign is primarily derived from a set percentage of new boat and engine sales.  It will come as no surprise therefore that the planned media spend for 2008 has been reduced by 20%.  Nevertheless, the results of this year’s campaign [...]

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There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind by now that the current downturn in the recreational boating market over here is very severe.   There are almost daily announcements of plant closings, job eliminations and filings for bankruptcy protection.  These consequences follow every downturn but the number and size of the ones this time are [...]

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Brunswick believes the downturn in the U.S .marine industry is not going to end in 2008 or 2009 and that the economic factors causing the downturn here will spread and impact markets outside the U.S.  As a result they consider it prudent to plan on being a smaller company and act accordingly.  They plan to [...]

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One topic that will likely receive a lot of attention here in the U.S in the next few weeks is the passage of The Clean Boating Act 2008 through Congress. What this legislation will do is fully and permanently restore a longstanding common sense regulation that excludes recreational boaters and anglers from the federal and [...]

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Looking back over the past 25 years in the U.S recreational marine market presents an interesting challenge if you look at the market as a whole.  What are the key differences between then and now in a market of this size that can be compared with any degree of accuracy and objectivity?  To be sure [...]

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The United States is the largest market for leisure boating products in the world.  There are almost 18 million boats in use while 73 million people participated in boating in 2006. Every serious leisure marine company on the planet with a decent product to sell should want to be part of this market.
Many companies stay [...]

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The Federal Reserve Beige Book report dated March 5, 2008 opened with the statement “Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. Two-thirds of the Districts cited softening or weakening in the pace of business activity, while the others referred to subdued, slow, or [...]

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The Sailing Company (3 magazines – Sailing World, Cruising World and Power Cruising) released The North American Sailing Market State of the Industry 2008 report at the Miami Boat Show.  While the 2007 numbers reflect the turmoil in the housing and credit markets the longer term trends are more disturbing. The study finds that 2007 sailboat [...]

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Florida is the home of the largest concentration of yacht brokerages and brokers in the U.S if not the world.  Exactly how many there are changes from day to day but YachtWorld.com, for example, lists over 580 Florida brokerages on their site.  You could be forgiven for thinking that this market was pretty well covered [...]

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Blogs are one of the more entertaining features of the Internet both for the information they supply and the comments they receive.  There are several in the boating space and Soundings Trade Only introduced one in July called Dealer Outlook.  This has been ticking along quietly until the posting on December 4.  The blogs author, [...]

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