Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/288177
40 | Boating Industry | April 2014 www.BoatingIndustry.com /// Market Trends /// control, electronic digital gauges and shift- or drive-by-wire systems that have been filtering through the marketplace. The company has its eyes on advanced cockpit gauges from ski boat builders and luxury automak- ers such as Jaguar and Land Rover. Going forward, Cobalt is working to broaden its product mix in all cat- egories, particularly in the 23-and-up category. "It's fun to help people with those segments," he said. "The customers are out to take their families out on the water for an enjoyable day and the sterndrive powerplant, the dependability, the durability [and] the flexibility is serving them well." The company has also recently implemented its Extra Eyes program that has increased its quality control checks before a boat leaves the manufacturing facility. It hasn't been marketed or communicated to its custom- ers, but has been implemented to make sure the company maintains quality levels as its sales grow. As smaller sterndrive sales continue to contract, the company is concerned about a smaller feeder system driving customers into larger sterndrives, but Hunt said jet boats and smaller, less expensive boats still move people into the sport of boating. To convince boaters of the merits of sterndrive power, he said, "They just have to ride in it." As early-season boat shows show Cobalt's retail sales growing 10 to 15 percent compared with last year, Hunt said the company's previ- ous forecast of 10 to 15 percent growth for 2014 appears accurate. "Our business tracks almost identically with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, so as business gets better and the market goes up, amazingly enough, so do boat sales — I don't think that's just us," he said. "We're going to try to make our product continually more appealing to our seg- ments of the market while keeping a watchful eye on opportunities in other sectors, but at the end of the day we still have 100-percent confidence in what we're doing. While others are pulling out of some areas of sterndrives, Cobalt is investing more resources in sterndrives." STERNDRIVE SALES GROWTH BY LENGTH The sterndrive category has fared differently in recent years depend- ing on the size range. In general, smaller sterndrives (18 to 25 feet) have fared worse than larger models (25 to 36 feet). Here is a look at sales growth from October 2011 through September of 2013. Source: Statistical Surveys, Inc. Boat Length Current Year Previous Year 2013 vs. 2012 Growth % 18' 2,126 2,672 -20.43% 19' 2,099 2,195 -4.37% 20' 1,775 2,147 -17.33% 21' 1,694 1,886 -10.18% 22' 1,104 1,299 -15.01% 23' 921 832 10.7% 24' 1,026 1,041 -1.44% 25' 683 768 -11.07% 26' 856 776 10.31% 27' 280 270 3.70% 28' 543 476 14.08% 29' 295 296 -0.34% 30' 153 160 -4.38% 31' 169 162 4.32% 32' 93 62 50% 33' 100 103 -2.91% 34' 68 77 -11.69% 35' 144 86 67.44% 36' 15 3 400% P34x40-BI14APR-MarketTrends.indd 40 3/13/14 4:44 PM