If you want to understand how the boating market for newly produced pleasure boats is doing, the reference is the data from Beneteau, the world’s largest shipyard, excluding the separate super/mega yacht sector.
Beneteau’s data about boating market
At first glance, the data are merciless, the Beneteau Group, which includes the Beneteau, Jeanneau, Lagoon, Excess, Prestige, Four Winns, Wellcraft, Scarab, and Delphia brands, had sales of 1,034.4 million euros in 2024, a 29.4 percent drop from 2023 where it had reached 1,465 million euros, marking an all-time high.
But if you read the data better you realize that 2023 was the last “anomalous” year post covid that “drugged” the boating market for a two-year period. The practical effect for Beneteau, but for many other large series production yards, is that too many boats were produced in 2023/2024, but not sold.
To settle down to market reality by disposing of excess production, 2024 budgets have suffered. Market trends include a slowdown in purchases of boats for charter, monohulls and catamarans. In terms of markets, Europe is first with 566.2 million euros, followed by the continent of the Americas with 272.4. The rest of the world weighs in at 195.9 million euros. Also important is the “sailing” item, which is worth 49 percent of sales for the Beneteau group. A peculiarity given that usually powerboats represent a potentially much larger market than sailing.
