In a 2007 Freedonia Group study, the recreational boating segment was expected to rise 5.3 percent annually to $20 billion by 2011. New boat sales, which hit bottom in 2003, rebounded in 2004 and grew through 2007 to roughly prerecession rates, according to the National Marine Manufacturer’s Assn. (Washington, D.C.), thanks in large part to retiring baby boomers. North America is still the largest recreational boating market, but Europe is the fastest growing. However, the combination of the late 2008 housing market meltdown and losses in home equity, tightening of credit and stock market losses for both retirees and other leisure activity consumers around the world are likely going to hit this market hard over the next 12 to 18 months.  

Boatbuilders that work with composites are continuing to move to closed molding to improve not only workplace safety but efficiency and product quality/consistency as well. Although the market is dominated by glass fiber-reinforced polyesters and vinyl esters, boatbuilders are employing carbon fiber reinforcement not only in sailing yacht rigging systems (masts, shrouds, stays and spreaders) where it has become the standard, but in the upper deck structures of megapoweryachts, primarily in Europe, to decrease topside weight and increase boat stability. For the same reasons, some observers continue to see growth potential for carbon in the 20-ft to 40-ft cruiser boat segment. Additionally, some observers believe that carbon has great potential in military boats. Estimates of current carbon fiber use range from 450,000 to 590,000 lb (227 to 267 metric tonnes) per year.

A notable military ship development in 2008 was the announcement that Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (Pascagoula, Miss.) had awarded SIGMATEX High Technology Fabrics (Benicia, Calif., 26222) an $11.2 million contract to supply woven, multiaxial and unidirectional carbon fiber fabrics the two DDG1000 destroyers that will be built in a Northrop Grumman Ship Systems and U.S. Navy effort, previously known as the DD(X). All of the composites fabrication will be performed in Northrop’s Composite Center of Excellence, located in Gulfport, Miss.