As soon as Americans began emerging from their homes after the first wave of Covid-19 receded in spring 2020, many apparently headed straight to their local boat dealers. Spending on pleasure boats shot up to 20% in May 2020 above the prepandemic pace, according to personal consumption expenditures data from the US department of commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis . So far in 2021, boat spending is running nearly 50% higher than before the pandemic.
The unit sales numbers for the 1960s and 1970s appear to have been similar to those of the 1980s. I found a report from 1960 that 329,000 new boats with outboard motors had been sold the previous year , when the US population was barely more than half what it is now.
Still, the fact that boating is not what it used to be may indicate that the huge sales gains of the past year might be sustainable. The 90m Sundancer 370 we were on goes for about $1m, but 80% of the boats Brunswick sells cost $50,000 or less, and the