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Higher Tides & Greener Grass
Boat shows and the marine trades chart a post-9/11 comeback
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Business New Haven
6/24/2002
By: Denise D'Onofrio
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With Memorial Day weekend marking the semi-official start of boating season, current boat owners are being joined by a new population of boaters.
Boating has long been thought of as a rich man's sport - a luxury to be enjoyed by only those with very skilled training and knowledge of the water. The vessels themselves tag along with those of serious financial means.
While it remains essential for any who partake in this sport, whether recreational or competitive, to be up to par with water safety and boat safety guidelines, the boating industry has come face-to-face with a very active market made up of an increasingly diverse group of participants.
Beacon Point Marine has been in business for 15 years and operates three Connecticut facilities in Shelton, Old Saybrook and Greenwich. The Shelton and Greenwich locations offer a full-service marina and slip storage. The Old Saybrook store serves as the retail sales branch.
The Shelton facility has been open for approximately two months and is already in the process of being remodeled, a project that will continue over the next few years. The marina offers 50 in-water slips and has winter storage for up to 250 vessels.
Cost, according to Brian Luby, vice president of operations at Beacon Point Marine, is not the predominant factor when it comes to docking boats. “Customers look for convenience,” he says. “Is the dock close to their home or close to better cruising or fishing areas? That is key.”
The marina is currently close to full capacity on its slips.
While Beacon Point can easily handle vessels up to 60 feet, Luby says they don't see many of that size. “Most of the boats docked here are 40 feet and under,” he notes.
Laying claim to the mantle of Connecticut's largest fishing and family boat facility, Beacon Point is a full dealer for the Wellcraft, Pursuit, Albemarle and Regulator boat lines and a full-service marina with certified technicians for Yamaha, Mercury, MerCruiser.
According to Luby, the marina's fishing and family recreation boats are the hottest, but he admits that consumer-buying trends in this industry are very difficult to predict.
“Family recreation boats account for the largest part of the boating population,” he says. “We have seen a trend moving away from cruiser boat purchases and a swing towards family recreation purchases.” To capitalize this trend, Luby points out that boat manufacturers have made a lot of their fishing boats very family-friendly.
Beacon Point Marine is a major sponsor of the WICC Bluefish Tournament that takes place in August, and of the Inter Club Tournament held in greater New Haven and Fairfield counties in July. Fourteen fishing clubs from the area get together for the tournament and fish for bluefish in a competition format. “Us being Connecticut's largest fish-boat source, it was a no-brainer for us to be involved,” says Luby.
He adds that Beacon Point experienced its best first quarter ever as a company, doubling quarterly sales this year as opposed to the last two and three years. Though Luby is delighted about company's growth, he offers no logical explanation for the surge in boating.
Milford Boat Works, a Milford-based marina and boat yard, has been in business since 1946. The marina offers 200 slips and winter or dry storage for another 200 boats. According to president Nancy Bodick, Milford Boat Works can handle up to a 50-foot boat though the average size docked at the marina is about 30 feet.
Filled to capacity on its in-water slips, Milford Boat Works prefers to keep a few slips open in order to move boats around. Its winter storage does have some vacancies.
“It has been a good active market for the boating industry,” says Bodick, whose marina started launching boats in March for this year. “People tend to be staying close to home and doing family-oriented activities. Boating fits that trend.”
There is no argument from Bodick that the boating public expects a lot more comfort when it comes to their boats. “The design of the boats has changed,” she says. “It used to be more traditional. Now, so many boats have amenities that my house doesn't even have.”
According to Bodick, the last recession in the boating industry hit in the early 1990s. “Our industry and our business was hit hard,” she acknowledges. “Since the recovery, the business has been building.”
But the boating public has also broadened in scope and now includes top executives to the average individual. “Our customers include a lot of locals who use boating as their leisure activity and pour every extra dollar into the sport,” explains Bodick. “But we also deal with the high end of the economic bracket who don't have to think twice about their spending when it comes to boating.”
The Guilford Yacht Club is a privately-owned “dockominium.” Boat owners purchase, rather than rent, one of its 148 slips.
According to Wayne Nummelin, the GYC's director of sales and marketing, it works under the same concept as owning a condo.
“You know where your boat will be from year to year,” he says. “It costs more than renting, but you get what you pay for.”
Four years ago, the club installed a heated pool and next month will finalize its latest expansion that includes a 1,000-square-foot clubhouse and catering facility and two tennis courts. The next phase includes ten more docking slips that can accommodate vessels up to 55 feet.
With approximately ten slips for sale by their owners, Nummelin points out that a slip purchase can be a great investment. “In 1990, our slips sold for $550 a foot,” he says. “Now they sell for $1,600 a foot.”
