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Author Topic:   Another Random Outboard Motor Census

K Albus posted 07-23-2014 12:31 PM ET (US)
On a recent trip to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, I stumbled across a rack storage facility which offered an easy count of outboard motors. The rack in question had 96 storage slots and was about 80% full. All of the boats in the rack were center console and dual console boats of 20-feet and less. The motor count was as follows:
Yamaha - 53
Mercury - 9
Johnson - 4
Suzuki - 2
Inboard/Outboard - 2
Honda - 1
Evinrude - 1
The sole Evinrude was an older model. There were no E-Tecs present.
There were 14 Boston Whalers in the rack, 7 of which were Mercury-powered.
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t329/kalbus/Miscellaneous/ RackStorage_zps50925a5a.jpg
Peter posted 07-23-2014 01:12 PM ET (US)
It looks like that private marina could be Atlantic Marine, a Yamaha and Grady-White dealer. If my hunch is correct, then their rack should have far more Yamaha outboards than anything else otherwise they are doing something wrong.
K Albus posted 07-23-2014 01:22 PM ET (US)
Yes, it was Atlantic Marine. However, there was a wide variety of boat brands present, and a wide variety of model years. I have another picture of a separate rack that is mostly full of newer Grady-White boats, and is 100% Yamaha. I didn't think it would be fair to include that rack in my "census." If I would have guessed at percentages of brands seen on the water in the area, I would have guessed about 75% Yamaha.
Peter posted 07-23-2014 01:39 PM ET (US)
We have an Evinrude dealer in our region who rents seasonal boat slips next to their facility. About 95 percent of the boats in their seasonal boat slips have Evinrude outboards.
There is another facility a few miles away that is a Mercury and Sea Ray dealer and also offers boat slips and rack storage. A high percentage of the outboards in their facility are Mercury and a high percentage of the boats are Sea Rays.
K Albus posted 07-23-2014 02:03 PM ET (US)
The rack in the picture is not dominated by Grady-White boats. As stated in my original post, 14 of the boats were Boston Whalers. That's almost 20%. There were probably about the same number of Grady-Whites. The rest represented a wide variety of other manufacturers.
I am not a brand loyalist. I couldn't care less which brand sells the most motors. During my five days in the area, I would estimate, as stated above, that 75% of the outboard motors I saw were Yamahas. My stay included a visit to the local MarineMax dealership. One thing I was surprised by was the number of Suzuki motors I saw on the water - a much higher percentage than I've experienced on the Great Lakes.
contender posted 07-25-2014 10:29 PM ET (US)
I'm currently in Eleuthera Bahamas, been here for about a week, The number 1 engine here now is the Suzuki 4 stroke 4 cylinder. The next (Tie) are Evinrudes(new and old)and Yamahas. No Hondas No more big Mercury only 40 hp and lower) There are two dealers on the island where I'm staying. The Mercury dealer (Mercury and Yamaha) and the OMC Dealer (Evinrudes and Suzuki's) I talked to the head Mech at the OMC dealer and he stated that they are getting 4000hrs average(yes 4000 hrs) on the 4 stroke Suzuki's. Remember I'm on and island that people depend on their outboards like you depend on your car/truck. They use them 24/7 for work and play. They do not get flushed or sprayed down. Maintance here is about 75% of what I would do to my outboard. The Mechs are cert. by who they work for and know their stuff. Gas is currently $5.90 a gallon here but does not have ethanol, oil is $9.00- $10.00 a quart...The number one boat on the island is Whaler's followed by Albury's....
jimh posted 07-26-2014 05:21 AM ET (US)
SUZUKI outboards seem to have a strong presence in the Carolinas.
