Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/570649
42 | Boating Industry | October 2015 www.BoatingIndustry.com /// Market Trends /// promising how they plan to use the boat – it just might not be quite as elaborate as the high end of the line. 'There's no compromise there in order to get into it at a price-point. Sure, we take away some of the French seams and the stitching, and we don't have as many variations in vinyl," said Gutierrez, "but yet if that's OK with you, you come out and you get a great surf system, a great ballast system, a great audio system, a standard cruise control and things like that." An influx of new products that are value-driven has led to an increase in sales and an effective lowering of the average boat buyer age. "When you subsegment the inboard ski tow sports marketplace … to what some people would call price-point or entry-level for especially Millennials, that's where we're targeting our product: [people] who may not have the financial capability to afford one of the full-blown tow sports boats that can get rather expensive," said Jay Povlin, vice president of global sales and marketing at MasterCraft Boat Company. "When you look at that subsegment, that is a very fast-growing subsegment of the overall inboard ski boat marketplace." As MasterCraft launched the NXT 20 and 22 over the past year, it has focused its attention toward those entry-level buyers and anecdotal evidence from its dealers suggests it is working, as many report younger buyers visiting the dealership and inquiring specifically about the Mas- terCraft product line. "If you look at the way we positioned [the NXT 20 and 22] from a marketing launch perspective, we were very avant garde, you could say, in terms of the videos we produced and the photography that we used, but it was designed very specifically to pique the interest of those Mil- lennials because they follow guys like Travis Pastrana, Parks Bonifay, the Godfrey clan," said Povlin. That loyalty helps drive sales for a boater's life cycle in a specific brand. MasterCraft aims to create a trajectory for customers to move down the line after buying that price-point boat and continue with the recreation as they gain more income. STERNDRIVES MAKING A SPLASH? Sterndrive boats have not recovered from the recession quite as quickly as other industries: Sales of sterndrive boats are down about 10 percent year-over-year while every other category was up. Manufacturers are aware of the category's challenges and are looking for new ways to help sterndrives make a comeback. With the intense popularity of wakesurfing, these manufacturers are looking to toss their hat into the water sports ring. In February, Volvo Penta released its FWD Drive. By combining a sterndrive engine, DuoPros and Volvo Penta's Inboard Performance System, the company was able to create a forward-facing DuoProp drive that moves the prop more than 27 inches forward under the boat. "FWD opens the way for boat builders to create multi-use craft that can be optimized for cruising, wakesurfing, as well as swimming, waterskiing and just generally having a good time with family and friends," said Ron Huibers, president of Volvo Penta of the Americas. Regal, Cobalt, Four Winns and Bryant Boats were Volvo Penta's launch partners for the engine and all four companies brought their new FWD models to the market this year. Read more about the implementation of some of those models at BoatingIndustry.com/VolvoPentaFWD. Meddock said having the number of sterndrive-powered boats that exhibited at Surf Expo this year was "huge" for the world of towed sports and sees the new entries in the segment as a good thing for water sports overall. "The I/O business is just dying and we're not. We're growing," said Meddock. "FWD Drive, thanks to Volvo, is going to eliminate the stigma of danger of wakesurfing behind a traditional I/O." However, inboard manufacturers are skeptical. They don't see sterndrive boats as competition with their products; they still believe the clean trailing edge of the back of an inboard boat, as well as the di- rect drive propulsion, provide a huge advantage for customers. Inboard boats also have the advantage of years of research and development behind their products. "There's going to be the ability to surf behind the I/Os for sure, but the quality of the wave they're putting out, I'm anxious to see what their end result truly is," said Gutierrez. "I'm not trying to have any negatives on them at all, but I'm really curious to see what they consider a quality wave versus the ones that our industry's producing. There are a lot of variables involved." Springer said inboard boats can do just about anything a sterndrive can do, but the competitive advantage is advanced water sports activity. "If you're anything more than just a basic, bare beginner and you want a good wakeboard wake or a wakesurf wave or a good ski wake," said Springer, "then you're going to have that inboard [engine] for that." Meloon said the amount of control with speed, the way the boat handles and planes and more all give inboards an advantage, as well. "It becomes pretty clear when you start to look at how the boat operates and you demo it on the water that a true V-drive or inboard drive has significant advantages still over an I/O," said Meloon, "when it comes to a true water sports boat." The team behind the new Nautique G-series undertook significant product development to put as much energy as possible into creating the ideal wakesurf wave.