By John Arndt

An interesting aspect of the unfolding pandemic is the increase in boat sales. Yes, you heard that right. Actually, like the pandemic, the data’s evolving, but our calls to brokers and dealers indicate that there is some surprisingly good activity on the waterfront.

One example is a call we received from Don Durant of Cruising Specialists. Don called to let us know he’d just sold a new Jeanneau 440 to Latitude 38 readers who were having lunch over by South Beach Harbor. They spotted the Jeanneau 440 in Don’s ad while reading a past issue and called to see if they could have a look. Don had one available in the Club Nautique charter program and told them to come on over.

Turns out the husband had previously sailed while a student at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and then moved to the Bay Area. He owned an Islander 36 on the Bay for a few years before going boatless for about 12 years while starting a family. Now his daughters are in hitting double digits, and, without summer camp, sports and other group activities on the agenda, they decided it was a great summer for family sailing. So they bought a new Jeanneau 440! We tell you this story both because we’re happy to hear about families getting back into sailing, and because we appreciate Don’s calling to tell us about a boat he sold from his ad in Latitude 38.