Oscar Siches

Event sponsorship in the marina sector in serious need of innovation

A colleague of mine at GMBA, David Lewin, and a man I regard as a nautical industry authority, wrote an article in July declaring the lack of leadership the major mainstream players have so far provided in the sustainability of the leisure marine industry.

 

And so it is in the world of marina development. Just as everybody acknowledges the need for innovation (a word that both gives hope and can benefit sales) and the need to team up for well-organized events by others in the industry, have you ever tried to get a serious sponsor for a given respected event? You need patience, remain hopeful, and be prepared for disappointments and elaborate excuses.  Industry leaders with turnovers in the millions of euros (or US dollars, or kuna) would not happily sponsor a well-known international event for 40 or 50k, as if the sum will threaten their financial stability.

Everybody must protect their own interests, and part of that is to evaluate the return on marketing investment, but we are witnessing a selfish approach to marketing: give me more business at the lowest possible cost, full stop. Curiously (take it as sarcasm) the industry abounds with big mouths stating their contributions or letting know their interest in making a presentation in this or that marina conference, or asking publications to print their news, expecting to be done for free. We are not operating as a unified industry but as a scattered group of guys operating marinas, suppliers, or event organizers. The operators and organizers show some common interests and keep the weak fire burning, but it is not enough to catapult the industry to the next (needed) stage.

I do not agree that the wealthy must pay more for the sake of their wealth, but a contribution to the industry development will always be appreciated and be considered natural, as all guilds did through history, and sometimes it could also be directly beneficial for the benefactor. Particularly good examples are the factories promoting and sponsoring training courses: there is no better source for the future workforce. Large yacht shipyards like Lürssen invest heavily in lowering yacht emissions and development of alternative propulsion systems, while knowing that lots of people will follow their lead and guidance, without any special gains for them. In our case, contributing to projects apparently alien to our core business (like trying to harmonize the quality and quantity of the safety equipment boats must carry onboard) can have a general benefit to all nautical, attracting new enthusiasts by simpler rules and regulations. New enthusiasts mean need of more berths. There we are. Big marine industry companies are potential testing grounds of everything worth trying, and sponsoring innovation and knowledge would bring almost immediate results. In Palma a few years ago, Seabin was allowed to try the prototypes at a local marina, the marina financed some of the costs, and now Seabin is successful and known worldwide. The opportunities are there, they have to be identified and sponsored.

The marina associations could and should be working closer to reach consensus. Icomia Marinas Group has been developing interesting projects in the last years, including the Code of Practice for marinas in Covid affected areas and the meticulous description of different government concession conditions.  The last World Marina Conferences have been very successful both in organization and the subjects discussed, but no association can get results without an appropriated working budget. Look at (ex) UCINA, SEABASS, ANEN.  Serious associations cannot be depending on the charity of higher bodies (nothing negative implied here, IMG depends on ICOMIA’s budget and has to live with the associated limitations.  That is a fact as strong as gravity. A reserve of funds to be administered by an international marina body (existing or new one) would permit the continuation of studies with a scientific base for subjects like marinas water quality and water renewal ratios, efficient energy use or pump out and waste disposal rules and new equipment.  PIANC is helping us on a few fronts, but they need scientific data and not circumstantial evidence from a recurrent experience. We are using 30-year-old technologies in marinas. A good-looking pedestal is NOT innovation: it is a 20-year-old unit with modern looks. There are so many issues to resolve: pylon maintenance, service ducting, sea growth farms underwater, non-aggressive illumination, remote fire detection . . . yes, we have been lucky with the low accident ratio within the marina world, but to use it as justification to stall is an extremely poor and unjustifiable behaviour.  In the past 10 years marinas in the First World have been related to juicy profits (not always the case), the image transcended geography and reached Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Shrewd businessmen have made marina groups attractive to trust funds which would buy and re-sell after a few years of good (sometimes pumped-up) results and most times a healthy profit.  And with all that money flying around we still cannot get our big ones to support our evolution. Is it the comfortable lying back and waiting until the industry creates (in their own eyes) something worth investing in?  Or is it the lack of control once the money is invested and the uncertainty that it will be used efficiently?  Most probably a bit of each as both are valid reasons, and the lack of interest to change things from that side too.