TransAm posted 07-26-2014 01:56 PM ET (US)
It would be very difficult to conduct a similar survey using a large, major marina that was also an Evinrude/(insert major boat brand) dealer. There are just so few of them, comparatively speaking. Wonder why that is?
jimh posted 07-26-2014 04:24 PM ET (US)
There is not much to wonder about regarding Evinrude having large dealers who sell nothing but Evinrude engines to all their customers who have rack storage. Maybe I can explain it in simple terms: Evinrude went into bankruptcy in c.2000 under the old OMC management and ownership. Even before that, the Evinrude brand was only a segment of the OMC market. The other brand was Johnson. Between Johnson and Evinrude and prior to c.2000 the two brands had a significant market share.
Since c.2000 there has been a big shift in new boat engine sales to include the engine, rigging, and installation as part of the building of a new outboard boat, and many builders have formed alliances with engine makers to the point of rigging only one brand or practically only one brand. Since Evinrude-Johnson were just rebuilding themselves as brands while this trend was growing, they did not really get into that market segment. Of course, with Brunswick owning dozens of boat companies--many of which they have since abandoned or sold off for big losses--there were not that many transoms to compete for. And Yamaha, with more than a decade of continual first place finishes in customer satisfaction surveys for outboard engines, made big inroads.
Mercury found transoms by buying the boat builder. Yamaha found transoms by customer satisfaction and by really working with dealers to help the brand grow. Yamaha made it rather easy for any dealer who was an Evinrude or Johnson dealer to become a Yamaha dealer, and many of the old OMC dealers went with Yamaha.
In spite of that, there are marinas in certain areas where the OMC dealers stuck with Bombardier and the new Evinrude-Johnson brands, and you'll see disproportionately high numbers of Evinrude engines on the local waters.
A lot has to do with what kind of lens you have in your glasses. Some people have trouble spotting certain brands on the water.
TransAm posted 07-28-2014 09:58 AM ET (US)

quote:
Some people have trouble spotting certain brands on the water.
In large part because they are just not there. I boat all through the Mid-Atlantic...Jersey through southern VA, and mostly in the largest inland tributary in the US. The market share of white engines in this area is reflective of the percentages in the 1st post of this thread.
Perhaps that will change. I think Evinrude has a fantastic product to offer...either G1 or G2. But they have a tough road ahead to make any measurable gains in most large markets.

jcdawg83 posted 07-28-2014 11:27 AM ET (US)
Yamaha is number one everywhere I go. In my opinion, that is because Yamaha is a Japanese owned company and Japanese companies focus on market share more than profit margin. They feel if they can capture large enough market share, the profit will naturally follow. One only has to look at the rise of Yamaha, from a relatively new, minor player in the 80s to number one in many markets today. Yamaha produced a product that earned a reputation of reliability and performance among the boating public and rode that reputation to a very large market share. Now, Yamaha has become the engine of choice for the high end saltwater boat market. Contender, Grady White, Pursuit and quite a few other high end saltwater boats are almost exclusively powered by Yamaha.
Suzuki, another Japanese brand, is also following the traditional Japanese marketing model. Their engines are less expensive than most brands and offer reliability on par with the best. They are gaining market share and are going to start pushing Evinrude and Mercury out of some markets.
I am an Evinrude fan, but I'm not going to put on blinders and pretend they don't have a fairly tough row to hoe. Since the bankruptcy of OMC, Evinrude has not had much luck with convincing boat manufacturers to go with the e-tec as an exclusive power source. The re-power market is wide open and fairly price sensitive. Evinrude has a great product but they will need to really work hard to gain market share.
jimh posted 07-28-2014 12:03 PM ET (US)
Evinrude recently announced it had added a substantial number of new dealers in the USA, around fifty. That should help their sales and market share.
contender posted 07-28-2014 04:42 PM ET (US)
JCD, I too am an evirude fan, however I have called it like I see it, no reason for me to lie, also while I type I'm installing a suzuki 60 4 stroke on a old 16 whaler, that I just removed an evindue 50 from...
seahorse posted 07-28-2014 05:35 PM ET (US)
According to BRP, Evinrudes will be now be OEM rigged on Contender, Regulator, and Scout boats. That will add to market share and visibility.
