Industry leaders at Metstrade and the Yacht Racing Forum (YRF) are warning that boating’s traditional customer base is disappearing, and without meaningful progress on representation, inclusion and youth pathways, the sector risks losing an entire generation of participants.
The marine industry is facing an existential demographic crisis. Women, young people, and minority groups need to enter the ecosystem — as consumers, athletes, employees, and / or boat owners — and unless the industry chooses to reform its pathways, representation, and mindset, it risks losing its next generation entirely.
Industry leaders warn boating’s customer base is ageing out
“Disrupt yourself or be disrupted,” Frank Hugelmeyer, president ICOMIA & CEO at National Marine Manufacturers AssociationI (NMMA) said in his address to Metstrade. “Our competition is all of the other industry sectors we are competing against. We all have to come together and understand how we are moving forward to meet the future. We need to be intensely consumer focused.”
According to Hugelmeyer, there’s been a massive change in consumer sentiment and behaviour.
The way the marine industry operates is “built on what we’ve known.” But now, it’s “seeing a massive new wave of consumers who think differently and look differently and are different.”
It’s a foundational shift, which means reconsidering the sector’s approach to boating.
Marine industry’s protecting legacy business
Knut Frostad, executive chairman Henri-Lloyd (pictured left), believes similar.
He says the wider marine industry is scared about the fact that its “whole population of customers” is going to disappear.
“It’s not just about men and women, this is also a huge age issue.”
Speaking as a panellist at the Yacht Racing Forum: Sustainability and inclusivity (with no borders or barriers), Frostad noted the industry also “needs to go to women, they need to go to other ethnic groups, to sell boats.
“There’s no choice, there won’t be only men owning superyachts – there won’t be [anyone] owning superyachts, because that category is getting smaller and smaller.”
He was at the same venue, saying the same thing in 2022 and puts a perceived lack of action down to the industry protecting what it already has.
“This is the discussion that’s happening in Brunswick, NMMA, all the big players in the US, in the voting industry. It’s how to get into this new audience, while still selling to the old conservative 65-year-olds. This is a huge challenge.”
Younger and more diverse consumers aren’t entering the pipeline
As Frostad notes, this is not a new theme. Anecdotal and other evidence suggests again and again that the boating industry is not attracting enough young people. And the ones that are attracted aren’t into buying. They’re into renting/shared experiences and not having to deal with the pain/joy of ownership. No wonder Brunswick’s so busily growing its Freedom network.
Hugelmeyer and Frostad are clear – the industry has to reach out and connect with new audiences. But the question over and above that is (and remains) how that can happen . . . especially when women and minorities are underrepresented at every level of participation?
Potential customers need to see themselves represented
Whatever Trump (or the old boy in the corner at the pub) says about DEI, when people see themselves represented, it’s a signal they need to take the next step forward with the brand they are interacting with.
“When they don’t see themselves represented, they receive the signal ‘this isn’t for you’ which often causes them to go off in search of another option that shows them they belong,” says Sonia Thompson for Forbes, as well as every marketing book, ever.
Solutions on the table to attract more women and minority groups (and many were mentioned during both Metstrade and YRF that work towards grass roots participation) include quotas, mentorship programs, and regulation to drive change.
But, Victoria Low – CEO Magenta Project and panellist alongside Frostad – warns about upcoming numbers from research her organisation’s undertaken. The full details of Magenta Project’s data are due next spring but meanwhile the results are concerning – women and underrepresented minorities definitely don’t feel welcome in yacht clubs. And these are people who are already connected with the industry.
Extrapolate that – lots of women and minority groups don’t feel they belong – so they won’t be investing anytime soon.
High-performance sailing has visibility and authority to accelerate change
Russell Coutts, CEO SailGP has – without a doubt – done a marvellous job bringing sail racing to a wider population. But is that helping to bring in the young people (of both genders) needed to stem the demographic time bomb?
During his panel (Insights into SailGP’s latest and future technological developments) and being interviewed by Shirley Robertson (iconic sailor and chair for YRF) – Coutts discussed the growth and evolution of sailing as a sport, with a focus on making it more accessible, commercially viable, and gender-balanced within SailGP.
“What’s really going to drive change is marketing. If we can have a top female athlete winning at the top level, that will change the game,” Coutts believes, underpinning Thompson’s (and – again – every marketing book’s) thesis. “We’ve taken steps by mandating one female athlete on boats, and we’ve seen women’s crews in the America’s Cup and Ocean Race, but it hasn’t created enough change yet.
“What will really change the game is when a young female child getting into sailing sees an aspirational female athlete winning. That will change everything.”