At conferences and events, we have become a non-marketing police body.  Tough, clear instructions about not mentioning anything remotely commercial in the presentations.  Excesses have been committed in the past, and I was one of those who supported the “no promo policy” action at the time, but we have reached an almost obsession with the matter, to the point of censoring chats during Zoom meetings.  Any extreme is bad, but what are we offering to speakers who (or who’s companies) pay their travel and accommodation and spend time preparing their presentation to share their knowledge and experience to us and for our benefit. We must reinvent the model.  We must ask for support as a money contribution or event sponsorship but also must offer compensation to the individuals and companies that make all these activities possible.  The easiest compensation is to give them the exposure they deserve for what they pay for. The pens, bags, coffee times and paper blocks are remains of a bygone era.  By sponsoring drinks after the conference, most of us will be a bit wasted as result of the long day, listening to presentations and networking. At such times, two drinks cause a diminishing effect and a certain sensation of leaving the world behind, including the drinks sponsor.

Exclusive visits to factories, sea trials, witnessing laboratory tests, one day workshops with industry leaders would be remarkably interesting alternatives, a unique way to have a unique “hands on” experience at top level. Even if not everybody can make it at least the effort and opportunity was there to be shared, and those participating would become unofficial ambassadors of the experience’s hosts, and the example will be copied and improved and made better by other industry players.  Most of us are good at copying well (not all of us). When we create a working system or protocol and it is presented during marina industry events, people implement it in their own marinas. As Renzo Piano, the famous architect said, “there is nothing wrong with copying, but you must copy well or better, what is inadmissible is to make a bad copy”. Everybody knows the corner cutting bunch.

How do we make this necessary change happen?  I would identify 4 or 5 industry players from different sectors (2 operators, big supplier, event manager, known speaker). They can build up the grounds for the “new order”, and once the concept is achieved other players can join and contribute in various roles. Why 5 and not 20?   A small amount of people will take decisions quicker and set a more agile pace.

The operators will be there to bring the discussions down to earth and keep everyone’s feet on the ground. The big suppliers will explain their company and sponsoring needs and limitations. The event manager will assess the feasibilities of an event and create new added values for everybody, like special trade day or database sharing or small TV production including industry known players. The speaker will contribute with time allocations, presentations order, and different angles to approach the subjects. Each of them speaking on what they know best. More members from other areas of the industry could be necessary, but the success of it will be related to the short number of members.

Are we ready for this?  No, and that is the perfect reason to do it now.  The soft moaning but keeping the status quo of things is a scary road to follow, it foments bad attitudes and makes us stiff and inflexible.  We all are aware of big associations stuck in the limitations of the past and not being able to adapt to the faster pace of today, the need for understanding the changes to our customers (I recently saw “dungeon master” as an entry in the CV of a lawyer with an excellent reputation) and industries and to make moves that do not have a 100% guaranteed success. Calculated risk is what will bring anybody forward today.  Unnecessary mobile use takes our time and attention, but we cannot ditch it or leave it at home because someone will be expecting us to answer a WhatsApp within 5 or 10 minutes, not 2 hours later. That was unthinkable 20 years ago, when many of us were in our prime, but that world does not exist anymore, and the only thing we can do now is adapt ourselves as much as possible to the new one and use that part of our experience that is still valid.

Let’s get together, put this to work, and create a future. The industry needs it desperately.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Against many odds, the Palma International Boat Show has been a success.

The date changes (to follow Balearics Covid protocols), the bad weather (very cloudy with less than 10 hours of patchy sun across the four days) did not stop both locals and foreigners from attending. There were some 200 boats on display, ranging in size from 4m to 50m, with 220 stands to welcome the visitors. It was a real pleasure to be in close contact as human beings again, and to yet again feel part of our lucky community of ocean enthusiasts.

The show had 30 000 visitors in 2019, and in this unusual edition of the event when air travel is still complicated, border health rules are stringent, and shipyards struggle to deliver boats to distributors and clients, we counted close to 16 000 visitors. The event was well organized, with flawless guest and exhibitor’s behavior. I mention this because taken by the emotion of being in that very special ambience of a boat show, one would tend to take it easy, form groups of people at close distances, leave some of the Covid protocols a bit behind. We latins get easily carried away when we get emotional, but not this time.