Dave Sutton posted 07-28-2014 06:45 PM ET (US)
^^
There were a TON of other OEM's present with beta-test installations on their boats demonstrating them in Milwaukee for the intro weekend. Methinks that there are far more in line than the above listed ones.

Dave
.
jimh posted 07-29-2014 09:37 PM ET (US)
The sales of new outboard engines by their manufacturers directly to boat builders for installation on new boat transoms is a nice business, but from what I know--mostly learned from careful reading of the United States International Trade Commission Report on Importation of Outboard Engines from Japan published 2005--the margins on those sales are lower than the margins on sales to retail dealers for re-sale to retail customers. Those boat builders probably drive hard bargains, and the outboard engine makers probably give the higher volume and the more prestigious boat builder names a very good price for those engines. (By the way, I am talking mostly about Yamaha, because the other engine maker with a lot of new boat transoms, Brunswick, sells many of their outboard engines to itself, that is, to the boat builder brands it also operates. There is no telling what sort of price or cost or transfer of funds goes with those intra-company sales.) Indeed, the general claim of the USITC complaint about Japanese outboard engines--mainly about Yamaha--was they were being intentionally sold at a price below fair market. The inference is that Yamaha was willing to sell at very low margin in order to build market share. Once they had a dominant market share, they would eventually reap the profits.
Recreational boating in terms of number of boats has been in decline for more than a decade. The total sales dollars are steady or slightly increasing because the cost of boats has risen quite a bit. But there are fewer new boats sold now than in the past. If the strategy is to make a big profit from supplying engines to new boat builders at rock bottom prices, and if the total number of new boats being sold is decreasing, one has to wonder how long that business model can sustain.
Evinrude has been doing well in the re-powering of older boats. For evidence of this, just look at the older Boston Whaler boats that get new outboard engines. Evinrude E-TEC engines have been very strong in that segment.

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Author	Topic: Another Random Outboard Motor Census
K Albus	posted 07-23-2014 12:31 PM ET (US) On a recent trip to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, I stumbled across a rack storage facility which offered an easy count of outboard motors. The rack in question had 96 storage slots and was about 80% full. All of the boats in the rack were center console and dual console boats of 20-feet and less. The motor count was as follows: Yamaha - 53 Mercury - 9 Johnson - 4 Suzuki - 2 Inboard/Outboard - 2 Honda - 1 Evinrude - 1 The sole Evinrude was an older model. There were no E-Tecs present. There were 14 Boston Whalers in the rack, 7 of which were Mercury-powered. http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t329/kalbus/Miscellaneous/ RackStorage_zps50925a5a.jpg
Peter	posted 07-23-2014 01:12 PM ET (US) It looks like that private marina could be Atlantic Marine, a Yamaha and Grady-White dealer. If my hunch is correct, then their rack should have far more Yamaha outboards than anything else otherwise they are doing something wrong.
K Albus	posted 07-23-2014 01:22 PM ET (US) Yes, it was Atlantic Marine. However, there was a wide variety of boat brands present, and a wide variety of model years. I have another picture of a separate rack that is mostly full of newer Grady-White boats, and is 100% Yamaha. I didn't think it would be fair to include that rack in my "census." If I would have guessed at percentages of brands seen on the water in the area, I would have guessed about 75% Yamaha.
Peter	posted 07-23-2014 01:39 PM ET (US) We have an Evinrude dealer in our region who rents seasonal boat slips next to their facility. About 95 percent of the boats in their seasonal boat slips have Evinrude outboards. There is another facility a few miles away that is a Mercury and Sea Ray dealer and also offers boat slips and rack storage. A high percentage of the outboards in their facility are Mercury and a high percentage of the boats are Sea Rays.