While the Guilford Yacht Club recently formalized its club structure, membership isn't necessary to rent a slip as, slip owners can rent or sell slips at their own discretion.
“Our population of boaters represents all professions,” explains Nummelin. “There has been a definite trend in the popularity of boating over the last couple of years and people are spending a lot of money on boats. In the last five years, boats have gotten bigger and bigger. We haven't seen any negative growth during that time.”
The annual Hartford Boat Show, produced by the Connecticut Marine Trades Association (CMTA) in Essex, takes place the last weekend in January and runs for four days. With 34 years running, this is the only show at the Hartford Civic Center to utilize the entire facility.
“Our objective is to make sure CMTA members have a good venue to present their products and services,” says Grant Westerson, CMTA's executive director. According to Westerson, there are currently over 300 CMTA members.
The Hartford show attracts dealers and CMTA vendors from throughout the state. CMTA donates exhibition space to the Coast Guard, U.S. Power Squadron and the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
“We've had as many as 33,000 attendees come through on the weekend,” says Westerson. “It is the biggest boat show in the capital area, period. And the beauty of boating is that it is affordable so we see a complete cross-range of attendees.”
To emphasize his point, Westerson cites a few statistics. “There are 108,000 registered boats in Connecticut, and 85 percent of the boats are 24 feet or smaller,” he says.
Though the September 11 terrorist attacks did have an impact on the boating industry, it did not affect long-term sales, asserts Westerson. “Two weeks after 9/11 was the boat show in Norwalk,” he says. “The entire New York waterway was shut down and people who normally come to the show via boat opted to stay home.”
But Westerson says that CMTA dealers reported a lot of contracts being taken during its January show.
The CMTA is also slowly reclaiming a number of formerly participating sailboat dealers. “They realize Hartford is an excellent venue,” says Westerson. There is also a show the same weekend in Atlantic City that had temporarily lured some dealers away.
The Hartford Boat Show offers a cross-section of the entire industry, says Westerson, from outboards to fishing, cruising, sailing and larger cabin style boats. Vendors also include insurance agencies and electronics vendors. (For more information on the show or the CMTA, call 860-767-2645.)
Another popular area event is the annual Clinton Harbor Boat Show at Cedar Island Marina in Clinton. This show runs July 19-21 and says it is the only boat show in the Northeast to offer the consumer at one time new, used and brokerage boats.
Run by North East Promotions Inc. in Wethersfield, the show is sponsored by WFSB-TV. It features hundreds of new 2003, leftover 2002 and used boats, plus marine products and services presented by over 50 dealers, brokers and other marine professionals.
The show covers two acres of land exhibits with more than 100 boats on land and over 70 in water. Financing, insurance and marine-related exhibits will be found on land in tents.
Show exhibitors will include Bassett Boat, Beacon Point Marine, Brewer Yacht Sales, Halvorsen Boat, Louis Marine, Old Lyme Marina, Ritts Marine Center and Staten Island Boat Sales. Boat services exhibitors will include Beacon Marine Credit, Custom Carpet Creations, Shoreline Signs, G&H Trailers and used-boat lister American Boat Listings.
North East Promotions also manages the Connecticut Power Boat Show at the Connecticut Expo Center in Hartford in mid-January. Sponsored by Dodge Truck, WFSB-TV and Wireless Gear, the show runs for four days and offers attendees a selection of nearly 70 different lines of boats mainly in the 23- to 40-foot range.
Exhibitors include Beacon Point Marine, Cerino & Co., New England Dodge Dealers, Northwest Water Sports, Old Saybrook Point Inn & Marina, Saunders Boat Livery, the Boat Center and Trident Funding.
The event also features the Fishing Center, where attendees can meet charter captains, book a fishing trip or learn about fishing on Connecticut's lakes, rivers and Long Island Sound. (For more information on either show, call 860-529-2123.)
“The fall boat shows this past year were extremely disappointing,” acknowledges Luby. “But starting in January of this year, people were buying like crazy at the New York Boat Show.”
Historically, the Hartford boat shows have worked well for Luby's company, as has the Clinton event. Beacon Point Marine attends approximately eight shows a year. “When you carry as many lines as we do, you have to have a presence at these shows,” Luby says.
As a personal boat owner, Nummelin enjoys attending boat shows though Guilford Yacht Club. “It is an opportunity for me to see the big, beautiful boats and the new technology out there,” he says. “It gives me a chance to dream.”
Milford Boat Works stopped selling boats five years ago in order to focus on its marina, boat yard and store. But that hasn't stopped Bodick from hitting the shows. “Out of interest, I always attend the Hartford, Newport and Norwalk shows,” she says.
The boat yard's end to boat sales hasn't accounted for any negative impact on the business, either. “There are so many other places that sell boats,” Bodick explains. “But all boat owners need to maintain and store their boats.”
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