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March 2017 | Boating Industry | 33 www.BoatingIndustry.com /// Market Trends /// Center consoles drive the category While market data says the saltwater fi shing cat- egory is growing, in reality, it is the center con- sole segment which is truly driving the market. "I think there are a couple of fundamental differences between the sportfi shing segment and the center console segment, starting with the sheer size of the marketplace," said John Ward, CEO at Everglades Boats and formerly CEO at Hatteras. "The center console market is enormous compared to the convertible market. It's also a very fast-growing market, and that's really ex- citing. There are a lot of brands in the center console segment, with maybe a dozen or more that compete in the premium space," Ward added. "By comparison, in the convertible seg- ment there are maybe three or four brands, so there's not a lot of depth in terms of the num- ber of manufacturers serving that category. But there are commonalities as well. Customers want innovation and they want fresh styling, whether it's a $5 million offshore yacht or a smaller, trailerable center console. A lot of the success in the saltwater fi shing space results from this constant innovation." The versatility of the center console design, along with the ability to walk clear around the boat, make it a strong candidate for continued development as manufacturers add more and more family-friendly features. "When we compare center console sales to dual console sales, historically the dual console market has been as much as 50 percent of what our center console sales have been," said Mar- lowe. "But recently, with the improvements in the center console design which appeal to the family, we have seen the center console part of our business increase to over 90 percent of what we build. We've had buyers comment that they thought they wanted a dual-console boat, but with the bow seating combined with the huge cockpit they now have a very fi shable center console while still enjoying the attractive features of a bowrider. To see how popular the center console design has become, take a look at the boats used on many of the inland lakes While Baby Boomers may be paying for the boats, Millennials are driving many feature and purchase decisions. SALTWATER OB 14'-44' TOP LENGTHS GROWTH % 12 MONTHS ROLLING TOTAL 7.71% 15' 0.18% 16' 2.69% 17' -3.83% 18' -1.01% 19' 7.44% 20' 8.94% 21' 6.98% 22' 8.37% 23' 6.34% 24' 4.19% 25' 10.83% 26' 7.53% 27' 32.57% 28' 35.56% 32' 41.91% Source: SSI