Everybody was conscious and patient on the occasions when it was needed, for example when checking mobile phone tickets took a bit more time or while waiting to be helped at a stand. Groups were small and kept their distances. Everybody wore masks.  Bars and restaurants did not see customers clustering at the bar, as orders were issued by a QR code at the table, and it worked. By scanning visitors entering and those leaving the show, the organizers were able to manage the maximum permitted visitors of 1500 people at any time.  It worked. Top brass from other EU shows (like Cannes) came to see what to expect in their future events. We were breaking that barrier that has limited us physically, and morally, for 15 months. Genova did well in October 2020, but we all visitors g=fell to low figures of the first months of 2021 until vaccination started to account for better results. A parallel virtual show was run featuring interesting presentations and live interviews from the physical show. This was a comeback feat more than a pure boat show. We had learnt our lessons. It was a community achievement.  Chatting with a few of the exhibitors, they agreed that this time it was more important to support the show and be back with a physical presence than the possible business generation.  Everybody understood it that way.  Everybody delivered.

Palma is back.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

“Let’s go to the port, to see those megayachts of the rich,” she told her boyfriend, “they are huge, made for Arabs and Russians.”

“Why do I have to go look at the fortunes of all those bastards, most of them are criminals protected by their money,” answered her companion.

She wanted to go see a dream, a reality that was never going to become theirs. Her perception of large yachts, as shared with a large part of society, provided some of their general idea about the rich.

We are passionate about sailing and we live with and from it. Invented in England at around the time when the British flag (Union Jack, 1606) was forged from the flags of the Union and from the Dutch idea to create small, shallow and very fast boats to chase the pirates. With no internet or Netflix to amuse them, attacking coastal towns seemed good fun at the time!

In the 80s a 36m yacht was big. Today, 45m yachts are mass-produced, and more than 55 yachts over 100m in length appear on the international charts.

In most countries boating is generally elitist, like golf, horse riding and to a lesser degree, tennis. The efforts we have made to present boating as a “normal” sport to rulers have not yielded any results. Of course, in countries with a maritime culture, the majority of the middle class can own and enjoy a boat of up to 10m, sail or motor, at a cost no higher than that of a mid-level second-hand car. 85% of the pleasure boats in the world measure less than 10m, the popular nautical craft are small. Some countries (several from the third world) woke up to sailing later and generally follow the trends of the leading pack (EU – USA).

But what the world (including us) sees of nautical sports is not the family with a 6m boat in a trailer on their way to spend a weekend on the coast. The world sees the articles and news briefs in glossy magazines in which megayachts are shown as exorbitant costs to serve a group of 8 or 10 people. They also read about the America’s cup and the tens of millions they spend each season. Of course, soccer also moves millions and the players earn obscene amounts, but for a kid you only need a 15-euro ball and an empty lot and he can be Messi or Ronaldo all afternoon. Tennis can be played in a club. For the would-be nautical hobbyist, the possibility is light years away.

We must accept how we are seen, and continue to support athletes who represent us, not only us as a country, but also that incoming generation that seems to already have in their DNA a serious respect for the environment and an increase in personal values ​​( dedicate more time to themselves, not just run after financial success). Create places for the public in the sailing schools of the clubs, introduction to the nautical world in the schools, municipal nautical schools.

And the marinas. We have not evolved. The marinas allowed those who could not be members of a yacht club to use a mooring. It was the first opening of the nautical world for everyone. There are no marinas without yachts or yachts without marinas. They cover a need for the nautical development. They must be integrated into the community: visiting days, events, workshops.  The nautical activity is concentrated in four or five areas of the world.  We, the West, rule the waves. It is time to extend a hand out there and welcome everybody to enjoy the sea. It would be fantastic for them, and great for us.  We have the knowledge and the experience. All this is possible, but we have to do it from within. And there is a lot to do.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

One of the unfortunate consequences of the almost limitless access to information by the grace and technology of mobile phones and other IT artefacts, is paradoxically how easy it is to get such information.

Many times, we summon the Wikipedia to find out something we are interested in. That is already good: knowing and using your resources.  But how deep are we ready to go to satisfy our curiosity or desire to acquire knowledge? In general, very little.  Our curiosity will be fed enough with the first one or two lines of the subject article. It is info zapping: a glimpse is enough, we are ready for the next chat, WhatsApp funny video, Instagram picture or a CNN headline. That is actually what occupies most of our mobile time online.

