NATCHEZ ON THE WATERFRONT

Retaining the heightened interest in boating

By Dan Natchez*

A single-handed sailing dinghy such as the Optimist intended for use by children and teenagers up to the age of 15 can introduce youngsters to the joys of boating.

Covid-19 has claimed millions of lives worldwide and has dramatically changed our way of living in numerous ways. However, in most areas of the world, the pandemic has also dramatically helped generate a booming interest in boating. It has attracted new boaters and former boaters have returned to the fold. Existing boaters have been using their boats more often and/or upgrading to better boats. New and used boat sales have been way up, to the point that there is little inventory.

I was in a deli not long ago waiting my turn to order and struck up a conversation with the person ahead of me. He was talking about getting away for the weekend on his new boat. I asked, “What type of boat?” He replied, “A pontoon boat”. I queried him about the choice of a pontoon design and his answer was that his wife had picked it out. He had never been into boating before, but loved it – getting away and being able to escape from the boredom of staying cooped up, while having fun with the kids. The woman behind me joined in and said that she had a small cruiser and had previously lost interest in it, but now loved taking the family on weekend adventures. The man behind her said that he just bought a used fishing boat and liked catching his dinners on weekends and cooking them on an open fire with his family. Another person offered that paddle boarding had become a great passion. Yes, it’s a very popular deli, but even I was surprised at the number of boaters in the line and their enthusiasm, yet these unsolicited comments were just a small smattering of current attitudes to boating.

Just about two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, boating was in the process of shutting down and before that abrupt ‘pause’, things were not looking overly rosy in many traditional boating segments. Many national and regional organisations were pushing their ‘grow boating’ campaigns to lure people back into boating. Boating manufacturers, sales organisations and marinas had been trying to come up with successful approaches to spur interest in boating. While paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing and other individual personal watercraft use had steadily kept growing and led the industry in sales, most of the traditional boating mainstays had been down or lagging.

Cyclical tendency

If one takes a more historical perspective, we see that boating interest has tended to be cyclical, with up and down periods. In down markets there is a focus on what can we do to spur interest and in up markets we tend to adopt the role of order-takers. The problem is that if one waits until interest in boating is falling or has fallen off, we have missed the boat (pun intended) of keeping people’s interest in boating up. Once interest has fallen, we are swimming upstream and trying to regain the desired momentum.

Just a short time ago, when Covid-19 seemed to be on the decline and the world was opening up, people started traveling again, with a significant percentage not being for business. Sports, music, theatres and other activities also started opening up more robustly and demands on individual and family time were again starting to compete with boating. Then the omicron variant suddenly appeared and threw everyone for a bit of a loop. By the time you are reading this article, it is likely (we all hope) that the current surge will have passed and people’s schedules will again start filling with other activities that will compete with their allotted boating time.

Keeping interest high

So how do we keep the high boating interest fire burning? While the national and regional industry campaigns are definitely helpful, they can only be one part of the puzzle. Each marina, boatyard, yacht club, neighbourhood group and other boating organisation needs to continue to be proactive in promoting

and maintaining interest in boating. There is no one formula to use and the options are only limited by one’s creativity and imagination.

In terms of generalities, we know that boaters are a very social and communicative group. We tend to talk to other boaters even in the off-season – and even when not in line at a deli. People focus on things they like to brag about, as well as bad experiences that often seem to get exaggerated into something more horrible than the original offence. It’s a social network that can be your downfall if you end up on the negative side, but it is absolutely great if it can be tapped with positive reinforcements for boating.

Because it is a social network, an obvious tool can be social media. Chances are the majority of your customers and would-be customers spend anywhere from a little to a whole lot of time on one or more platforms out there. I realise that this many-headed social media monster is often considered a bit of a nuisance, but if this is where your customers are, it just makes sense to try to meet them there. At a minimum, make sure you have a Facebook page and keep it updated. You don’t have to post every day, but if your last post was a year ago, it is probably not doing what it could for you. If you haven’t already done so, ask your customers to like or follow your page.

You also might want to consider starting a Facebook ‘group’ centered on your facility, whereby your customers may well do much of your publicity/keep-the-fire-burning work for you. At the moment, this seems to have taken more of a hold in yacht club and similar settings, but there is no reason it could not apply to many marinas as well. These groups become a virtual meeting space where folks will post pictures, stories, ask questions, look for crew, etc. Yes, it will require oversight, but by being the (or one of the) administrator(s) you have the ability to manage content. Be sure to make the rules for participating clear, for example (in somewhat abbreviated form): 1. Be kind and courteous; 2. No promotions, politics or spam; 3. Respect everyone’s privacy; 4. No hate speech or bullying; and, perhaps most importantly, 5. Complaints and special requests of the facility should be directed to the General Manager.

Negative feedback relating to other group members, the marina’s staff or their respective actions must be removed, but these groups can be incredibly effective and real community-builders.

Since not everyone will be on social media, and as a complement for those who are, it also makes sense to pursue long-established means of communication such as e-mail or maybe even print.

Some facilities send out weekly to monthly newsletters and the most successful of these in terms of boaters’ interest include pictures and descriptions of enjoyable events – from birthdays to other virtual or in-person celebrations. The adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is true beyond measure. Stories about various experiences or visitors to the facility are also known to be a big hit. Others have included snippets on service and how various problems were detected and solved. The newsletter does not have to be Continued on page 16 4

Each marina, boatyard, yacht club, neighbourhood group and other boating organisation needs to continue to be proactive in promoting and maintaining interest in boating. There is no one formula to use and the options are only limited by one’s creativity and imagination.