Whitehead went on to say the current position mirrors what's happening in other retail markets including the High Street, estate agents and car dealers.

The situation in the High Street is very intriguing.

Recent analysis of the situation suggests people are getting very wary about the level of personal debt - currently running at around £1trillion.

They are cutting back on spending, realising that it's costing them a lot of money just to service their debts. Restaurants are feeling the pinch as people opt for dinner parties, or fish and chips in front of the TV.

But the retail sector is fighting back by latching onto the demand for value. Primark is a prime example, offering good quality clothes at minimal prices. The company has taken over the outlets used by the ailing Littlewoods chain and is becoming a real contender in the High Street.

Added to that, it seems the Internet - with yet another 30% growth - is at last becoming the powerful influence in the retail operation the pundits foretold a long time ago. And it's making its presence felt.

The Internet is not only having an effect in the High Street, of course.

BB's letters pages have carried some views from the leisure marine retail sector highlighting the disadvantages of running a bricks and mortar retail outlet against the minimal overheads of the web-based businesses.

And BB has heard rumours that pressures are being brought to bear on some of the websites by suppliers eager to help protect conventional retail operations. Any further information on this will be welcomed - email to editor@boatingbusiness.co.uk please.

The Internet aside - we'll devote more space to that in another issue of BB - the industry is seeing the same kind of sales splits as recent years - the top end is holding up, while the small end is suffering.

"Feedback from the boat sales sector is that less boats have been sold, especially in the lower cost sector, " said Ian Braham head of marine finance at Lombard, who added the company had seen an 18% increase in business.

Upper end "This increase is coming from the upper end of the market and our figures show we are financing more expensive boats."

This year, he told BB , our average advance has increased to £115,000. In 2004, our average advance was £90,000.

"It would appear that sales of the more expensive boats are at least static or increasing, " he smiled, "and Lombard is getting more of that business."

The other two big finance houses - Bank of Scotland and Barclays, agree there are deals being done. "Our business volumes are standing up well, " confirmed Whitehead, while James Crew, senior marine manager at Barclays Marine Finance, told us: "There is activity, but it's not a boom by any means."

Crew was definite about where the majority of his business was coming from.

"Barclays is the 6th largest bank in the world and Barclays Marine Finance is a pretty small cog in that wheel, so it's taken an enormous amount of time to get our name out and about, " he said. "We 're slowly getting there with private banks, larger corporates and premier banking. So we're picking up a lot of customers now before they go to the boat showrooms and perhaps get steered elsewhere."

While Crew says the dealer is still their major source of introductions, it seems the Barclays organisation may be shifting the emphasis. "The dealer is still king, in terms of referral, " he said, "but if we were reliant solely on the Sunseekers, the Moodys, the Princesses and the Fairlines, the narrowboat dealers, the jetski dealers, we would not be able to produce the numbers we are producing."

And what is the prognosis for the remainder of this year?

According to the retail pundits, one of the problems is that inflation is low, which is not making debts smaller and not raising house prices.

This immediately leads to the thought that the smaller end of the marine sector is suffering because, at that level, much luxury spending is funded out of equity release.

"This time last year I would have said that was definitely the case, " said Crew. "But I think people who were releasing equity have done it and gone ahead and bought their boat."

There's only a finite number of people who can, or are willing to, go for equity release, he added. "You can't keep doing it."

More confidence Will an interest rate cut help?

"It might bring a little more confidence, but a 1/2% drop, if and when it comes, isn't going to make a heap of difference.

There are plenty of boat buyers out there and I think we've just been lucky in previous years where there was a constant stream of them."

The UK domestic market is harder going, without a doubt, says Crew.

The High Street faces this kind of situation by creating demand. OK; slashing prices.

The "Summer Sales" had started before this article was written, with 50% being the usual encouragement to clear the shelves for the new stock.

So with boat dealer stocks running, I'm told, at high levels, there may be a deal or two to be done at Southampton next month? But it's not all doom and gloom, by any means. A lot of companies have told me they had seen June sales pick up so much they reckon they will match last year's sales by the year end.

Back to Crew again, who told me he had already reached 90% of last year's business when I interviewed him for this article.

He also confirmed the June burst of activity, saying Barclays Marine Finance had, in that month, recorded its highest ever single monthly total for lending of £22.4m.

Now that doesn't sound like a bad year to us. Maybe not as much growth as we would have liked.

But let's not talk ourselves into a recession just yet.