“Discover Boating” Discovers African-Americans

Years ago, the NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) started a division called “Discover Boating.” The reason it was started was because of the decline in new boat sales, something that has unfortunately trended downward for the last 20 years. The mission of the program was to encourage new participants (therefore new boat buyers) into the sport.

To that end, the industry agreed to contribute to the Discover Boating fund an amount of money from each new powerboats sold based on the horsepower of that unit. At its high point, this arrangement raised over $12 million for the project. The idea was to use that money to make videos, buy advertising space, and generally do things to increase new boat sales.

Sales Continue to Decline

Sadly, over the years, new boat sales continued to decline throughout this century despite the best efforts of Discover Boating -- to say nothing of the constant propagation of articles in dozens of boating magazines, and proliferation on fishing cable TV programs, and the rise of online websites, such as BoatTEST.

The root cause of the sales decline, of course, was not the lack of boating awareness among the general population, but the constant increase in new boat prices and the annual cost of boat operation. That, coupled with the relatively stagnant increase in household income, adjusted for inflation, could result in no other outcome. The situation is what is known as a mega trend.

Saved by a Pandemic

Then, the pandemic that started in the spring of 2020, created the greatest demand for new boats that had been seen in decades. New boat inventory was immediately exhausted, any decent used boat was sold, and new boats of all sizes were backordered for months, if not years, due to production capacities based on the demand seen in the previous five years. Today, new boat sales are roaring, and with global warming producing the hottest summer on record in modern times, new boat production seems to have a bright future.

African-Americans in Boating

While we applaud Discover Boating’s outreach to African-Americans, the fact is that they discovered boating about the time everyone else did. The human race has been boating for at least 100,000 years. Trouble is, that in the U.S. boating was not available to African-Americans until about 1865, and back then they had other things on their minds.

Several years ago, BoatTEST ran an article on all of the megayachts and superyachts being bought by African-Americans. Its title was “African-Americans Discover Boating.” We promptly received a note from one of our African-American members in Detroit who said that we had gotten it wrong, that boating was just now discovering African-Americans [as a market].

We applaud the Discover Boating campaign to inform all members of our society that boating is a great way to enjoy life, and everyone is welcome.