Brunswick (BC) CEO David Foulkes is looking past a soft new-boat market to autonomy, artificial intelligence, and defense, including an unmanned military vessel built in partnership with Textron (TXT), as the next drivers of growth for the world's largest recreational boat company.
Brunswick was hosting members of the press and important clients at Brooklyn Bridge Marina, where the company showed off a lineup spanning Boston Whaler and Sea Ray models fitted with its latest technology, the Navan adventure-expedition boat that has caught on in Europe, a classic Boston Whaler Outrage saltwater fishing boat, and two new products, a Guardian law-enforcement boat and, tied up right behind Yahoo Finance's interview setup, an autonomous military craft.
One big feature on display was the company's Auto Captain, Brunswick's auto-docking system. "Press a button, and the boat will dock itself," Foulkes told Yahoo Finance.
Foulkes claimed Auto Captain helps sell boats. He framed its adoption as an S-curve, drawing a parallel to joystick controls, which were met with skepticism when introduced and are now near-standard on the company's larger boats.
"We don't sell a Boston Whaler without a joystick on it," he said, arguing that docking — one of boating's most stressful moments in wind, current, and tight slips — is a natural next step.
Auto Captain is a "factory-fit" option that requires extensive calibration and can't be retrofitted later. Foulkes expects it to become a resale must-have: "If you don't have it, it might be tough to resell the boat."
Auto Captain leans on AI for computer vision and machine learning, using a neural net approach rather than the large language models behind chatbots.
But chatbot-like features appear in Brunswick's customer apps that ingest every system manual into an AI agent that owners can query instead of perusing the owner's manual. Behind the scenes, Foulkes said, Brunswick is using AI across its software development, customer service, and supply chain.
The defense story may be the most investor-appealing part of the business. Brunswick supplies Mercury engines, Boston Whaler hulls, Simrad radar, and control systems for an unmanned surface vessel, or USV, developed with conglomerate Textron, which provides the secure communications and autonomy system. The company has sold about 20 of the boats to the Navy so far.
"It's ramping up pretty nicely," Foulkes said, adding that Brunswick sees uses beyond the military in areas like oil and gas support and aquaculture. It also sells radar and control systems to other players in the field.