And, of course, that would be nice. But will it change ‘everything’?
As Robertson frequently pointed out during the forum, the room was literally full of rule makers. They could make an immediate and straightforward difference to change ‘everything’ in 2026 without waiting for a top female athlete (who also has to win against social inequity by overcoming unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and burdens).
At one point in the proceedings Robertson declared: “There is no change and no progress. And it is quite alarming, actually.”
During the Future technological developments session, Alex Reid, SailGP’s director performance engineering, said: “It’s a great thing about SailGP . . . the way that you can make up the rules . . . as you go along.”
At the time he was referring to allowing coaches to speak to the boats, and added propulsion for light wind venues. Surely determining crews need to have more women shouldn’t be that hard?
What older leaders see as progressive, younger audiences see as inadequate
Thankfully never one to hold back, Frostad recalled his daughter’s experiences visiting SailGP in Cadiz. While he was pleased to see gender inclusion (the one woman per boat mentioned by Coutts), his daughter had naturally expected a 50/50 split.
And that’s the difference in generations. Expectations of parity. Especially when it was often mentioned during YRF that, as a sport, sail racing enjoys a strategic advantage on gender equity.
Frostad says he doesn’t feel that entry-level sailing is an issue these days, but the challenge happens afterwards. He sees a 50-50 gender split in entry-level fleets, but then club races happen in bigger boats and that’s when structural difficulties start.
“Sailing has been run by 65, 70 year olds for a long time. They grew-up in a man’s world.”
Representation, pathways, and mindset change are crucial
Robertson – who was “slightly miffed” that sustainability and gender inequality were being presented together in one panel – says she sees them as very different.
“Sustainability is a problem that we all need to fix around the globe, we need solutions to fix this problem that we’ve all created. And I don’t see that particularly with gender, it’s a mindset.”
“We need to look very clearly and carefully at ourselves, because we are in a bubble, we’re in a massive bubble and there’s a whole load of other things going on in the world, and I sometimes wonder whether we actually do realise that,” agrees Low.
Structural talent shortage at elite level
“It’s hard to achieve everything at once. You’ve got to pick your projects and then basically pick an order and prioritise them,” says Coutts.
SailGP is in the process of developing its training base, to enable teams to build up their squads, bring in younger athletes, train them, and then create an athlete transfer market.
In July this year, it opened a hub for future off-water athlete training & development, with a fully operational simulator. The idea is to encourage teams to invest in young athletes, knowing that even if the teams don’t end up using them, they can trade them to another team and probably recruit some of their funds that they’ve invested. The hub will create more flight controllers, wing trimmers and drivers for the F50s racing.
“We need programmes that train and evaluate athletes more professionally,” says Coutts.
“I would like to mandate that 50 per cent of the athletes in the training centre were female, you know, so the male-female demographic was evenly split.”
The elite yacht racing industry, high-end performance, is often credited with delivering a trickle-down effect into the marine industry, for example technological innovation. If Coutts’ 50/50 mandate comes to fruition, creating gender parity could create a tsunami.
Not enough athletes for the number of jobs
Among many speakers who detailed encouraging youth participation, Jo Grindley – CCO and CMO for Emirates GBR SailGP – (panellist during YRF / SailGP: State of the league five years on) reflected on the work that the Athena Pathway program has been involved with, both to develop talent at the top end, but also at grassroots as well.
The pathway constantly has young people taking part. “We have inner city schools coming through in London, but we also have sports, female squads, under 18 squads, over 18 squads that are developing into that foiling capability.”
But: “One of the main problems I think us as teams are having is actually there’s such a small pool of sailors that can actually race on these boats now.”
Thus, one of Grindley’s winter projects is going to learn from other sports how they monetise training academies. She’s heading to the Football Association to “really understand the financial model as well as the performance model around how to develop an academy.” Grindley is pictured above.
The lack of talent has pushed the prices for athletes through the roof, says Bruno Dubois, CEO and team principal France SailGP. “You don’t want to know the salary of people. I’ve never seen that in in my life, which is amazing for the sailor. But it’s going to go down as soon as we have more sailors coming in. Because then you pick up and choose the one you want. That’s the reason why you want your young sailors coming in.”
The message from Metstrade and the Yacht Racing Forum is unmistakable: the future of boating will not wait for the industry to feel ready. Demographics are shifting, expectations are changing, and the next generation is already looking elsewhere. Whether through representation, redesigned pathways, or bold rule-making, the marine sector must actively build the audience it wants – because the one it has is disappearing. Simply acknowledging problems is no longer acceptable.
Change isn’t optional anymore; it’s the price of survival.
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