Buying and Selling – The Boat Market: the Only Constant is Change
June 25, 2026
By Perry Woodman, President, Breezeway Yachts
The only consistent element of the boat market over the last decade has been change.
Lately, we have seen considerable turnover on both the dealer and brokerage sides of the marine business here in Ontario. Because the modern boating industry is still relatively young, we suspect this “changing of the guard”—from original owners and founders to the next generation—is happening all across North America.
However, industry leadership isn’t the only thing shifting. The entire market cycle we are witnessing today was fundamentally reshaped by the 2020 pandemic.
The Pandemic Boom meets Economic Headwinds
From 2020 to 2022, the industry experienced an unprecedented explosion in demand for both new and used boats, power and sail alike. Many buyers were newcomers who entered the market years earlier than planned, often driven by fond memories of boating exposure in their youth.
Fast forward to the last year or so, and many of these new owners have encountered serious headwinds. A combination of factors has encouraged this fresh cohort to abandon the activity altogether, including:
- The ongoing costs of ownership (maintenance, slips, and storage).
- The steep learning curve and skill required to properly operate and navigate a vessel.
Power vs. Sail: A Tale of Two Markets
This exit trend is most obvious on the powerboat side, where inventory has ballooned to all-time highs. For many new pandemic-era buyers, it was a surprising discovery that a powerboat doesn’t handle quite like a car. This influx of newer used boats, combined with the normal flow of boaters naturally moving up, down, or out of the market, has flooded the power sector.
Conversely, the sailboat market tells a completely different story.
The surprising stat? Inventory on the sailboat side remains incredibly low.
The bulk of current new sailboat listings are older vessels under 36 feet and priced below $80,000. Because these tend to be starter boats, that specific inventory makes sense. However, owners of larger, newer sailboats seem entirely unmotivated to sell.
A major reason for this stagnation is a lack of upward mobility: there is a severe shortage of larger, late-model used boats on the market, and buyers face very few choices when it comes to ordering brand-new builds.