In fact, and as reported by Comscore, a US company dedicated to analysing online use, age-defined online use is distributed as follows

As it can be seen, there is not a generational difference in time spent online. Everybody does it, and with similar frequency.

If we check mobile use minutes compared with digital use minutes, Indonesia and India lead the world with 91% of online time being done on a mobile, while EU is around the mid-70s and both the USA and UK are on 77%.  It is a lot of use on the mobile. Desktop is still the choice to make purchases, but mobile is out there tempting us, sending us info, the weather and some private communication exchange.

We at the nautical industry know that we have to reach out to the customer, and that involves creating a rich, informative message, one that will not make the customer run to his desktop to purchase a new 50’ motorboat, but it will make the client switch to the shipyard website, call a friend who had or has an experience with them, and eventually set up a meeting with someone in the sales department. Swift, efficient, ideal.

But…

How far will the initial message be from the reality of a physical visit?  Most people do not read more than 30 or 40 words of a message or advertising.  With that input, they make (mostly unconsciously) the decision of keep reading or jumping to the next message.

The sales messaging in the leisure marine market has not innovated and changed along with the developments of design, usual use of boats, or user age tendencies.  The hospitality sector has, luxury vehicle sector has, applying the last known trends to draw the client’s attention to the core message.  It involves colours, motion, form, people’s attire, background.  We have stayed behind. The message to be shown in computers, tablets and mobiles (and specially these last ones) has to be a short one with solid content, inviting the reader to take the next step, either through generated interest or curiosity, but it has to catch the attention of the consumer with few words. A few years ago, the NMMA campaign of “Discover Yachting” was very innovating with short videos with very little or no text but carrying a huge message understandable by everybody.  Thom Dammrich, at the time president of NMMA, mentioned the old nautical adagio of “there are two happy days in the life of a boat owner: the day you buy your boat and the day you sell your boat” and issued his own version at a METS breakfast keynote speech: “there are two happy days in the life of a boat owner: Saturday and Sunday”.  It was a clear message that changed the thoughts of many industry and future nautical enthusiasts.

If not abandoning the old ways, we must learn the reception process of those we send the message to.  In the marina business we have adopted hotel and hospitality practices since the early 2000.  In 2008, deciding the profile of dockhands for a new Dubai marina, the decision was taken of recruiting hotel trained personnel instead of fishermen or sailors:  customer service was the #1 priority. We could train client service professionals to tie knots.

We need to engage specialists to help us develop the message we want to send. It can sound a bit extreme, and that feeling can also come from our reluctance to accept ways we are not used too.  We are a conservative bunch, but we are dependent on the image our potential client has made of us in his mind.  And our potential client’s thinking is changing fast, and we must be ready to act upon those changes.  Shall we say, “ideal for the whole family” or “even your mother-in-law will love it” or “your pets will feel like Tritons”? We must start looking at other sectors and see which successful marketing and communication practices there are that we can adopt for the marine sector.

Around 15 years ago, I was laughing with my travel agent about a friend of mine who told me he was going to start buying airline tickets through Internet. I thought he was a freak.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Women

In Paradise, God showed a pleasure in creating norms and rules for everything, as Spain would do in the future. He planted the two lovebirds in the Garden of Eden and forbade them to touch the apples. The snake, who was a bit of a populist, convinced the first woman that it did not matter, that for human beings, failure to comply would be an everyday thing, something anecdotal. The rest is well known, God took it seriously and Adam and Eve became the first squatter candidates.

