Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/306360
www.BoatingIndustry.com 6 | Boating Industry | May 2014 AT THE HELM JONATHAN SWEET jsweet@BoatingIndustry.com Boating Industry EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jonathan Sweet (jsweet@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR EDITOR: Tom Kaiser (tkaiser@boatingindustry.com) MANAGING EDITOR: Liz Keener (lkeener@boatingindustry.com) ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR: Nicholas Upton (nupton@boatingindustry.com) DIGITAL PRODUCTION EDITOR: Heather Brown (hbrown@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: Dodi Vessels PRODUCTION ARTIST: Kelsey Houle (khoule@epgmediallc.com) PRODUCTION MANAGER: Angela Schmieg VICE PRESIDENT/MARINE, POWERSPORTS, BEVERAGE: Amy Collins NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR: Kathy Johnson 480-988-3658 (kathyjohnson@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST: Chris Pelikan 954-964-8676 (cpelikan@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, WEST: Wiley Poole 805-473-8400 (wpoole@boatingindustry.com) CEO: Mark Adams VICE PRESIDENT/FINANCE: Gerald Winkel VP/AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT & CIRCULATION: Joanne Juda-Prainito VICE PRESIDENT/OPERATIONS: Barb Hammer DIRECTOR OF MARKETING: Tim Morgan MARKETING SPECIALIST: Geoff Christ PRODUCTION SPECIALIST: Cherri Perschmann GROUP SENIOR SALES SPECIALIST: Bernadette Wohlman BOATING INDUSTRY (ISSN #1543-4400) is published nine times per year – January, February, March, April, May, June/July, August/Sep- tember, October/November and December – by EPG Media, LLC, 3300 Fernbrook Lane N #200, Plymouth, MN 55447. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Free to qualified members of the boat- ing industry. Annual subscription rate is $99 per year for U.S., Mexican and Canadian residents and $149 for residents in other countries. All paid subscriptions must be paid in advance and in U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Boating Industry, P.O. Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823. CUSTOMER SERVICE: Visit www.BoatingIndustry.com, call (847) 763- 9565, fax (847) 763 9569, email BoatingIndustry@halldata.com or write to Boating Industry, P.O. Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823. EDITORIAL: All manuscripts, materials, photographs and artwork submit- ted are at mailer's risk and must include self-addressed envelope with suf- ficient postage for return. No responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited materials. Boating Industry is a registered trademark of EPG Media, LLC. © 2014 by EPG Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited unless expressly authorized by publisher. For more information on e-prints or reprints from Boating Industry, contact Bernadette Wohlman, 763-383-4400 x2464 Printed in U.S.A. PRIVACY POLICY: We recognize that your privacy is very important to you and we're committed to helping you protect it. You should know that we will never intentionally share your name, address and other personal informa- tion with anyone for their use if you have asked us not to do so. When you subscribe to Boating Industry, please tell us if you don't want your name and address shared with other reputable companies or if you don't want to receive our marketing offers. We'll mark your account for a three year period so that it will not be selected for products and/or services offers which you've told us you are not interested in receiving. If you change your mind, just get in touch with us and ask that we include you in future offerings. You can ask to not be included in future offerings at any time and it'll be taken care of promptly. Please contact us at Boating Industry Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823 or call us at (847) 763-9565. Please note that this policy does not apply to e-mail marketing. We will not send you commercial e-mails unless you have authorized us to do so. FOR YEARS, THE BOATING INDUSTRY has been talking about the need to reach new audiences beyond the core customers of white male baby boomers. The good news is that now there is finally some action to go beyond the talk. Some recent moves that caught my eye illustrate that trend. A new task force focused on improving diversity is taking its first steps toward actually addressing this issue. With some of our industry's most vocal advocates leading the way in Wanda Kenton Smith and Lou Sandoval, I've got no doubt they're going to make real progress on diversity. You can read more about their efforts on p. 8. Lack of ethnic diversity is only part of the problem, though. As we've covered fre- quently in these pages, the age of the average boater is increasing at an alarming rate. For myriad reasons, younger folks are not buying into the boating lifestyle, but one of the biggest problems is affordability. We can argue about whether that's perception or reality, but in the end all that matters is people think they can't afford to boat. The biggest player in the marine market is attacking that problem head on. Brunswick Corp., owner of some of the top brands in the industry, recently announced a partnership with Boatbound, a peer-to-peer rental service. (We'll have more on this in the June issue and at BoatingIndustry.com.) The idea behind Boatbound is simple: Most boats sit unused most of the year, so why not rent them out to other users? The Boatbound service allows both dealers and boat owners to list their boats for rent. Renters are pre-screened and qualified by Boat- bound. Boatbound provides insurance, towing protection and other protections as part of the package. Brunswick CEO Dusty McCoy said that the deal will not only attract more people to boating, it will help make it more affordable for those who already own boats by creating a new source of income. "The long-term health of our industry requires us to make boating even more acces- sible and affordable, especially among younger, aspiring boaters," he said in announcing the partnership. I'll be the first to admit I see some potential problems with peer-to-peer rental services like Boatbound, and I'm not sure I'd want to make my boat available as part of the service. That said, to see one of the biggest names in our industry embrace creative ways to get more people on the water is a great sign. Will it work? Who knows, but what we do know is that refusing to change isn't going to get us anywhere. Taking action to grow boating P06-BI14MAY-AtTheHelm.indd 6 4/17/14 10:10 AM