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Almost Nobody Buys The Same Boat Brand Twice · The CURRENT

• 0:00
  Consumer confidence dropped 6.7 points in September, and for the third month running, people said that they expect the next six months to be worse. New data out this week says that when a boat owner buys their next boat, they almost never buy the same brand again. Brunswick fills three more seats on Tuesday, and there's a towboat on Lake Fork now. This is the current.
• 0:24
  If you work on the water, sell to it, service it, or just can't stay away from it, you're in the right place. This is the current the business and news podcasts for the marine industry, with weekly news overviews every Friday and engaging interviews as they happen. I'm your host, John Logan. Welcome aboard. Good evening. I'm John Logan. Tonight, your customer is more careful with money than they were a month ago and a lot less loyal than you probably think. The Conference Board released its September consumer confidence numbers on Tuesday morning. The Conference Board is a nonprofit research group around since 1916, and every month they survey an online panel run by a company called Toluna and publish on the last Tuesday two questions. Basically, how do things look right now and how will they look in six months? In September, the headline number fell 6.7%, 6.7 points to 81.9. That scale is set so 1989-85 averages 100.
• 1:17
  They asked about business conditions right now, 18.5% said that they were good, 20.4% said bad. And in August, good was ahead. This month it's bad. And that flip hasn't happened since September of 2024. Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economist, said, quote, deteriorated. Confidence deteriorated notably in September following two prior months of softening. It's a survey of mood, not a record of transactions. So people say one thing in September and then finance a pontoon in April. But the same survey asks what people plan to buy and plans to buy a car, plans to buy a home. Both slip down.
• 1:52
  Those are both two purchases that sit closest to a boat in a household budget.
• 1:57
  That's how your customer feels. Now. What do they actually do? Boat Group put out a study on Wednesday. If you sell boats for living, I'd kind of put it at the top of your reading list. They pulled ownership records on more than 2 1/2 million boats across four states, Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. Inside that, they found about 637,000 repeat owners, owners whose records are tied to two or more boats. Then it checked whether those people bought the same brand the second time, and most of them didn't.
• 2:25
  Across all four states, only 6 to 13% stayed with the same menu manufacturer, which means somewhere between 87 and 94% switched. Boat Group calls that pattern remarkably consistent from state to state. Loyalty to a boat type is about twice as strong as loyalty to a brand. Roughly 23% buy the same type of boat again. People get attached to the kind of boat, not to Whoever built it. 70% who started using bought used again.
• 2:51
  About 45% who started new went used for the second time.
• 2:56
  The clock between different purchases runs three to four years in Florida and Virginia. Texas looks about seven years. The Boats Group says its registration records are captured differently, so it's not entirely clean.
• 3:07
  Claire look runs data at Boats Group. She said repeat ownership is a meaningful part of this market and the next purchase is far from guaranteed for any one brand. The boat show and the dealership is usually where those close, she said, but the deciding starts well before that.
• 3:22
  If the brand on the hull isn't what brings somebody back, something else has to be. Plenty of things touch an owner every year. Insurance, storage, a club membership. But the one thing that you control is service. That's where the second sale gets made or lost. Not on the showroom floor in year four in your service department, through the entire transaction, through the entire ownership of the boat.
• 3:45
  Brunswick named Ayne denary its next CEO on September 21st and we covered that last week, but that has two seats left open. So on Tuesday Brunswick filled them plus one more Will Sanger takes over the Navico Group, where the new CEO came from, as executive vice president and president and he's been running business acceleration for Brunswick.
• 4:07
  Marco Barcalinte becomes chief technology officer, cto. He's currently vice president of product development and engineering at Navico.
• 4:16
  And Carly Yuds moves up from business acceleration. She's been vice president of global supply chain and logistics at Mercury. All these new positions, including the CEO, will start January 1st. Dave Folks, the outgoing CEO called it the result of meticulous long term talent and secession planning. All three of these are internal moves. Braclente is out of Navico Group, Yuds is out of Mercury and Sangster is out of Business Acceleration.
• 4:43
  Next week the whole industry is in one building. IBEX opens Tuesday at the Tampa Convention center and runs through Thursday, October 6th to the 8th with pre conference sessions starting on Monday.
• 4:55
  It's trade only so the public doesn't get to get in the education program with Professional builder split between the seminar series and the Tech Talk workshops new this year so you can earn entrance CE credits there. The industry breakfast is Tuesday morning at the JW Marriott. At $65, Frank Hugo Meyer will give the State of the Industry address. They're also hand out NMMA hall of Fame Honors, the IBEX Innovation Awards and the Mel Barr award. More than 900 people were there last year and we'll be there. Marine Diagnostic Tools is exhibiting at IBEX this year. If you're coming to Tampa, find me. I will be there on the 8th, but our team will be there for the whole show and we'd love to give you a free demo. We got lots of swag handing out. It's going to be a lot of fun.
• 5:38
  The current is sponsored by Marine Diagnostic Tools. MDT puts dealer level Jaltest Marine Diagnostics in the hand of independent marine repair shops and boat surveys.
• 5:47
  Full system coverage across engine brands that are already in your pipeline. So you can stop turning away work because the software says you can't or you just don't have the capability anymore and we help you never guess a marine engine issue again. Find the right diagnostic kit for you at marindiagnostictools.com or call in at 844-627-4630.
• 6:08
  One more thing and it's kind of a long way from Tampa. Towboat US opens on Lake Fork in Northeast Texas.
• 6:18
  Captain Mike Hogg is going to run this location. It's his second one. He opened first on Sam Ryburn earlier this year. So you're going to be getting towing, fuel delivery, jump start, soft groundings and salvage working out of the Oak Ridge Marina. Lake Fork is 27,000 acres impounded in 1980 in the Sabine River Basin. The Texas state record largemouth bass came out of that lake 18.18 pounds. Hogg put it this way, Lake Fork has a reputation that speaks for itself. Bucket list destination for many bass anglers and for a lot of local families, a place they've been making memories on for generations. So now there's someone who can help them get back to the boat ramp.
• 7:01
  That's the current for the week of October 2nd. If you're headed to Tampa next week, come by. Say hello. If you're not, we'll bring back what matters. I'm John Logan. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and I will see you next Friday.