“Everyone agrees that boating participation and sales are flat or declining,” admits Thom Dammrich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, which co-sponsored the forum with Transamerica Distribution Finance. In fact, sales of new boats peaked in 1988.

While few in the recreational boating industry will speak publicly on the record, most boating consumers have a pretty good idea about why boating has lost some of its appeal, says BoatU.S. vice president of government affairs, Michael Sciulla. “Recreational boating clearly did not capitalize on the boom of the 1990s as the economy expanded and baby boomers entered their prime years,” he notes.

The reasons for the industry’s poor health are obvious, according to a longtime industry insider who recently traded in his power tie for a crab boat on the Chesapeake Bay.

“People are attracted to the water...what they are is naïve in their expectations” about potential problems with repairs and service, says Mick Blackistone, former NMMA vice president of government relations, now a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay and a member of BoatU.S. “People go into boating expecting that their experience is going to be like owning a car and it’s not.”

Blackistone admits that during his 10 years with NMMA and 15 years as executive director of the Marine Trades Association of Maryland, he fought against boat lemon laws, dealer franchise agreements and vessel repair laws that could protect consumers. Now, as a boating consumer himself, he’s seen the light.

“We killed a lot of lemon laws and we killed a lot of dealer agreements. I regret what we did with the dealer agreements, as I look at it now from a customer-consumer perspective. Perhaps we should have been more open-minded and forward thinking,” especially at a time when even economy car makers give their customers Rolls Royce treatment, Blackistone says.

As a boat owner on the outside looking in, Blackistone told BoatU.S. he’s tasted the frustration felt by many boat owners faced with expensive repairs, warranty problems and defective products.

“As a consumer, my feelings about lemon laws have come a long way around, but they’re not the whole answer,” he says. “People will keep boating because they love to get out on the water, but they hate the process of dealing with repairs and service.”

“We market that boating is fun, affordable and family. Well, it’s not affordable and a lot of times it’s not fun, especially when they get caught in the middle between the manufacturer and the dealer,” Blackistone told BoatU.S.

So what’s holding the industry back at a time when other forms of recreation are booming?

“We are selling the pizzazz of boating, but are we’re not addressing long-term retention,” Blackistone says.

The solution is simple: ask customers what they want. “The industry as a whole has never had a consumer focus group” in which they sit down with boat owners, potential owners and others to find out how boating is perceived by the public, what the public wants from boating and how the experience can be improved. “People don’t have to boat. If they’re happy, they trade up every five years. So, do you want your guy to sell up or sell out?

He also says the “Disney philosophy” should be a model for boatbuilders. “You have 1,000 magic moments, but if there’s one bad experience, then it overshadows all the magic moments.” Anyone who’s ever been caught in a finger-pointing match between dealer and manufacturer, any owner shocked to discover that his new boat will be laid up for the lion’s share of the summer and anyone who’s gotten the run-around when trying to get help knows just what he means.

“From my perspective, I want it to be like a car experience and so does everybody else,” says Blackistone. “You don’t buy a $40,000 headache, you buy a $40,000 joyride.”

Blackistone believes that dealers and manufacturers need stronger ties, ties that assign specific responsibility for service and ensure that there’s a place for the buck to stop when customers have problems. “The industry is interested conceptually or philosophically in having happy customers, but the manufacturer puts too much faith in expecting that dealers will be equally as conscientious as they are and the dealers put too much faith in the manufacturers,” Blackistone says. “It’s a two-edge sword. It’s the weak link in the chain.”

For years, marine manufacturers have fought dealer agreement laws that establish sales territories, inventory requirements and compensation for warranty work. Such laws have been on the books for auto dealers since the late 1940s, apparently with no ill-effects.

Current marine industry practices are all across the board. Some boat companies have written agreements that are weighted heavily in favor of the manufacturer. A surprising number of companies still rely on decades-old handshake agreements. These may remain “solid” only as long as the industry’s current generation of entrepreneurs still holds the reins. Blackistone says that the founders of many boatbuilding companies are reaching retirement age. They’ve built up rapports with their dealer networks, but those same ties may not transfer to their sons and daughters as they take the helm.

“You need agreements with dealers,” Blackistone says, “and you need some form of vessel repair laws” that require shops to give written estimates and guaranteed completion dates.

It may be significant that apparently no dealers were invited to participate in the industry’s “Stop The Bleeding” forum. If customer loyalty is essential for the industry’s good health, it stands to reason that boat dealers, the most numerous members of the industry and the ones boat owners are most likely to encounter face to face, should be seated at the table.

Blackistone, the author of seven books, including three for children, is also an environmental activist on the Chesapeake when he’s not tending his crab pots. He believes the industry needs to invest in the water. That means boat and engine makers need to work to prevent pollution and enhance fisheries. “If people can’t catch fish, they’ll get out of boating.”

All his years in Washington and lobbying the legislature in Annapolis have made Blackistone pragmatic. He knows it’s not enough just to grouse about the industry and he’s not about to get out of boating. But he says industry plans for more PR campaigns aren’t going to cut it, since these programs haven’t worked in the past.

What Blackistone would like to see is a summit, a conference between the more progressive members of the marine industry — he suggests starting with Irwin Jacobs of Genmar — and consumers and dealers to iron out a roadmap, call it a chart, for the future.

“If our bottom line at the end of the day is the consumer, then we have to find out from the consumer what are their concerns and how we can make this work,” he says.

The big question for consumers is, is the industry willing to listen?

(c) Copyright BoatU.S. Magazine, January 2004