'The frenzy is over': Boat sales, buoyed by COVID pandemic, return to normal

LACONIA — The chaos and turmoil of the COVID pandemic era brought huge opportunities for the marine industry, with new boaters flocking to showrooms in search of ways to spend time outdoors. Now, it appears that bubble has burst, and the industry is back to business as usual. 

“It was crazy at COVID,” Ryan Cardella, co-owner of East Coast Flightcraft with locations in the Weirs and in Meredith, said. “That was a feeding frenzy, it was a boating emergency for everyone.”

East Coast Flightcraft specializes in high-performance boats, many of which are used in shows and competitions. Their market is somewhat niche compared to other watercraft dealerships throughout the Lakes Region.

Since the COVID times, many of the new customers who sought watercraft are now out of the lifestyle, he said. That’s partly due to demographics — his average customer has “tweens,” who are now able to rejoin recreational sports and other club activities — and also due to political and economic factors that may have influenced customer psychology and behavior.

“We’ve taken a little bit of a dip,” he said. 

Though the market for high end boats is still running strong, “the low end has really tightened up a bit,” he said. They’re down 15% to 20% in sales compared to at the peak of the COVID pandemic, by his estimation. But with many new residents to the Lakes Region since the COVID era, and lots of new houses constructed on Lake Winnipesaukee, the high end market remains resilient.

“People are more cautious spending that $200,000-$300,000,” he said.

While other dealerships experienced difficulty filling their inventory during COVID, East Coast Flight craft got lucky — they sit on committees for major industrial manufacturers and were able to get just about anything they wanted, at the time. Now, boating markets in Texas and California have experienced contraction, so they’re able to benefit from excess inventory held by manufacturers, which translates to better deals for their customers on the East Coast.

Their peak sales window typically occurs between Memorial Day and Labor Day, though they do well at boat shows across New England in the winter.

“In COVID, [customers] just pulled the trigger,” he said. “With that change in mentality, the frenzy is over.”

Statistics compiled by the National Marine Manufacturers Association bear that out. Annual U.S. sales of boats, marine products and services totaled over $59 billion in 2022, up 4.4% over 2021. According to an April 2025 report, the sale of new pontoons and jet boats each declined nearly 20% over the year prior. 

At Winnisquam Marine, General Manager Ryan Crawford said it was about two years ago when customer behavior and sales trends reverted to the pre-COVID norm. Now, dealers have leftovers, because during the pandemic, there was a surplus of boats on order.

“You were just lucky to get the boat,” Crawford said, referring to difficulties ordering watercraft from manufacturers during that period. During the pandemic, dealers could sell as many boats as they were able to procure, and, by his estimation, manufacturers couldn’t produce 30% of their normal volume. 

For example, in a typical season, Winnisquam Marine may have somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 boats in stock. During the COVID era, there were times when they had as few as two or three readily available. 

Now, “salesmen have to be salesmen again,” he said.

Through the period and still today, they’ve got new and returning customers purchasing boats. 

“Pontoons are still the hot market, that’s what we do the most,” Crawford said. “The demand is back to where it would usually be.”

The weather has proven the most impactful variable to their business this year — the Lakes Region experienced a dozen rainy Saturdays in a row. When it’s nice outside, people want to get out on the lake. and tend to be more interested in purchasing watercraft. 

“Now, when you have nice days is when you usually sell a lot of products,” he said. 

“COVID times were pretty crazy, with many people entering boating as a lifestyle,” Bruce Wright, president and general manager of Irwin Marine, said Thursday morning. Now, they’ve noticed the return of a more traditional pace of sales. 

Though their primary customers are usually lakeside property owners, they’ve got a lot of new customers, too, and Irwin Marine caters to both segments. Wright said customers who live on the lake generally buy larger boats, while tourists or others who travel to the lake and trailer their boats tend to prefer smaller ones which are easier to transport and manage.

“It’s definitely leveled off,” he said. 

Irwin Marine sits in peer groups with dealers around other regions of the country, and notices their sales season tends to occur later compared to others.

When asked why this region sells well in late summer compared to other parts of the country, Wright answered, “I wish I knew the answer to that one.”