I am looking to market products and services to the pleasure boating
industry and would like to find out how many pleasure boaters (both
motor and sail) there are in the U.S.  I am familiar with
associations, such as NMMA and Sail America, but have not been able to
find one source that will provide the total number of pleasure
boaters.  Perhaps BoatUS or West Marine rent their lists and the
information could be obtained that way?

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 29 Jul 2003 17:55 PDT

Spedem,

I am aware that you mentioned the NMMA however they do have a chart of
population estimates of sailboat owners, outboard and inboard boat
owners etc and total number of people participating in recreational
boating for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. Would this information be
of your interest (if you do not have it already)? It appears to answer
your question.

Thanks,
Bobbie7

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 29 Jul 2003 19:30 PDT

I've found some data on the number of recreational boating craft in
the US (as distinct from the number of boaters).  There are a total of
almost 13 million pleasure boats in the US...the source breaks these
out by state and by type of craft, including motorized and
non-motorized, with further divisions into:

INBOARD
OUTBOARD
STERNDRIVE

AUXILIARY SAIL
SAIL ONLY
PWCs
ROWBOAT
CANOE OR KAYAK

Again, this is data on the number of BOATS, not boaters.

Let me know if it would be of interest to you as an answer to your
question.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 21 Aug 2003 08:38 PDT

Just thought I'd check back in...do you have the information you need,
or would you like me to post the data on numbers of boats as an answer
to your question?

Here is the answer to your question. I have taken this from "Boating
Industry" magazine March / April 2003 issue.  Their main source of
information is the NMMA.  In 2002: (numbers are not exact because this
comes from a bar graph)
Total Boats in Use (US): 17.3 million
Outboards: 8.4 million
Inboards: 1.8 million
Sterndrive: 1.9 million
Personal watercraft: 1.4 million
Sailboats: 1.8 million
Misc. craft: 1.0 million

Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA)
http://www.sgma.com/index.html

annually surveys sport participation, their:

SGMA Sports Participation Topline Report 2003 Edition
http://www.sgma.com/reports/data/2003/p28b-000-03.pdf
(see page 4 for data for water sports involving boats)

provides sailing participation data for 2002 (5,161,000 people 
age 6 or older) and data for several boating activities, but not an 
overall number for power boaters. An overview of their survey 
methods is the final page of the report above.

A more in depth review of the data above is available in their:

Sports Participation in America 2003
http://www.sgma.com/reports/2003/report1057592682-32441.html

The report is available to nonmembers for about $500.00.

**********************
The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA)
http://www.nsga.org

conducts a similar annual participation study. Enter their site as
a guest, then select "Research & Statistics" from the frame on the
left, select "Sports Participation" from the popup menu, then select 
"2002 participation, alphabetically" and look for "boating".

Motor Boating 26.6 million people  7 years or older.

**************

SRDS prints "The Lifestyle Market Analyst"
http://www.srds.com/frontMatter/ips/lifestyle

which also provides both national and regional
data for several sporting activities. It is 
available in many major libraries.

***********************
The Responsive Management National Office 
published about a 120 page study
"Factors Related to Recreational Boating Participation
in the United States" A review of the literature.
http://www.nasbla.org/pdf/Boating%20Participation%20report.pdf

Pages 1-3 (counted as pages 13-15 by Adobe Acrobat) 
provide an overview of participation data.

***********************
Simmons Market Research Bureau 
http://www.smrb.com

conducts a large annual National Consumer Survey (NCS) 
that includes participation in several sporting activities. 
Data is published in the annual
Simmons Survey of Media and Markets (SMM) 
First time users of the study often take a little while getting 
used to the format. An example of the way data is presented
can be found at:
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/lue/HTU/SMM.pdf

The study can be found in print or CD format in many 
major libraries.

*************
A review published online by the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign of a recent book by one of their
professors:  
  
Recreation Trends and Markets: The 21st Century
By John Kelly. Published by Sagamore Publishing.

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/gentips/00/03fitnesstip.html

discusses the importance of the Simmons sports
participation data.

You might also find this book useful.

*********************** 

An extensive list of sources for Power Boat Industry
Statistics is provided on the Recreational Boating Building
Industry web site at:
http://www.rbbi.com/desks/mkt/stats/stats.htm

*************

Participation in many recreational activities seems to 
follow the 80/20 rule. About 20 percent of those who go 
participate in activity (such as boating) at least once a 
year, account for about 80 percent of the total number of 
experiences per year. The rapid falloff of participation 
with frequency (went twice, three times, etc) can sometimes 
been seen in the Simmons data. You might want to consider
that before getting "big eyes" about the total number of 
boaters out there. Many of them only go boating once or
twice a year.

Good luck
Digger