Almost Nobody Buys The Same Boat Brand Twice
Almost Nobody Buys The Same Boat Brand Twice
Category: Current News | October 2, 2026 | 9 min read
Two consumer numbers came out this week.
The first is a mood number. Consumer confidence fell 6.7 points in September, and the part of that survey that looks six months ahead has now dropped three months running.
The second is a behavior number, and it is the one that should keep a dealer up. When a boat owner buys their next boat, they almost never buy the same brand again.
Your customer is more careful with money than they were a month ago. They are also a lot less loyal than you probably think.
What actually happened
Consumer confidence fell 6.7 points in September
The Conference Board released its September survey on Tuesday, September 29.
The headline index dropped 6.7 points to 81.9. Underneath that are two components. The Present Situation Index, which measures how people feel about conditions right now, fell 7.9 points to 109.3. The Expectations Index, which measures how they feel about the next six months, fell 5.9 points to 63.6.
That expectations number has now declined three months in a row.
Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economist, said confidence "deteriorated notably in September, following two prior months of softening."
Consumer appraisals of current business conditions turned negative for the first time since September 2024.
A confidence survey measures mood, not transactions. People say one thing in September and finance a pontoon in April. But this survey also tracks buying plans directly, and plans to buy a car and plans to buy a home both slipped on a six-month moving average basis. Those are the two purchases that sit closest to a boat in a household budget. That connection is my read, not the Conference Board's.
The survey field period closed September 23, so none of it reflects the nine days since.
Almost nobody buys the same brand twice
Boats Group published this one on Wednesday, September 30, and it is the study of the week.
They pulled ownership records on more than 2.5 million boats across four states: Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. Inside that they identified roughly 637,000 repeat owners, meaning owners whose records are tied to two or more boats.
Then they asked whether those owners bought the same brand the second time.
Across all states studied, only 6 to 13 percent stayed with the same manufacturer. Boats Group calls that pattern "remarkably consistent across the states studied." Which means somewhere between 87 and 94 percent switched.
Nine out of ten people who already own one of your boats, who liked boating enough to go buy another one, went somewhere else for the second one.
A few more findings from the same study:
Loyalty to a boat category runs about 23 percent, roughly double the manufacturer loyalty rate. My read on that: people get attached to a kind of boat more than they get attached to whoever built it. Boats Group reported the number, not the reason.
Seventy percent of repeat owners who started with a used boat bought used again. About 45 percent who started new went to used the second time.
The interval between purchases runs 3 to 4 years in Florida and Virginia. Texas looks like about 7 years, though Boats Group cautions that Texas registration records are captured differently, so that comparison is not clean.
Claire Look, Head of Data at Boats Group, put it this way: "Repeat ownership represents a meaningful part of the boating market, but the next purchase is far from guaranteed for any one brand." She also noted that boat shows and dealerships are often where the purchase comes together, "but the decision-making process starts much earlier."
Brunswick named three more senior leaders
Brunswick announced Aine Denari as its next CEO on September 21, effective January 1. That left two seats open: president of Navico Group and chief technology officer.
On Tuesday, September 29, Brunswick filled both, plus one more.
Will Sangster becomes Executive Vice President and President of Navico Group, moving from Senior Vice President and President of Business Acceleration. Marco Bracalente becomes Chief Technology Officer, moving from Vice President of Product Development and Engineering at Navico Group. Karly Yuds becomes Senior Vice President and President of Business Acceleration, moving from Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Logistics at Mercury Marine.
All three are effective January 1, 2027, the same day as Denari.
All three are also internal moves. Bracalente comes out of Navico Group, Yuds out of Mercury, and Sangster out of Business Acceleration. Dave Foulkes, the outgoing CEO, called it the result of "meticulous long-term talent and succession planning efforts."
IBEX opens Tuesday in Tampa
IBEX runs October 6 to 8 at the Tampa Convention Center, with pre-conference sessions Monday the 5th. It is trade only.
The education program runs with Professional BoatBuilder, split between the seminar series and the Tech Talk workshops, and insurance continuing education credits are new this year.
The Industry Breakfast is Tuesday morning, 7:30 to 9, at the JW Marriott Tampa Water Street, $65 a head. Frank Hugelmeyer delivers the State of the Industry address, and that is where the NMMA Hall of Fame honors, the IBEX Innovation Awards and the Mel Barr Award are handed out. More than 900 industry leaders were in that room in 2025.
Marine Diagnostic Tools is exhibiting this year. If you are coming to Tampa, find me!
