Before the pandemic Bruce Goodchild split his time between Australia, his home country, and New Zealand’s far north, where his work and family are based. When travel restrictions stopped him from skipping back and forth across the Tasman Sea, he decided to explore the waters closer to home – by buying a boat of his own.
In November, Goodchild bought a 60ft-long wooden schooner. A keen sailor, he had had his eye on the local yacht market at the start of 2020, but the emergence of coronavirus focused his mind. “I thought, ‘I’m stuck over here – this is a way I can spend my time.”
“To me, a boat was a good lifestyle change to have over the next few years as the dust settles with Covid,” he said.
Goodchild was not alone. A global boating boom has been reported in response to the pandemic. Travel restrictions and months in lockdown have prompted people to pursue bucket-list life goals or take up new outdoor pastimes – sending boat sales soaring.
The New Zealand Marine Industry Association has said boat sales since June have doubled compared with those in the same period in 2019 – more than compensating for a sharp pandemic-driven drop from April to June. Enrolment in marine courses has also seen an uptick.
New Zealand has a consistently high rate of boat ownership per capita due to its extensive coastline, protected sounds and island-dotted harbours.
Blair Harkness, director of City of Sails Marine in Auckland, said recent months had been the busiest he had seen in some 15 years of operating. After a quiet start to 2020, the rise in interest since about October – coinciding with the start of the summer cruising season – had been “quite extraordinary”, he said.
‘You’ve got your own bubble on the boat’
Trailer boats, powerboats and catamarans were selling especially well, according to Harkness, but even yachts – often more skill- and labour-intensive – had seen increased interest.
He attributed it to New Zealanders, prevented by border restrictions from holidaying overseas, wanting to explore a new side of their country. “They’ve got money to spend, and they’ve recognised that going boating is a really good way to go … And of course the sea is a great playground.”
On New Zealanders’ immediate emergence from lockdown in mid-May, boats had the added appeal of being distanced, adds Harkness: “You’ve got your own bubble on the boat.”
Boat brokers worldwide have reported a sudden reversal of slow sales at the start of 2020. In the US the National Marine Manufacturers Association said that May 2020 saw the highest new boat sales in a decade.
Simon White, founder of global listings site TheYachtMarket, said it had seen a massive increase in interest since late April, mirroring that reported by its worldwide network of brokers. The number of boat buyers visiting its site was 72% higher in October 2020 than the previous year. That interest went beyond idle lockdown escapism, with TheYachtMarket generating 65% more sales inquiries in October than the previous year.
Steve Thomas, co-owner of Nelson-based New Zealand Boat Sales, said weeks in lockdown had focused people’s minds on how they wanted to spend their time.
New-build boats in particular were doing a brisk trade, even at the top end of the market. Thomas said 40 orders had been placed in a week for a new Seawind Catamaran, listed for $1.5m. Demand was such that wait times were being driven out to years – further fuelling the fear of missing out, Thomas said.
The global shift to remote working had also encouraged people to attempt a “totally different lifestyle”. “They want to try new things … You can buy a new 46ft catamaran for what you can buy a house for and you’re accessible with the internet wherever you go,” Thomas said.
Gary Whatmough bought a 37ft catamaran in October, with a view to working towards a long-held dream of sailing the South Pacific, once Covid-related restrictions lift – and if his partner can be persuaded to give up her job. “I want to go live on the boat, and she doesn’t so much. It’s just getting around that.”
They had started off with the North Island, sailing four nights from Nelson to their home in Whangārei; then two weeks cruising the Bay of Islands over Christmas. “The plan is just to use it as much as we can,” says Whatmough.
Like property, boat sales have been buoyed by low interest rates, suggesting to Thomas that this flurry cannot go on forever. “How long it will last is the million-dollar question. It has to slow down this year, and a lot of that will be driven by the fact that there aren’t going to be boats to buy.”
Whatmough is more sceptical. “It makes me laugh, how everyone says there’s no boats for sale. I can tell you that nearly every boatie has their price.”
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