By Retain Media
Highfield Boats and Volvo Penta post the quarter’s sharpest gains as propulsion and luxury brands hold ground through the seasonal downturn
Retain Media’s latest Marine Market Brand Consideration Report shows Yamaha returning to the top of Australia’s boating search rankings in Q2 2026, as the market contracted 28.0% in total search volume from Q1 2026. The report, based on an analysis of more than 1 million searches across 94 boat brands and approximately 30,000 keywords, found that thirteen of the top 20 brands gained share even as overall consideration fell into the cooler months.
Seasonal Handover at the Top
Yamaha’s return to first place, with 8.8% of search share, owes more to Sea-Doo’s movement than its own. Sea-Doo fell 3.8 percentage points to 7.1% as personal watercraft interest retreated from its summer peak, a pattern the brand has followed out of every peak season in Retain Media’s five-quarter tracking window. Mercury Marine held third with 6.9%, adding 0.4 percentage points on the quarter.
“Yamaha didn’t win the quarter so much as inherit it,” said Brian Sullivan, Director at Retain Media. “Sea-Doo’s fall is a return to its usual off-peak level, not a loss of standing. The more interesting story is how many brands outside the top three grew their share while the total market shrank.”
Highfield Boats and Volvo Penta Lead the Gainers
Highfield Boats recorded the quarter’s largest movement, rising 1.1 percentage points to 4.1% of search share, a relative increase of 36.8% that lifted the inflatable boat manufacturer from ninth to sixth. It is the brand’s second consecutive quarter of growth. Volvo Penta posted the second-largest gain, adding 0.7 percentage points to reach 3.3%, a 29.3% relative increase that reversed two consecutive quarters of decline. Both movements sit inside broader segment strength. Propulsion brands collectively grew to 25.8% of search share, up from 23.7%, with every brand in the segment gaining ground. Luxury yachts and sailing brands also gained across the board, reaching 11.6% of search share, the segment’s strongest result across the five quarters tracked.
A Quieter Quarter, By Design
Q2 2026 arrived without a manufacturer distress story in the marine sector. “There’s no crisis narrative sitting underneath these numbers,” said Brian Sullivan. “That makes this quarter a cleaner read on competitive and seasonal movement than we’ve had in some of our other verticals recently.” The full report also tracks Australia’s most-searched trailer boat, personal watercraft and performance and wake boat brands, along with composition changes at the edge of the top 20, where Boston Whaler and Lagoon entered the ranking this quarter.
Q2 2026 Marine Market Brand Consideration Report
Australia’s marine market contracted 28.0% in search volume between Q1 2026 and Q2 2026, and the brands that grew did so against that contraction. Thirteen of the twenty most-searched brands gained share. Every propulsion brand and every luxury or sailing brand in the top 20 was among them, while the two segments that peak over summer gave back their Q1 2026 highs.
Yamaha returned to first place in Q2 2026, though Sea-Doo’s autumn pullback did more to put it there than Yamaha’s own 0.4 point gain. Q2 2026 also arrived without a distress story of the kind that shaped several recent quarters. As such, these movements read as seasonal and competitive rather than crisis-driven.
Read on for their full category breakdown and the standout brand movements shaping Australia’s marine market in Q2 2026.
A Note on Methodology – by Retail Media
We produced this report using a range of keyword research tools to assess search volume across Australia for Q2 2026. Our dataset included 94 boat brands, approximately 30,000 relevant keywords, and more than one million searches across the quarter. We analysed brand performance across five categories covering propulsion, trailer boats, luxury yachts and sailing, personal watercraft, and performance and wake boats.
All brand figures are share of search rather than volume. We calculate share movements from unrounded figures, so a stated point change may differ slightly from the difference between two rounded shares.
We continuously refine our keyword lists and data sourcing to improve accuracy. All figures are refreshed quarterly to reflect the most current snapshot, which may cause metrics to shift over time. Off-topic keywords with distorted search volume are removed to maintain data integrity.
Retain Media provides this reporting ‘as is’ for informational purposes only, accepts no liability for decisions based on this data, and encourages users to cross-reference multiple market sources.
Bear’s State of the Industry
Australian fishing and boating legend John ‘Bear’ Willis is back to give us his take on the industry and the 2026 Q2 search results shaping it.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball for predicting market movements? It would certainly make business life so much easier, particularly with investment, stock control, and cash flow.
As I look through the recent figures and information from both the Q2 2026 Marine Market Consideration Report and the Boating Industry Association’s (BIA) August 2 release of the 2026 Boating Data Report Card, we see many expected features, such as a general drop in search results as always anticipated in the first quarter after the peak summer season.
Yet we find, ‘Total search volume was 11.2% lower than in Q2 2025’, a like-for-like comparison that removes seasonality from the question. The market is meaningfully smaller than it was, independent of the time of year.
However, Sydney recently presented their ‘largest marine and boating event’, the Sydney Boat Show at the Showgrounds, with industry representatives and associations calling it ‘another successful year.’ The event staged from 30 July to 2 August confirmed over 100 exhibitors presenting their wares, as well as activities and information including over 350 watercraft on display.
