A Tough Go

West Marine’s Toronto store had a limited shelf life

May 28, 2026

If you’re a normal boat owner, you spend at least 25% of your boating hours kvetching about the galactic prices for new boats, parts, and supplies. Fortunately, that still leaves 75% of your time to enjoy your current boat, but still….

Once there were ten West Marine stores in Canada but high retail prices or no, they just didn’t work and today there are none.  This week I read in Boating Industry Canada that the whole company has gone Chapter 11, which will burn their suppliers (particularly Garmin according to the report.)

We are constantly amazed by the contradiction:  boating is supposedly a rich person’s sport, yet it seems nearly impossible for the people who are selling us things to stay solvent in the boating business. This week I also read that Catalina Yachts has finally stopped wiggling on the operating table and is now and likely forever gone. Like the Canadian company, C&C, Catalina built beloved sailing boats; US-based Catalina built an order of magnitude more of them – 80,000 since its founding in 1961!  Probably the most popular import for Canadian sailors including thousands (a guess) of Catalina 25s, 27, 30s and 34s still enjoyed across our country. Like Hunter, whose owners adore their boats but the company failed and many others brands big and small that have vanished, it just seems to be impossible to manage manufacture, distribution, finance etc.

What to do?  For one, look across the pond to Europe where French, German, Scandinavian and even Polish (etc.) builders are continuing to send more boats our way. Maybe they have mastered the approach that appears to confound North American business.  They certainly are making wonderful boats that are showing up increasingly on Canadian shores!

Locally owned marine stores and dealers are still working literally around the clock to meet our needs. This is not a new story but seems extra tough these days. Usually, it’s because the folks behind the company are boating enthusiasts themselves, hoping to beat the odds and stay solvent.  Show them some love.

John Morris, Online Editor
John@opmediagroup.ca

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