The boating business is described by insiders as a cottage industry and to many outside it seems like a stage of bit-part players.

Boating millionaires abound, but they are boat owners, not cottagers. Most of the handful of industry players who have amassed real wealth did so from interests other than boating.

A fundamental problem is that the marine business has to operate within a market in miniature. The number of participants in boating continues to decrease, so there is not enough money to go around.

A recent nationwide survey in France showed that over one-third of boat owners are over 60 years of age and the under-30s account for less than 1.5% of ownership.

Not all is gloom, nor doom.

The latest US marine market review - and the US is by far the largest market - contained threads of good news, such as increased revenue for sailboat makers and continued advances for boating accessories.

Turned to exports

Ever resourceful, businesses large and small have turned increasingly to exports.

Our sometimes far-sighted American cousins can see, for instance, that there are more than 500 million people in Europe alone, with pots of euros and pounds to spend on boating - if they can be charmed.

Conversely, the recreational boating world outside the US now sells more than US$1 billion worth of products per year into the US.

There are notable export success stories, such as Sunseeker, Volvo Penta and the mighty Brunswick Corporation.

As part of their marketing mix, all three have harnessed the power of the editorial media to promote the benefits of what they offer to boaters.

Their press relations strategies succeed because they recognise an often missed yet inescapable fact. There is a yawning gap, bigger than the Atlantic, between the methods and attitudes of the boating press in the US and those elsewhere, particularly in the UK and rest of Europe.

The proverbial pond can be a bottomless ocean down which an amazing number of otherwise capable entrepreneurs and business managers tumble, with their export intentions sinking behind them. Obviously, that is not good for them, nor does it help boating.

As the likes of Brunswick know well, in journalism there are two sides of the pond(erable): Americans and the rest.

For the most part, each US publisher and editor works as a team to wrench greenbacks out of the budgets of boating businesses.

Not only are they complementary but they are complimentary. Very complimentary. They consider a key part of the journalistic function to be promoting companies and their output for all their worth. Little is less than awesome.

Good-news publicity

And the companies concerned are ready and willing to go along with this, picking up good-news publicity as long as they are able to pay for support advertising.

In short, for those seeking to enter the US forum from over here, tell your marketing departments and PR advisers to change tack.

Tell them they can produce press releases until their word processors melt, but if you are not an advertiser your chances of achieving editorial are meagre, unless, that is, you have a really outstanding story to tell.

Even then, feel free to beef it up with a few superlatives and fact massaging, because that is what the US editors expect.

Whether or not the American boating public is taken in by the hype is a matter of conjecture.

Think for themselves

There are at least two strands of opinion - magazines and their advertisers who are convinced they are doing it for the good of the industry, then those who think for themselves.

But switch the situation around to US companies needing to work with the European press and you turn the whole system on its head.

With remarkably few exceptions, the international press is cynical, mistrusting and far more demanding.

Many an editor sees his publisher as a hazard of the job, while publishers can regard their journalists as unapproachable and distinctly uncooperative.

If it is news you will get it in, whether or not you spend on advertising and no matter where you are based.

And if it is news you must make it obvious that it is news, presenting it as such. You have to give the facts and leave the opinions to the journalists, so throw away that book of adjectives.

Even then, the editor is likely to question your facts and add in comparisons or other observations. Very often he will interpret data differently to the way you presented it. You might not like his or her version, but unless the rehash is factually incorrect, you better not complain, or there is unlikely to be a next time.

To uninitiated US exporters it must be a minefield. Add in language and cultural barriers, legislative restrictions and problems associated with having their stories told by third parties such as importers and distributors - and their own backyards look increasingly cosy.

Attracted boating Just as overseas markets have attracted boating US businesses large and small, so have they witnessed many a retreat.

The conundrum is that the recreational boating industry around the globe needs to experience the best of new, innovative, safe products from wherever in the world they emanate.

This is the only way in which the sector can prosper in the face of so many competing interests for customers' time and money. If consumers can see and feel the quality, they might stop and buy.

Meets expectations

Most certainly, it does not matter where the product is made, provided that it appeals and meets end-user expectations: before, during and well after the purchase.

Trade bodies have done much to help. The industry had told them they must do more - and they have responded well.

Eagerness by industry members to visit boat shows in foreign countries has been another positive ingredient in the drive to make exporting easier and more rewarding.

A further contributor has been increased cross-border collaboration between publishing groups, helping to spread knowledge and promote global business.

The Internet has shrunk the world and provided a new tool for exporters. There is a greater degree of professionalism, both within the boating industry and amongst those who serve it.

Front-running All of which fuels the hope that international business can be a front-running factor in perking up boating and making it more profitable, as well as more enjoyable.

Boating needs more and more people to experience the pleasure of being on water, using the best of the world's products to do so. Skilled use of the resources that the media can make available to the industry will be vital.