K Albus	posted 07-23-2014 02:03 PM ET (US) The rack in the picture is not dominated by Grady-White boats. As stated in my original post, 14 of the boats were Boston Whalers. That's almost 20%. There were probably about the same number of Grady-Whites. The rest represented a wide variety of other manufacturers. I am not a brand loyalist. I couldn't care less which brand sells the most motors. During my five days in the area, I would estimate, as stated above, that 75% of the outboard motors I saw were Yamahas. My stay included a visit to the local MarineMax dealership. One thing I was surprised by was the number of Suzuki motors I saw on the water - a much higher percentage than I've experienced on the Great Lakes.
contender	posted 07-25-2014 10:29 PM ET (US) I'm currently in Eleuthera Bahamas, been here for about a week, The number 1 engine here now is the Suzuki 4 stroke 4 cylinder. The next (Tie) are Evinrudes(new and old)and Yamahas. No Hondas No more big Mercury only 40 hp and lower) There are two dealers on the island where I'm staying. The Mercury dealer (Mercury and Yamaha) and the OMC Dealer (Evinrudes and Suzuki's) I talked to the head Mech at the OMC dealer and he stated that they are getting 4000hrs average(yes 4000 hrs) on the 4 stroke Suzuki's. Remember I'm on and island that people depend on their outboards like you depend on your car/truck. They use them 24/7 for work and play. They do not get flushed or sprayed down. Maintance here is about 75% of what I would do to my outboard. The Mechs are cert. by who they work for and know their stuff. Gas is currently $5.90 a gallon here but does not have ethanol, oil is $9.00- $10.00 a quart...The number one boat on the island is Whaler's followed by Albury's....
jimh	posted 07-26-2014 05:21 AM ET (US) SUZUKI outboards seem to have a strong presence in the Carolinas.
TransAm	posted 07-26-2014 01:56 PM ET (US) It would be very difficult to conduct a similar survey using a large, major marina that was also an Evinrude/(insert major boat brand) dealer. There are just so few of them, comparatively speaking. Wonder why that is?
jimh	posted 07-26-2014 04:24 PM ET (US) There is not much to wonder about regarding Evinrude having large dealers who sell nothing but Evinrude engines to all their customers who have rack storage. Maybe I can explain it in simple terms: Evinrude went into bankruptcy in c.2000 under the old OMC management and ownership. Even before that, the Evinrude brand was only a segment of the OMC market. The other brand was Johnson. Between Johnson and Evinrude and prior to c.2000 the two brands had a significant market share. Since c.2000 there has been a big shift in new boat engine sales to include the engine, rigging, and installation as part of the building of a new outboard boat, and many builders have formed alliances with engine makers to the point of rigging only one brand or practically only one brand. Since Evinrude-Johnson were just rebuilding themselves as brands while this trend was growing, they did not really get into that market segment. Of course, with Brunswick owning dozens of boat companies--many of which they have since abandoned or sold off for big losses--there were not that many transoms to compete for. And Yamaha, with more than a decade of continual first place finishes in customer satisfaction surveys for outboard engines, made big inroads. Mercury found transoms by buying the boat builder. Yamaha found transoms by customer satisfaction and by really working with dealers to help the brand grow. Yamaha made it rather easy for any dealer who was an Evinrude or Johnson dealer to become a Yamaha dealer, and many of the old OMC dealers went with Yamaha. In spite of that, there are marinas in certain areas where the OMC dealers stuck with Bombardier and the new Evinrude-Johnson brands, and you'll see disproportionately high numbers of Evinrude engines on the local waters. A lot has to do with what kind of lens you have in your glasses. Some people have trouble spotting certain brands on the water.
