(WWJ) It's been well beyond a big boating season, as metro Detroiters hit the lakes for a kind of escape amid the pandemic.
And while officials expect lighter than normal holiday traffic this Labor Day weekend, that certainly does not apply to the water.
At SkipperBud's Marina in Waterford on Cass Lake, the largest lake in Oakland County, general manager Chris Somers is preparing for a busy weekend on top of a particularly strong sales summer.
He told WWJ Newsradio 950's Jon Hewett that rentals have been booked for weeks; demand no one saw coming back when COVID-19 was first confirmed in Michigan.
"We got into the third week of March and we had a boat show at the Suburban (Collection) Showplace. They started it on Thursday night, they canceled it on Friday," he said. "And as boat dealers we're sitting there going, 'What is this season gonna be like?' And 90 days later we're going, 'Can you believe it? We're out of boats!'"
Related
Somers said many of his customers this year are new to boating, as families feel better about being out on the water than out in public.
"We'd kinda been preaching it in the boating industry for years, and it's kinda been falling on deaf ears. And this year, because it was the only thing left to do, it resonated in a lot of people," Somers said. "And as they got out and experienced it, our rental business was just crazy. People going out, trying it for the first time, liking it, coming back in, buying a boat."
One of those people is first-time boat buyer Kathy Knapp of Farmington Hills.
"Being out in the fresh air and away, we feel safer and good about it," she told Hewett. "And it's good to get out in the sunshine."
Farmington Hills resident Douglas Ware will also be spending the holiday weekend on the lake, which is where he's been spending a lot of his time these days.
"With everything and everyone being locked in the house, getting out on a boat and getting out on the water was someplace we could go and just kind of relax. And just kind of get away from it all for a little while anyway," he said.