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May 2017 | Boating Industry | 41 www.BoatingIndustry.com /// Market Trends /// BY CRAIG RITCHIE THE GROWTH IN RECREATIONAL BOATING over the past several years has been achieved in large part due to corresponding advances in outboard power. It's impossible to walk through any consumer boat show these days and not be struck by the overwhelming prevalence of outboard engines. From lightweight portables to behemoth V8s, outboard engines continue to dominate sales figures not just here in the U.S., but all around the world. The growth of the pontoon segment has been a key factor in outboard sales. As buyers gravitate to larger vessels, bigger engines are becoming commonplace. According to the latest data from the National Marine Manufacturers Association, sales of new outboard-powered boats have been growing steadily for the past six years. From annual retail sales to the order of 100,000 units in 2011, NMMA shows retail volumes charting steadily upward through Septem- ber 2016 – the most recent data released – when they approached the 150,000-unit range. That is a substantial rate of growth by any measure and today four out of five new powerboats sold are powered by an outboard engine. Freshwater fishing boats currently represent 45 percent of all outboard boats sold, notes NMMA, followed by pontoon boats (32 percent) and salt- water fishing boats (19 percent). Yet it is the rapid growth in the pontoon and saltwater fishing catego- ries that have driven the sharpest gains in outboard engine sales, as these segments continue to achieve year-over-year growth rates in the high single-digit and low double-digit range. "Pontoon boat sales continue to grow year after year, which obviously represent a direct benefit to outboard manufacturers," said Evinrude prod- uct marketing manager Jason Eckman. "Today's pontoon boats have evolved to such a degree that they're nothing like what they were even 10 years ago. The boats get bigger and they're continually pushing boundaries with more and more amenities, but buyers still want to have an exciting ride and a bit of performance. This has been driving demand for larger horsepower outboards for some time, and now we're seeing multi-engine pontoons emerge on the market from several different manufacturers. At one point this might have been considered a com- pletely outrageous idea, but as more people experi- ence it and enjoy the performance edge that twin engines bring, multi-engine pontoons have begun to emerge as a bit of a growing trend, while focusing even more attention on the pontoon segment and driving further sales." It isn't just pontoons which have grown larger and come to demand bigger engines. The entire boating market seems to be experiencing an upshift as consumers gravitate to increasingly larger product.