It was also the beginning of the bad reputation of women, who were always charged with the guilt of their predecessor having eaten the apple. They were associated with sin and relegated to giving birth, cooking and running the house, and if it was done in silence, the better. Only during the 20th century were rights recognized such as driving or voting. Unrecognized women have stood out in all orders: scientists, athletes, politicians (good ones), writers, journalists, there were then and there are now. The recognition keeps growing slowly, although the suspicion is still there. In the last 40 years, women (not girls, who had already been sailing for a while) arrived at yachting with impetus. By a couple of names that sound familiar to us (Ellen Mc Arthur, Florence Arthaud, Wendy Tuck) there are dozens on Olympic podiums, solitary circumnavigations, and examples of tenacity and guts that defy traditional anatomy. British, French, Australian, New Zealand, American and even a Polish woman, Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz, who was the first female who in 1978 and at 40 went around the world alone in a 9.5m sailboat. They were the forerunners of those who, as professional crew came to the yachts to clean, tidy up and few also to cook. Ada, my wife, sailed with me for 10 years in the 80s and 90s, and she was a formidable crew member. These newcomers adapted and integrated and taking on greater responsibilities in increasingly larger boats, sailed many miles and did courses and decided that this would be their career, even though boating was not considered a serious job, especially not for a woman. In the 80s, when we were chartering in Greece and the Caribbean, clients asked us “what do you do in real life”.

Today they are crew members on the vast majority of yachts 25m and larger. They fill positions as hostesses and chef cooks as before, but also as butler, first officer or captain. There are very well-organized female crew associations. Women have their own qualities that the men know but find difficult to put into practice. They quickly and deeply develop loyalty, dedication, order, responsibility, compassion. They are excellent disciples and have a sixth sense to pay attention to. I know a few that I admire, and under whose orders I would have no problem working, since they are at the highest level of nautical and marine knowledge. With Monica, a Catalan in her 50’s whom I love very much, I would go blind as a crew member to negotiate the Menorca or Bonifacio straits with Mistral, me vomiting and she laughing, for sure. With Nerea, a thirty-year-old friend of my daughter I would embark on her ketch “Alcatraz” to share any marine adventure. Women stand out as charter agents, are excellent port managers, directors of nautical companies, presidents of associations, and the list goes on …

Guys: let’s stop with the nonsense, forget the apple and its consequences. This suspicion that is still there, latent, makes us retrograde.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Javier Candela
Marketing and Commercial Director
Marina Estrella
Spain

 

 

 

 

 

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1. WHAT ARE THE MARKET FORCES IN SPAIN DRIVING BOAT SALES AND HOW IS THE MARINE INDUSTRY FARING OVERALL?

According to official data, the Spanish market for new pleasure boats fell by -11.1% in 2020 compared to the previous year, with the decreases in sales being more important of vessels of more than 12 meters, while the vessels of smaller length suffered a smaller fall. The recreational boating sector in Spain is made up of a multitude of small companies that carry out activities for the sale of new boats, used boats, boat rentals and boat repairs and maintenance, being the vast majority focused on boats of less than 8 meters, which represent around 90% of the national market. On the other hand, there are a number of companies that have continued to market larger vessels during 2020, with sales to Spanish clients or clients of other nationalities sailing in Spain. While other tourist activities have been more affected by the Covid pandemic, the recreational boating sector dedicated to the sale of boats has managed to weather the storm in a positive way, although the obvious decrease in rental or maintenance activity due to national or international confinements, has caused a notable decrease in boat rental companies and a decline in the volume of activity of nautical maintenance or repair services companies.

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2. WHAT ARE THE CRUCIAL ISSUES MOST BUSINESSES IN SPAINARE ADDRESSING TO ENSURE SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS?

A very important point regarding contact with customers has been the digitization that most companies have addressed since the lockdowns began in early 2020. Specifically, many companies have implemented video-calling systems or virtual visits to the boats to make it easier for customers to know the boats for sale and to be able to continue with the negotiations despite not being able to visit them physically. State aid at the level of loans under favorable conditions or the employment regulation steps authorized by the government during times of confinement, have made it possible to withstand the occasional drops in activity and thus be able to ensure the survival of nautical companies.

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3. HAS THERE BEEN A NOTABLE CHANGE SINCE COVID IN SUPPLY CHAINS FOR SPANISHMARINE INDUSTRY BUSINESSES WITH A MOVE TO SOURCE MORE LOCALLY?

The nautical sector in Spain is highly internationalized in terms of the supply of new boats, since currently countries such as France, Italy, Poland, England, the USA, etc … have a much more powerful nautical industry than the national one, although there are still some shipyards that produce boats locally. With the emergence of Covid in Europe, there have really been no relevant changes in the supply chain of finished vessels. For companies dedicated to the sale of nautical spare parts mostly imported from third countries, they have had to make certain adjustments in their main suppliers, prioritizing national or European suppliers for logistics issues.

