Overview of the recreational fleet and its evolution
As every year, the French government's Ministry of the Sea has published a report called La Plaisance en chiffres. This report compiles the main figures collected by the administration. It allows to draw a portrait of the nautical industry in the country and its evolutions. Here are a few highlights.
Motorboats still predominant
The fleet of registered pleasure boats is still largely dominated by motorboats. Of the 1,049,340 registrations, motorboats account for 779,773 units, compared with 205,534 sailboats, with the remainder comprising VNMs and other kayaks. Growth remains constant, but below 1%.
The size distribution is stable. Boats less than 5 meters in length account for 56% of the fleet and those less than 7 meters in length account for 85% of total registrations.
Similarly, the distribution of home ports is constant. Brittany and the Southern region account for 25% and 24% of boats respectively, well ahead of the rest.
New boat sales pick up
As announced for many months by the manufacturers, 2021 marked a revival of new boat sales and consequently of first registrations. They reached 12,979 units versus 10,913 in 2020 this is an increase of 19%, returning to the 2019 level of 1,2646 registrations.
Motorboats account for 77% of new boats compared to 14% for sailboats; the share of motorboats continues to increase. Symbolizing the evolution of the fleet towards larger units, the share of boats between 6 and 7 meters is 21% of new registrations, whereas it represents only 14% of the overall fleet. The share of boats under 5 meters is 39% compared to 56% of the overall fleet.
Putting aside the motorized watercraft or jet skis, the main countries of construction of the new boats of the French fleet are France, followed by Italy, Belgium, China and the United Kingdom.
Explosion of the second-hand market
Faced with the difficulties of selling new boats, the transfers of properties recorded by the Maritime Affairs have reached record levels. 115,895 boats changed hands, compared to only 79,677 in 2020, a value that was already up by 30%. In 2 years, the number of sales has almost doubled.
