Boat boom: Yacht sales are rising during pandemic.
Yachting grows as safer recreation alternative to crowds, flying
With doubledigit unemployment and shelterinplace restrictions keeping potential customers at home, Bay Area yacht broker Geli Burgin was certain 2020 would be a bad summer for the boat business.
And it started out that way — in March, as the shutdown started, Burgin’s group of boat dealers had just two vessels under contract. “We were sure boats sales would tank,” she said. “Who buys a boat during a pandemic?”
It turns out a lot of people want to buy a boat during a pandemic. Two months later her business, Atomic Tuna Yachts, which has offices in Alameda and Tiburon, is the busiest it’s been in years. Within the past few weeks the brokerage has 11 yachts in contract, with more in negotiations.
And Atomic Tuna is not the only boat business booming in the Bay Area. As social distancing on trails and trepidation over air travel persist, residents are increasingly looking toward boating as a safe way to avoid a summer of sitting at home.
Richardson Bay Harbormaster Curtis Havel said he has seen a 15% increase in “weekend warriors” anchoring in the bay, mostly coming in Thursday or Friday and staying until Sunday.
The app GetMyBoat — think Airbnb, but for boat rentals — has seen bookings more than double from a year ago and had backtoback record days over Memorial Day weekend.
“In the past week we have seen a crazy bounceback,” said Val
Streif, who heads up marketing for GetMyBoat. “A lot of people are booking for late in the summer. They are realizing that their travel plans are canceled and now they can reallocate that money to something else.”
JohnMichael Donahue, communications manager for the National Marine Manufacturing Association, said coronavirus
shutdowns are causing a swell of interest in boating. In April the group’s website, www.discoverboating.com, saw a 44% increase in visitors compared with that month last year, and in May visits were up 128% over last year.
“There are a lot of firsttime folks trying to figure out how they can get out on the water,” Donahue said. “The good news is boating is open in the United States and it’s going to stay open because it is a great outdoor recreational activity you can do while social distancing.”
Again and again, potential boat buyers tell of canceled plans, scuttled trips, vacation rentals no longer feasible because of the coronavirus, Burgin said. “There are no events, no games, no concerts, no cruises, and people are not comfortable getting on a plane,” she said.
One couple who bought a catamaran from her had rented a beach house in Cuba for a month this summer.
“They called and said, ‘We were supposed to be in Cuba, but we want to buy a boat instead,’ ” she said. “Three weeks later, I sold them a boat.”
San Francisco yacht broker Don Margraf said highend boats are doing well. “I have one in contract for $64,000, one for $110,000 and one for $247,000,” he said. “As a company we have over 100 boats in contract and several over $1 million. We are on par with normal, which is amazing considering a lot of the harbors around the world are closed.”
While boat dealers and shipyards are busy, some marinas are still closed to the public, and charter businesses do not yet have permission to start back up.
At Oyster Point in South San Francisco, the fish pier, ramp and restaurant reopened
May 22, according to Harbormaster Jim Merlo. Boaters must social distance and wear masks on the pier. He said the marina has been unusually busy since it reopened. Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon
Bay is still closed, although folks who rent slips there may use them. “We are getting a lot of calls about when the launch ramp is going to reopen,” said Deputy Harbormaster Adam Bloomer.
Capt. Tim Valka operates a 44foot trawler out of Sausalito. Valka, who uses the GetMyBoat app, said that the number of inquiries has been heavy, but that the health order in place in Marin County doesn’t yet allow for charter boat trips. “We can’t legally reopen until the county says so,” he said. “I haven’t taken bookings yet because I don’t want to jump the gun.”
With his charter business docked for the time being, he is busy working on other people’s boats — as a diver he cleans hulls and replaces zincs, the anodes that protect
the metal part of boats from corrosion. That trade is heavier than usual as boat owners have more time to use their vessels.
“I’ve noticed significantly more people are working on their boats, cleaning them, getting them ready for use,” he said. “And on Friday afternoons there are a lot more people just sitting on the back deck of their boats having a beer, trying to get out of the house.”
Havel has been concerned that rising unemployment because of the coronavirus would compel more people to join the ranks of “anchorouts” — the collection of ragtag vessels, many of them unseaworthy, that anchor out in the bay. That has happened a bit — the “anchorage” community has grown from about 115 to 130, but it is still well below the 190 boats anchored out in July 2019.
Merlo said that the number of liveaboards at Oyster Point has stayed consistent. About 80 people are on a waiting list at the marina where they limit fulltime residents to 10% of the slips. The waiting list is about five years.
So far most of the boaters steaming into Richardson Bay are not staying more than 72 hours, Havel said. Boaters can also get a free 30day anchoring permit, although the vessel has to be inspected first. So far boaters have not been looking to stay more than a few days.
“They get here and find not a whole lot is open in Sausalito,” he said.
J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen