October 14, 2025

As you probably know from last week’s Boating Industry Canada News Week, the IBEX show has always been a big favourite with me. It’s a very convenient big summary of all the good stuff the industry has been working on over the past year (plus a preview of the coming features and ideas) and taken collectively, I feel that we can get a very valuable and clear picture of where the industry is headed.

At the Industry Breakfast on the opening day, over 900 people sat down at 7:30 am for breakfast while our industry leaders shared their wisdom and knowledge. The keynote address by Frank Hugelmyer, NMMA’s President and CEO took the audience through many significant metrics. Perhaps his most important message was for the industry to innovate. In my opinion, the industry has been innovating at a great rate recently and automation and self-driving are now reaching “ready for prime time” levels that will support both users and the boat rental companies very well.

One of the first big presentations was introduced by David Foulkes, Chairman and CEO of Brunswick Corporation who spoke about their “Next Never Rests” philosophy as he announced that their Navico group was introducing, and demonstrating on the water, their Simrad Auto Captain, autonomous boating system. With a whole system of sensors, the Simrad Auto Captain is capable of docking, undocking, station holding and close quarters manoeuvering without driver input. Brunswick President and CTO Aine Denari continued the presentation, answered questions and invited show attendees to sign up for a demonstration ride.

The Avikus Neuboat Navi with a Smart Control Autopilot system was also there and taking people out for demonstration rides. It’s the new collision avoidance and route planning navigation system from HD Hyundai.

Other great advances in safety and comfort were demonstrations of gyro-stabilizer systems by Seakeeper, and Dometic with their new DG3 gyro-stabilizer. Both of those demos were very impressive keeping the demo boats stable and comfortable, even in a sea of big rolling waves.

We will be writing more about these recent and remarkable developments both here and in the pages of Canadian Boating magazine. It seems absolutely clear that the boater of the future will enjoy convenience and comfort at unheard of levels but, that also raises the discussion about the ever-rising cost of new boats in the current era of economic and market uncertainty.

We are in for an amazing future in boating, but it may not be for the average guy. Looking back, it was the average family in the 1950s and 1960s who drove the big sales numbers in the boat industry. Now we seem to be easing back to sales levels from 2015. Dollars may be up, but volumes are soft. This is likely where the boat rental companies see their future opportunities.

Stay tuned for more as we head into the fall and next winter’s boat show season. It’s going to be exciting!

Andy Adams – Editor