TransAm	posted 07-28-2014 09:58 AM ET (US) quote: Some people have trouble spotting certain brands on the water. In large part because they are just not there. I boat all through the Mid-Atlantic...Jersey through southern VA, and mostly in the largest inland tributary in the US. The market share of white engines in this area is reflective of the percentages in the 1st post of this thread. Perhaps that will change. I think Evinrude has a fantastic product to offer...either G1 or G2. But they have a tough road ahead to make any measurable gains in most large markets.
jcdawg83	posted 07-28-2014 11:27 AM ET (US) Yamaha is number one everywhere I go. In my opinion, that is because Yamaha is a Japanese owned company and Japanese companies focus on market share more than profit margin. They feel if they can capture large enough market share, the profit will naturally follow. One only has to look at the rise of Yamaha, from a relatively new, minor player in the 80s to number one in many markets today. Yamaha produced a product that earned a reputation of reliability and performance among the boating public and rode that reputation to a very large market share. Now, Yamaha has become the engine of choice for the high end saltwater boat market. Contender, Grady White, Pursuit and quite a few other high end saltwater boats are almost exclusively powered by Yamaha. Suzuki, another Japanese brand, is also following the traditional Japanese marketing model. Their engines are less expensive than most brands and offer reliability on par with the best. They are gaining market share and are going to start pushing Evinrude and Mercury out of some markets. I am an Evinrude fan, but I'm not going to put on blinders and pretend they don't have a fairly tough row to hoe. Since the bankruptcy of OMC, Evinrude has not had much luck with convincing boat manufacturers to go with the e-tec as an exclusive power source. The re-power market is wide open and fairly price sensitive. Evinrude has a great product but they will need to really work hard to gain market share.
jimh	posted 07-28-2014 12:03 PM ET (US) Evinrude recently announced it had added a substantial number of new dealers in the USA, around fifty. That should help their sales and market share.
contender	posted 07-28-2014 04:42 PM ET (US) JCD, I too am an evirude fan, however I have called it like I see it, no reason for me to lie, also while I type I'm installing a suzuki 60 4 stroke on a old 16 whaler, that I just removed an evindue 50 from...
seahorse	posted 07-28-2014 05:35 PM ET (US) According to BRP, Evinrudes will be now be OEM rigged on Contender, Regulator, and Scout boats. That will add to market share and visibility.
Dave Sutton	posted 07-28-2014 06:45 PM ET (US) ^^ There were a TON of other OEM's present with beta-test installations on their boats demonstrating them in Milwaukee for the intro weekend. Methinks that there are far more in line than the above listed ones. Dave .
jimh	posted 07-29-2014 09:37 PM ET (US) The sales of new outboard engines by their manufacturers directly to boat builders for installation on new boat transoms is a nice business, but from what I know--mostly learned from careful reading of the United States International Trade Commission Report on Importation of Outboard Engines from Japan published 2005--the margins on those sales are lower than the margins on sales to retail dealers for re-sale to retail customers. Those boat builders probably drive hard bargains, and the outboard engine makers probably give the higher volume and the more prestigious boat builder names a very good price for those engines. (By the way, I am talking mostly about Yamaha, because the other engine maker with a lot of new boat transoms, Brunswick, sells many of their outboard engines to itself, that is, to the boat builder brands it also operates. There is no telling what sort of price or cost or transfer of funds goes with those intra-company sales.) Indeed, the general claim of the USITC complaint about Japanese outboard engines--mainly about Yamaha--was they were being intentionally sold at a price below fair market. The inference is that Yamaha was willing to sell at very low margin in order to build market share. Once they had a dominant market share, they would eventually reap the profits. Recreational boating in terms of number of boats has been in decline for more than a decade. The total sales dollars are steady or slightly increasing because the cost of boats has risen quite a bit. But there are fewer new boats sold now than in the past. If the strategy is to make a big profit from supplying engines to new boat builders at rock bottom prices, and if the total number of new boats being sold is decreasing, one has to wonder how long that business model can sustain. Evinrude has been doing well in the re-powering of older boats. For evidence of this, just look at the older Boston Whaler boats that get new outboard engines. Evinrude E-TEC engines have been very strong in that segment.