PROVIDENCE –– It was just last February when the report came out, bursting with optimism about the future of the marine trades in Rhode Island. In the cover image, the line is secured tightly to the belaying pin.

At the time, boat builders, repairs shops and related businesses were scouting for 450 new workers, and the report’s authors projected a hiring spree that would boost the estimated 6,600 positions in the state to 7,950.

To address the industry’s biggest challenge –– a “severe labor shortage” –– an industry group helped set up seminars and a high school boat-building class in Bristol to teach welding, carpentry and sail-making.

A lot has changed. As salesmen set up shop yesterday for the Providence Boat Show, industry leaders said they are suddenly navigating choppy waters.

Earlier this month, boat builder Pearson Composites laid off half its staff. That decision followed the closures of Freedom Yachts in Middletown and Albin Boats in Portsmouth. Nationally, sales of new powerboats dropped 30 percent last year.

“There is a substantial downturn,” Paul Harden, the marine trades specialist at the state Economic Development Corporation, said yesterday during a panel discussion at the start of the four-day boat show. “You’re going to start seeing consolidations and the closure of boat builders.”

Typically, the boat show is a high time for the state’s 2,300 marine companies. The first major sales event of the year, it often draws 20,000 participants and provides a burst of sales as boaters rush to have their customized craft ready for the spring.

But this year, the recession has left consumers shying away from even minor purchases, boosting revenue at McDonald’s, for example, while hurting costlier fast-food chains.

In the marine industry, orders for new boats have dried up. Boaters looking to buy are struggling to sell their used boats to help pay for a new model. Boat dealers have seen banks decline to lend for new inventory.

“You’re hoping it can turn around quickly, but no one is saying it’s going to,” Peter J. Van Lancker, president of Hunt Yachts in Portsmouth, said. “Not everyone will survive.”

Hunt saw record sales in the first half of last year. This year, Van Lancker said, the company is preparing to get by on 25 boats, half of last year’s total.

Inside the cavernous exhibition hall at the Rhode Island Convention Center, salesmen sent e-mails on their cellular phones and made small talk about layoffs and bloated inventories. Empty escalators made useless roundtrip journeys.

Retailers set up elaborate displays of fishing rods, sonar kits and marine engines, Kawasaki jet skis, kayaks and catamarans. But in the early afternoon, the candy jars designed to draw boaters to stalls appeared largely undisturbed.

Jeffrey Potter, 41, of Warwick, navigated the makeshift showroom hunting for recession bargains. But he was not entirely sold on the idea. “Times are tough,” he said. “You never know, your job could be gone in two months.”

Not everyone in the industry is suffering. Goetz Custom Sailboats recently rehired nearly its entire work force after an important customer resumed payments on an order for a racing yacht. That resuscitated the Bristol boat builder, which only weeks before had shut its doors after three decades in business.

Brewer Yacht Yards has not needed a rescue. Despite the brutal economic slowdown, the company has laid off just 2 of its 34 employees in the past six months, J. Michael Keyworth, the general manager, said.

Orders are down for “refits” –– a thorough refurbishment including painting, replacing or reconditioning a deck and upgrading electrical systems –– that can range in price from $50,000 to $400,000. But in careful inspections of boats in Brewer’s winter storage facilities, the company is scouring for scores of modest improvements to offer clients, such as new hoses or a wax.

“In the repair end of things, it is more resilient,” Keyworth said. “I think we’ll be OK. I feel very good about the workload.”

At the panel discussion yesterday, organized by the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association, industry leaders discussed the work force report published last February, speaking optimistically about the need to train a new generation of marine tradesmen.

Andy Tyska, president of Bristol Marine and a panelist, said he has no doubt that the marine industry, a favorite of the state’s economic development officials, will survive.

Following yesterday’s discussion, he lingered on the upper floor of the convention center, speaking to the chairman of the Bristol Town Council about the strength of the industry.

“It will always be here,” Tyska said. “It could shrink down to a seed, but it’s not going to take much to grow back.”

On the exhibition hall floor, however, the focus was on the next sale. Charles N. Tasso, director of marketing for boat builder NorthCoast, was running his company’s booth for the first time in four years, a job normally handled by the company’s Rhode Island dealer.

This year, that dealer could not borrow money for new orders, Tasso said. NorthCoast could use the sales help. Last October, a Massachusetts dealer abruptly canceled an order for six boats, leaving the company, which normally does not stock its craft, with a 14-boat inventory.

“People are being more selective,” Tasso said. “They are slower.”

bgedan@projo.com