BIA Chief Executive, Andrew Fielding said, ‘Attendance was up on last year, and positive industry response highlighted the resilience and strength of Australia’s marine sector.’
The statement was followed up with glowing reports of success from numerous exhibitors, including Cameron Bow of Sportsman Boats, Nathan Dark of Lewis Skis, and Blake McArthur of Hunts Marine.
Meanwhile, the BIA in partnership with boating app DECKEE have just confirmed an encouraging $10.5 billion turnover in the Australian Marine Market for 2025-2026, with 23,500 people directly employed in the industry and some 11,500 directly related contractors.
While our boating representative bodies, and many associated companies, are full steam ahead with training schemes promoting local production to future generations, the great majority of our industry is dedicated to sales, brokerage, and service of new and used products, mooring and marina services, and tourism. If I were to make any predictions, I would foresee a market full of contradictions over the upcoming period, likely due to fuel prices, interest rates, inflation across all sectors, and rising global political conflict.
Looking forward, I am certainly eager for the upcoming Sydney International Boat Show as it returns to a purpose-built marina in Cockle Bay on 13–15th November. You can also catch the Perth Boat Show from 4–6 September at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, and the Melbourne Boat Show at Docklands New Quay Promenade & Harbour Esplanade from the 15–18th October 2026.
John (Bear) Willis
The 20 Most-Searched Marine Brands in Australia
Where the Market Stood in Q1 2026
Yamaha led Australia’s marine market in Q2 2026 with 8.8% of search share, ahead of Sea-Doo at 7.1% and Mercury Marine at 6.9%. Quintrex remained the highest-ranked trailer boat brand, followed by Suzuki Marine and Highfield Boats.
Thirteen brands gained share, and seven lost it. They competed for a smaller total, with search volume down 28.0% from Q1 2026 and 11.2% from Q2 2025. Those two figures separate two different effects. Most of the quarterly fall is the market’s ordinary move into cooler months, and the annual comparison shows the market is also smaller than it was a year ago, which fits an environment of 4.35% interest rates and consumer confidence at 70.8.
Concentration eased at the same time. The top three brands took 22.8% of search share in Q2 2026 against 25.9% in Q1 2026, and the top twenty took 70.7% against 72.1%. Both figures fell because the summer-peak brands gave up share, and it dispersed through the middle of the table rather than collecting at the top.
Brand Performance by Segment
Personal Watercraft
Sea-Doo recorded 7.0% in Q2 2026, down 3.8 percentage points from 10.8%, the largest share movement in either direction this quarter and more than double the next largest. The brand gave up first place to Yamaha after two quarters at the top, and its share fell in each of the three months.
Both ends of that movement matter. Sea-Doo began the quarter just below its Q4 2025 seasonal peak of 11.0% and finished at 7.0%, compared with 6.3% in the same quarter of 2025, suggesting a brand cycling with the season rather than one that has grown or declined.
Personal watercraft consideration concentrates into a narrow warm-season window, and the practical question for a brand with that profile is how reachable audiences are outside it.
Propulsion Brands
Propulsion took 25.8% of search share in Q2 2026, up from 23.7% in Q1 2026 and its strongest result since Q3 2025.
All five brands contributed. Volvo Penta gained the most, adding 0.7 percentage points to reach 3.3% in a move which lifted it from twelfth to ninth. Suzuki Marine added 0.5 points to 4.5%. Mercury Marine and Yamaha each added 0.4 points, reaching 6.9% and 8.8%. Honda Marine gained 0.2 points to 2.3%.
A gain shared this evenly usually reflects something happening to the category rather than to any one brand. Industry reporting for 2025 showed yard services overtaking used boat sales as the sector’s largest revenue category, with used boat transactions falling from 16% of the revenue mix to 9%. Engine brands holding search interest while several boat brands softened is consistent with that shift toward service, repair, and repower work, though search data cannot explicitly confirm this.
Trailer Boats
Trailer boats recovered to 19.8% of search share in Q2 2026 from 18.7% in Q1 2026. Two brands produced that recovery, and three worked against it.
Highfield Boats delivered most of it, climbing to 4.1% from 3.0% in Q1 2026. That gain of 1.1 percentage points and relative increase of 36.8% is the largest of any brand in the Q2 2026 top 20 on either measure, and it moved the inflatable boat manufacturer from ninth to sixth. Stabicraft added 0.3 points to 3.1%.
Quintrex slipped a further 0.1 points to 5.5%, extending a decline that has now run through three consecutive quarters from its 7.4% peak in Q3 2025. Haines Hunter eased 0.2 points to 3.8%, settling back after Q1 2026 carried elevated interest following the January 2026 factory fire. Bar Crusher declined 0.2 points to 3.3%, its weakest result in twelve months. Stacer fell 0.1 points to 1.4%, also a five-quarter low.
The segment total overstates what happened here. Two brands grew, one kept eroding, and two drifted down.
