Nautical distancing: Pandemic revs up boat-rental business
Courtesy / Ellis Boat Co.
Boat rentals surged during the pandemic. Seen here is Salty Furlough, the latest addition to the Ellis Boat Co. charter fleet in Southwest Harbor.
Boat rental operations around Maine saw a surge in demand this summer as more customers sought ways to enjoy the outdoors without being around other people.
“I booked everything solid,” said Shane Ellis of Ellis Boat Co. in Southwest Harbor, on Mount Desert Island.
Ellis has a fleet of 10 cruising motorboats, ranging from 28 to 40 feet long, that can be rented by the week.
His season typically runs June through September, with most clients arriving in July and August. This year, the season was fully booked by early 2020. Initially, bookings evaporated with the onset of the pandemic.
“I sent everyone’s money back,” he said. “Everyone was scared they wouldn’t be able to get here so I went from being booked to not booked at all.”
But when Gov. Janet Mills issued the state's economic reopening plan, bookings started coming in again.
“I rebooked everything with different clients,” he said. Many wanted to get out of city. “Except for the loss of mid-June to mid-July, the business has been busier than past seasons, except it’s been a later season.”
Onboard Zoom meetings
For some, the boat rentals created a floating office — with nice scenery and built-in social distancing.
“It certainly fit the bill for what people needed,” Ellis said. “Some people came up with their laptops. They asked, ‘Will I be able to get wifi?’ They brought their work with them, taking calls and doing Zoom meetings on their boats.”
At Mansell Boat Rental Co., also in Southwest Harbor, owner Chuck Watson had one of his best years for sailboat and motorboat rentals.
“After the state opened up July 2 or so, we saw a flood of folks that wanted to be on the sea,” Watson said by email.
Kayak Excursions in Kennebunkport, which rents kayaks, stand-up paddleboards and bikes from mid-June to early September, had a slow start to the season. The company depends on Canadian customers and has been heavily affected by the closure of the Canada-U.S. border, said owner Stefan Kuenzel.
Things started picking up when the state instituted testing and quarantine exemptions for Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont.
“It was last minute,” he said. “We started seeing more bookings. It went from very slow to slightly above normal.”
He added, “Kayaking, paddleboarding and biking are naturally social distant. You’re getting the full experience without putting yourself at much risk.”
Port Harbor Marine, headquartered in South Portland, saw a huge uptick. Among the company’s offerings are boat rentals and a membership boating club that provides a variety of boats for its members to use on the water. Port Harbor also offers boat sales, service, storage and a marina.
The boat club business was up 28% over last year and rentals were up 60% over last year, said the company’s president, Rob Soucy.
“We’re seeing a large increase in boating interest in general,” he said. “Since the beginning of May, it’s been a summer like we’ve never seen before.”
Customers included more Maine residents than usual, including more younger people. as well as more women joining the boat club. Some customers were new to boating or had boated at one time in their life and decided to get back into it.
“People weren’t traveling or vacationing,” he said. “They had their money saved up to do those activities and they rolled it into a boat purchase or a boat rental.”
He added, “You’re outside, you control who your with, you control your environment. We called it ‘nautical distancing.’”
Newbies
Watson said he saw a big increase of people who wanted to be on the sea but did not have the background or experience to do so. For example, on one day he received 17 calls within a few hours for potential bookings and had to turn away 16 because they had no experience handling a boat by themselves.
Watson and others offer the services of licensed captains to accompany any boat.
“I vet my clients well in advance, so I haven’t had any accidents or breakdowns,” said Ellis. “A couple of people have come here with a little less boating experience, so we put them with captains. It helps that I have 36-foot boats and anyone who’s not a boater will be really scared to get on a boat that big” without a captain.
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