Boat registrations soared in July, rising 4.1 percent year-to-date in all categories, and 25.2 percent year-over-year.
Registrations jumped 44.3 percent year-over-year in the main categories, according to Statistical Surveys Inc., which tracked data from 22 early-reporting states — accounting for around 43 percent of the U.S. market.
“I think this is what we were hearing out in the field — unreal,” SSI sales director Ryan Kloppe told Trade Only Today. “It is only 22 states though. We are still having issues [obtaining data from states that typically report early]. We had covid closures, and when you throw a bunch of registrations in there … now have influx of boats being registered, so we have some states that are being backlogged.”
States like California, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee and South Carolina, which normally report early, were excluded from July’s data, said Kloppe.
Registration of runabouts jumped 67.7 percent year-over-year, but were still down 1.3 percent year-to-date, marking a reversal in a years-long trend of declines in that category. Ski and wake boats leapt 73 percent year-over-year for the month, and were up 11.6 percent year-to-date. Pontoons had an excellent month also, with a 53.3 percent increase in registrations year-over-year and 8.3 percent year-to-date.
Texas surpassed Florida as the top state, with 5,127 units registered in July 2020 versus 3,947 in July 2019 — more than a 33 percent increase.
“These are just some nice big numbers,” said Kloppe. “We were hearing that out in the market from dealers and manufacturers, and now we’re seeing the results in some of the state data that’s coming in. The issue now is probably inventory. Everything had a great month, and I don’t see any reason to slow down except maybe due to some supply chain issues.”