Performance and Wake Boats
Performance and wake boats fell to 3.8% of search share in Q2 2026 from 6.2% in Q1 2026, the steepest proportional segment decline of the quarter at 39.7%.
Malibu Boats accounted for most of it, dropping 1.5 percentage points to 1.9% for a relative decline of 44.4% that took it from eighth to sixteenth. Mastercraft fell 0.6 points to 1.2% and left the top 20 as a result.
Neither figure signals a structural problem. Wake boat consideration in Australia concentrates into the warm months and releases just as quickly afterwards, and this segment peaked at 6.2% in Q1 2026 before landing within 0.1 percentage points of where it sat in Q2 2025.
Luxury Yachts and Sailing Brands
Luxury yachts and sailing reached 11.6% of search share in Q2 2026, up from 10.2% in Q1 2026 and the segment’s best result of the period under review.
Every brand gained. Beneteau led at 3.2%, adding 0.5 percentage points for a relative increase of 19.1% and moving from eleventh to tenth. Jeanneau Boats posted the strongest relative gain at 23.8%, rising 0.4 points to 2.2% and climbing three places to fifteenth. Sea Ray added 0.2 points to 2.3% and Riviera 0.2 points to 2.6%. Lagoon was effectively unchanged at 1.3%. Beneteau, Sea Ray, Jeanneau and Lagoon each recorded their highest share of the five quarters.
The monthly data adds one detail worth noting. This segment has gained share in May in each of the past five years, and May 2026 delivered the largest of those gains at 1.0 percentage points, alongside the only May in the series where the segment grew in absolute search volume while the wider market fell. That timing coincides with Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in late May. The two are consistent, though an annual event in a fixed month cannot be separated from ordinary seasonal movement using search data alone.
Notable Movers and Brands to Watch
Only one gain of 0.4 percentage points or more came from outside propulsion or luxury and sailing, and that brand is the quarter’s clearest single story.
Highfield Boats reached 4.1% after 2.8% in Q4 2025 and 3.0% in Q1 2026. Two consecutive quarters of growth against a contracting market suggest something more durable than a single-quarter spike, and Q3 2026 will show whether the brand holds above 4%.
Jeanneau Boats produced the sharpest reversal. Its share eased in each of the three quarters to Q1 2026, sliding from 2.1% to a low of 1.8%, before reaching 2.2% in Q2 2026. A decline that steady rarely turns in one quarter, which makes Q3 2026 the test of whether Q2 2026 marked a genuine floor.
Quintrex is the brand to watch for the opposite reason. Three consecutive quarterly declines have carried it from 7.4% in Q3 2025 to 5.5%. It remains Australia’s most-searched trailer boat brand by a wide margin over Haines Hunter, so the question is not whether it keeps the category lead but how far the gap narrows while brands beneath it grow.
Two top 20 brands sit outside our five segments. Bayliner held broadly steady at 1.8%, easing 0.1 points, and Boston Whaler gained 0.2 points to 1.4%.
Movement at the Margins
Two brands entered the Q2 2026 top 20 and two left it, and the exits happened for different reasons. Boston Whaler climbed from twenty-second to eighteenth on a 0.2 point gain to 1.4%, its highest share in five quarters. Lagoon took twentieth at 1.3%.
Mastercraft’s exit was a fall of its own making, shedding 0.6 percentage points to 1.2% and dropping from seventeenth. Haines Signature barely moved, easing to 1.3% from 1.4%, and lost its twentieth position to brands rising past it rather than to any decline of its own.
The band below the threshold is tight. Haines Signature sits at 1.3%, Mastercraft at 1.2%, Zodiac at 1.2%, Sunseeker at 1.1%, Edencraft at 1.0% and Princess at 1.0%. Six brands inside roughly 0.3 percentage points means small movements will keep reordering the bottom of the table.
Princess is the most active of them, gaining 0.2 points for a relative increase of 26.3% and reaching its highest share of the period. That matches the strength running through luxury and sailing brands, and it gives Princess the clearest route into the top 20 of any brand currently outside it.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
Q2 2026 rewarded breadth over dominance. The brands that grew did so while the market shrank, and most of the share they took came from the seasonal segments falling back rather than from competitors losing position. For dealers and OEMs, that distinction decides whether a quarterly decline needs a response or needs patience. For personal watercraft and wake boats, the calendar answers it.
The stronger signal sits in the segments that grew. Propulsion strengthened across every brand we track and luxury and sailing did the same, while trailer boat consideration stayed flat or fell outside two brands. Australia’s marine industry has been shifting its own revenue toward service and yard work across the same period. Brands in engines, service and repower should build search presence for maintenance, upgrade, and repower intent now, ahead of the spring return.
The bottom of the table carries a different lesson. Positions there turn on movements small enough to come from a single quarter of consistent visibility, which makes the quiet months the ones that decide who appears in the next edition.
Keep an eye on our next quarterly update as we track how these movements develop through the second half of 2026. In the meantime, explore our other market reports for comprehensive insights across the Australian vehicle and machinery sectors, including the agricultural market, truck market, caravan market, and motorcycle market.
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