By David Gee

EVERY MAY, RECREATIONAL BOATING INDUSTRY LEADERS, policymakers, and stakeholders come to Washington, D. C. for NMMA’ s American Boating Congress to engage in critical discussions around tax, trade, infrastructure, regulations and other issues.

The theme of this year’ s conference, held in D. C.’ s waterfront neighborhood known as The Wharf, was Made in America – Resilience and Innovation.

However, the subtext was really a single word. Uncertainty. That is the word I heard uttered most often, whether it was from the speaker’ s stage, during the social hours, or in my one-on-one conversations with the CEOs and GMs of boat building companies, a few top dealers, or trade association leadership.

And the recreational boating industry is hardly alone in that respect. The word uncertainty was mentioned in 87 % of second quarter earnings calls, compared with just 38 % in the first quarter, according to John Butters, vice president and senior earnings analyst of FactSet.

Corporate executives also used the word“ tariffs” in 93 % of their earnings calls. And it won’ t surprise anyone reading this that tariffs and uncertainty go together today.

In fact, the trade war was recently deepened as President Trump said he plans to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50 % from 25 %. This could result not only in higher boat production costs, but also supply chain disruption.

Changing consumers

“ The markets don’ t like uncertainty, and neither do consumers,” said MarineMax CEO Brett McGill in the first panel discussion with NMMA’ s Frank Hugelmeyer and Suntex Marinas CEO Bryan Redmond.“ Uncertainty is our biggest challenge. There was a big pause in March and the end of April, but we’ re beginning to see some signs of solid growth now. Right across the board though, the stress was across all categories of boats. It’ s a buyer’ s market. There’ s probably more discounting than at any other time I can remember. And we’ re seeing the tightest margins in the history of our company. Especially in the smaller boats.”

Tariffs, high interest rates and fluctuating 401k balances and investment portfolios are keeping lots of boat buyers on the sidelines. However, the head of one marine company I spoke to doesn’ t think it will necessarily last the entire selling season.

“ I think it will be on the soft side through the early part of the summer,” he said,“ but I think it will pick up. People still have jobs, and they still have money, but they have clearly put off large, discretionary purchases for the moment. That will change though, and we’ ll be here for them when it does. I’ m more optimistic than pessimistic for both the near term and the long term.”

Redmond highlighted the demographic and cultural shifts that are coming, or in some cases, are already here. He noted that women exert a significant influence on consumer spending, controlling or influencing a substantial portion of purchasing power.

David Gee joined the industry in D. C. for ABC 2025. Photos courtesy of David Gee

While specific numbers vary, women are estimated to control or influence between 70 % and 85 % of all consumer spending in the U. S. This influence extends beyond individual purchases, as women often make decisions for their families as well as influence the choices of others.

In boating, the incidence of female first-time boat buyers is about one-third higher than the percentage of women in the general boat-owning population.“ This means a higher percentage of women are giving boat ownership a try,” said Jack Ellis, managing director at Info-Link, who I sat next to at dinner on the conference’ s opening night.

32 June 2025 www. boatingindustry. com