ibinews.com International Boat Industry | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 25
Markets & Regions
EUROPE | ROUND-UP
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and energy management system La Grande Motte: Multihull production is a growing industry in Franceto the US and Canada, but also Asia and
the Middle East.
Though the motorboat segment leads
the recovery, France has always been a
market where sail has enjoyed a robust
following. It remains the indisputable
leader in the sail segment. “In France,
sailing is more present than elsewhere
and still accounts for 40% of sales,”
confirmed Lyon-Caen in the newspaper
Ouest-France. “In this area, the
catamaran has become very important: it
is now half the figure.”
FIN’s president, however, remains
cautious, noting the many uncertainties
that weigh on the geopolitical front. “It
would be hard to list everything,” he
says. Brexit? “If it’s a ‘hard’ exit, everyone
will be impacted, despite the fact that
for the last two years it’s not had the
negative impact many people feared.”
According to FIN’s figures, boat sales
on the French market continued to grow
(+5.6%) to reach €270m. The motorboat
segment (€128.1m) increased by 3.6%
and the sailboat segment (€133.1m) grew
by 6.4%.
The leisure fleet also continues
to grow – 1,014 million boats were
registered in 2016/17. More than three-
quarters of them were motorboats, 90%
of those less than 8m in length. New
registrations are increasing for the first
time since the 2008 crisis (+8.9%). 12,585
new boats were registered in 2016/17,
mainly motorboats (+11.15%). The
number of registered sailboats remained
stable (+0.31%).French yards remain dominant,
responsible for 47.1% of new boats
entering the domestic fleet, with Italy
and the US following at 11.6% and
11.2% respectively. All other countries
account for less than 10% of new boats.
With 61,000 pre-owned vessels,
including 49,000 motorboats,
compared with almost 12,000 new boat
registrations, the second-hand market
remains significant and presents a
unique problem – or opportunity to
be grasped, as an increasing number
of boats near their ‘end of life’. “We are
launching a national decommissioning
infrastructure in 2019. It is the first
in the world with 25 to 30 centres,
because in the next five years, we will
have to dismantle 20,000 to 25,000
boats,” says FIN. nYVES LYON-CAEN, PRESIDENT
FINIf it’s a ‘hard’
Brexit, everyone
will be impacted,
despite the fact that
for the last two
years it’s not had
the negative impact
many people feared