Sanctuary Cove

FEEDBACK from exhibitors and organisers at this year’s Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show was mixed, however, most agree the show points to a slow and gradual market recovery for the Australian industry.

The four-day Show drew 424 exhibitors and 576 boats and watercraft on display.

Visitor numbers were up slightly from last year with Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show general manager Barry Jenkins giving the final visitor tally of 39,019. Last year’s visitor count was 36,479. Both are well behind 2008’s impressive 50,678 visitors. Marine Business spoke to a number of exhibitors during and after the show for their thoughts on the market. Although numbers remained relatively stagnant, overall, exhibitors reported a higher number of enthusiasm amongst the crowd. Another interesting observation were the higher number of intersate buyers this year, proving Sanctuary Cove is much more than a local event.

BLA’s new marketing manager Dion Dougherty reported strong interest across the company’s diverse product range, with notable interest in the Minn Kota iPilot series.

“This is the bggest stand BLA has had a Sanctuary Cove and the response was very strong and we are happy with the level of customer engagement at the stand, we were kept very busy,” said Dougherty.

“The overall feeling was mixed – some positive some flat, but overarall for us, it was the best stand we had put together and we had lots of positive repsonse from customers both indoors and outdoors,” he said.

Anil Patel, who was displaying his range of SmartKat inflatable sailing cats reported an upswing this year in sales.

“We sold double what we’ve sold in any other year, and were happy with the outcome,” said Patel.

Patel is seeking to increase the company’s national presence with an increase in national trade dealers, but said interest from potential dealers remained slow, with the exception of Queensland. “We have a couple of Queensland distributors interested, but not much interest outside of Queensland,” he said.

Ross Brain of Active Water Sports, who sells a range of Walker Bay tenders, Airis inflatables and Feelfree kayaks, also talked postitively about the show. Marine Business called Brain after the show as he was delivering some of his products sold at the show. “I’m actually out delivering now, and all of these sales have come from the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show,” said Brain.   

“I believe a lot of the people who came through the show were genuine customers. It didn’t seem to have the consumer that was there with family for the day out. They came to the show because they were interested in the product and they wanted to buy it,

“We did okay on the weekend of the show, but it was the follow up afterwards that was solid,” he said.

Brain makes the point that although sales were consistant, a return to the prosperous impulse buying of 2006 and 2007 has not yet returned.

“There are still people out there who want to buy the lifestyle product, which everyone is selling at Sanctuary Cove. I just think that with everything that has happened over the past 18 months, and more recently with the Australian dollar dropping, the consumer will sit back and wait just a little bit longer, they won’t impulse buy like they did a few years ago,” said Brain.

Marine Business caught up with Greg Haines of Haines Suzuki after the show who said his network of dealers reported good sales in small portable outboards.

“We had four dealers displaying outboards and we also have a strong relationship with our OEMs, with the likes of PowerCat, Kevlacat and VoyagerCat, etc, so we had a really good presence there from a corporate point of view,” said Haines.

“Some of OEMs did really well, especially in the big horsepower end and we also did well with re-powers and portables. The 8hps and 9.9hps were strong, that was the market we were selling to at the boat show.

“I think Sanctuary Cove is a very aspirational show now, many people go there to have lunch and dream about the big boats which is great, it gets people involved in boating.”

One industry insider said he believed the Queensland market remains flat with only few sales leads to talk about after the show. “We had a few interstate visitors who showed interest but Queensland remains quiet, it was quite light on,” he said. “It’s still a bit of a roller coaster at the moment.”

All Marine Spares, a Sydney trade only dealer of marine parts, used Sanctuary Cove to launch its new range of Craftsman Marine diesel engines. It was All Marine’s first time at SCIBS and according to managing director Leigh Francis, the show was positive with the first sale coming only hours after the opening Thursday.

“We had better than expected interest and levels of inquiry,” sad Francis.

“We had solid orders being confirmed at the show with more to follow up over the coming days.

Francis said Craftsman Marine engines respond to a definite need currently in the Australian marine trade market and Sanctuary Cove proved this.

Maritimo released a statement after the show reporting an “excellent” result.

“Sanctuary Cove is a strong gauge for the market and it has certainly picked up. We have achieved our best result for three years,” said Maritimo marketing director Luke Durman.

Riviera released a statement confirming 19 new boats were sold over the four day event, including the sale of nine new 43 Open Flybridges.

“The result firmly speaks of the markets continued love of Riviera design, quality and integrity. Our new 43 Open Flybridge has truly excited the market with its exterior timeless design,” said Riviera CEO John Anderson.

Local boat builder Bruce Allison was exhibiting his new range of Allison Alloy boats through gold Coast dealer White Water Marine.

Allison told Marine Business he sold two boats at the show with another sale imminent pending an on water test this week.

“Our dealer also sold about 18 motors, including a couple 140 and 190hp and had plenty more leads from the show,” said Allsion.

Inside the pavilions Navico debuted its Sonic Hub entertainment system and received strong interest in its Simrad range of marine electronics.

“We were really surprised about the huge amount of interest in Simrad, last year the focus was more about Lowrance HDS, now more people are becoming aware of the Simrad NSE. We had alot of people through the stand with Thursday and Friday being the busiest,” said Navico director of sales and marketing Damien Weber.

Nearby in pavillion A Fusion released its 200 series stereo. This small but feature packed stereo was attracting plenty of interest from visitors and OEMs. Fusion GM Chris Baird told Marine Business this year, from a business- to- business perspective, was very positive with a number of OEMs expressing strong interest in the products.

“They’ve seen that we’ve matured as a company and are interested in using our products, we’ve been around a while now, we’ve moved on from the green aliens, and this show has been very good for us,” said Baird.

Upcoming Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show dates Thursday, May 19 to Sunday, May 22 in 2011.

Dates in 2012 are Thursday, May 24 to Sunday, May 27.