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4. WHAT ROLE ARE THE BIG REGATTAS (SUPERYACHT CUP, COPA DEL REY, RUTA DE LA SAL)CURRENTLY FULFILLING FOR SPANISH BUSINESSES

The realization of this type of regattas in Spain has a lesser impact on the national nautical sector as a whole, since normally these large regattas are concentrated in the Balearic Islands and although there is a slight increase in the activity of marinas, dry docks, boat rental companies , etc. in the area during the specific dates of the regattas, in general the sector does not benefit economically in a remarkable way, but it is obvious that the promotion of nautical activity in the media always represents a benefit for the nautical industry, while to deal with regattas and this sector in general is focused on promoting nautical activities aimed at attracting new nautical fans.

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5. ARE CONSUMERS STARTING TO BUY LARGER VESSELS, OR WITH COVID ARE CONSUMERS LOOKING TO SPEND MORE RECREATIONAL TIME WITH THEIR FAMILY ON A MANAGEABLE SCALE AND LOOKING AT SMALLER, EASIER TO MANAGE VESSELS?

Historically, the nautical market in Spain is formed almost 90% in boats of less than 8 meters, and we have not seen a relevant change in this distribution with the arrival of Covid. After the drop in sales due to mobility restrictions in spring 2020, as of June 2020 we could see an increase in sales of all types of boats and lengths.

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6. WHEN INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOWS RESUME, WILL THEY BE AS IMPORTANT AS BEFORE?

Despite the evolution of the online channel for monitoring and contact with customers, we believe that the physical presence in boat shows will once again be part of our day to day, as customers will always appreciate getting on board several models in person before to make the purchase decision. When it is safe at the health level to meet again at events of this type, the boat shows will be organized again, perhaps on a smaller scale, but in any case, the physical experience in a room will once again be part of the decision process of purchase.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Letters from Spain. – Oscar Siches

The right boat for the right user?

In his letter a few days ago, David Lewin told us about those little things that make all the difference when applying to a boat the knowledge of the local conditions where she will be used. When dealing with the UK, the UK weather and sea specifics as salinity, tides, currents and short waves must be taken in consideration in order to make some modifications on the boats and adapt them to Great Britain’s sailing conditions.

I will complement here that hardware approach with something that David also mentioned in his letter: culture.  Culture is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “a way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time” which in simple words is “the way we are”.

People – and culture- change with times. We are not behaving like we did in the ’60s or even during the ‘90s, as the world is changing faster and faster and we have to adapt to the ways those changes affect our lives.

During the last 15 years, many boaters have changed the way they use boats. We in the marinas industry have noticed a gap between early 20’s and 45 years old not practising nautical activities anymore. The 45 years old are the old fashion yachtsmen, and they are ageing and widening the gap. The youngsters join the sailing school or the parent’s yacht until university time, then the nautical hobby is replaced by other activities not as demanding as yachting is, activities or sports providing sensations faster like squash or tennis or driving a quad in the mountains, demanding less investment and operating costs. This is slightly different for each country – related to culture- but some characteristics are common to all of them: young people prefer not to make a big investment and run (sometimes high) maintenance costs for a long time. Of course, one sets sail and is free at sea when using the boat, but there is a dependency protocol (even if simple) to follow, being bound to the club or marina. Many are slowly drifting towards join partnership when buying a boat, or chartering, which gives the advantage of selecting with absolute freedom the region where to sail.  This is only a known example of the way young people buy or use boats nowadays. There are many questions we should ask them, behaviours to investigate in order to create a boat and an environment friendly and attractive enough to get those missing nautical enthusiasts in the water again. What do young couples prefer? What about children onboard?  What is the ratio between people anchoring in a bay for the night or the ones willing a booked place at a marina to jump ashore for dinner? Which is the profile of people taking the boat out for the day and which is the one going cruising for two nights or more? We must research the behaviour of boat users to make it easy for the potential ones to become our clients. The car industry does it. The fashion industry does it. Supermarket chains do it. If we can predict people’s behaviour, we can be ahead with the product changes and make it more attractive to future new clients.

For further information
Oscar Siches, CMP
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.