Social distancing has become a top priority in 2020 and as a result many people have taken to the water to do so naturally. The boating industry saw record numbers throughout the summer season; from sales and on-water traffic to the need for on-water assistance. Boating is up and new boaters have been flooding the market like never before.
Sea Tow Services International – the leading provider of on-water assistance for boaters nationwide – found that from Memorial Day Week to Labor Day weekend, requests for on-water assistance increased by 34% compared to the same timeframe in 2019.
While the number of requests has increased, the type of services has remained the same when compared year-over-year. “We’re still providing the same types of services, we’re just doing a lot more of them this summer,” said Sea Tow President, Kristen Frohnhoefer. “In fact, our captains helped over 60,000 people who were out boating this summer season.”
The top five services Sea Tow provided included:
- Towing (58%)
- Ungroundings (9%)
- Jump starts (8%)
- Fuel Delivery (8%)
- Dock-to-dock tows (8%)
Job reports also showed that member services comprised of 60% of all Sea Tow requests for service, non-member services comprised 36%, and salvage and recovery 4%.
“We continue to prioritize servicing our members, but the numbers show we assisted a good number of other boaters as well,” said Frohnhoefer. “We’re closing out one of our busiest seasons on record and trends post-Labor Day are showing that as long as the weather stays nice, boating and the need for on-water assistance is showing no sign of slowing down.”