Why this matters for your shop
Demand softening at the margin reads as cyclical to me, and cyclical things turn. The loyalty number feels different. Boats Group found 6 to 13 percent holding steady across four very different states, which is a snapshot rather than a trend line, but it does not look like something a better quarter fixes.
If the brand on the hull is not what brings an owner back, something else has to be. Plenty of businesses touch an owner every year. Insurance, slip and storage, fuel, a club membership. Brunswick's own Business Acceleration unit, the one changing hands on January 1, holds Freedom Boat Club, which runs on exactly that kind of recurring relationship.
But the one you control, in your building, with your people, is service.
Three to four years pass between a buyer's first boat and their second in Florida and Virginia. That is three or four seasons of haul-outs, service intervals, warranty work and diagnostics. The dealership gets one shot at the sale in year four. The service department gets dozens of shots in years one through three.
So I would argue the second sale is won or lost long before anybody walks back onto the showroom floor.
So a lot rides on whether your shop can do the work when it comes in the door. A boat that leaves because you couldn't get into the engine's software costs you the repair ticket. On these numbers it probably costs you the next boat too.
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Three things to do this week
1. Pull your own repeat rate
Go into your records and count how many of last year's buyers had bought from you before. Boats Group says the industry number is between 6 and 13 percent on brand. Yours will be different, because you are measuring your dealership rather than a manufacturer, but you cannot manage a number you have never looked at.
2. Count the service jobs you turned away last quarter, and sort them by reason
Separate the ones you declined for capacity from the ones you declined because you could not get into the system. The second pile is the one you can actually do something about.
3. Look at your fourth quarter pipeline differently
The conversations you are having right now are the ones that will tell you whether September's mood is showing up in your market, well before any national data does.
Catch the full episode here
The 30 Second Recap
Consumer confidence fell 6.7 points to 81.9 in September, released Tuesday September 29. Present Situation down 7.9 to 109.3. Expectations down 5.9 to 63.6, a third straight monthly decline.
Consumer views of current business conditions turned negative for the first time since September 2024. Plans to buy a car and plans to buy a home both slipped.
Boats Group found that only 6 to 13 percent of repeat boat buyers stay with the same manufacturer, from ownership records on more than 2.5 million boats across Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, covering about 637,000 repeat owners. Boats Group calls the pattern remarkably consistent across states.
Loyalty to a boat category runs about 23 percent, roughly double the brand number.
Seventy percent of used-first buyers bought used again. About 45 percent of new-first buyers switched to used.
Repurchase intervals run 3 to 4 years in Florida and Virginia, about 7 in Texas, though Boats Group cautions Texas records are captured differently.
Brunswick named three more senior leaders on September 29, all effective January 1, 2027. Will Sangster to Navico Group, Marco Bracalente to CTO, Karly Yuds to Business Acceleration. All internal moves.
IBEX runs October 6 to 8 at the Tampa Convention Center. Trade only. Insurance CEUs are new this year. Marine Diagnostic Tools is exhibiting.
TowBoatUS announced a new port on Lake Fork Reservoir, Captain Mike Hogg's second after Sam Rayburn.
Do this week: pull your own repeat-buyer rate, sort last quarter's turned-away service jobs by reason, and read your Q4 pipeline conversations as the early signal.
References
The Conference Board, "US Consumer Confidence Fell in September," September 29, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-consumer-confidence-fell-in-september-302892867.html
Boats Group, "Boats Group Data Shows Most Repeat Boat Buyers Switch Brands," September 30, 2026. https://prnewswire.com/news-releases/boats-group-data-shows-most-repeat-boat-buyers-switch-brands-302893849.html
Brunswick Corporation, "Brunswick Corporation Announces Senior Leadership Appointments," September 29, 2026. https://www.brunswick.com/_assets/_6c3bc3980c483b9bbf688a0782e679b2/brunswick/news/2026-09-29_Brunswick_Corporation_Announces_Senior_Leadership__1010.pdf
IBEX Show, show information. https://www.ibexshow.com/show-info/
IBEX Show, Industry Breakfast. https://www.ibexshow.com/ibex-industry-breakfast/
NMMA, "IBEX Industry Breakfast to Kick Off 2026 Show with Industry Insights, Awards," August 12, 2026. https://www.nmma.org/press/article/25595
BoatUS, "TowBoatUS Brings On-Water Assistance to Lake Fork Reservoir," September 29, 2026. https://www.boatus.com/news-room/release/towboatus-brings-on-water-assistance-to-lake
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Lake Fork Reservoir. https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/fork/
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Top 50 Largemouth Bass. https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/top50_largemouth.phtml
