Jeff was interviewed a few months back by Kim Kavin who writes for PassageMaker magazine. Kim is a skilled writer and she called to talk with Jeff about how the Covid-19 situation was affecting yacht sales.
During their conversation, Jeff offered to introduce Kim to JMYS client, Howard Robin, who purchased a Nordhavn 60 through JMYS just as the pandemic travel restrictions were becoming mandatory. Prior to making the offer, and before the Covid crisis was well known, Jeff, with his wife Pam, along with Howard and Ginger Robin, all met in Florida to tour the Nordhavn 60 and decided she was in good condition, had the right equipment and would trade for a fair price. We also figured costs for improvement projects to attend to after a successful survey. Everything was lined up after the offer was accepted – then the world came to the unexpected screeching stop.
Jeff and Howard naturally expected to fly to Florida for the survey. Unfortunately Howard was stuck, he and Ginger live in the Bay area and San Francisco airport was locked down – an unprecedented cancellation. Since Howard couldn’t go, he really didn’t want Jeff to travel either. In twenty years Jeff had never missed attending a survey on behalf of a client, but it was the right decision at that time. We took a lot of comfort in the fact that Howard had hired Steve D’Antonio to inspect the vessel, Bernie Francis was engaged to operate the vessel and later retained by Howard to help with moving after closing. The selling broker attended (he and Jeff are friends) and the survey team did a great job without the buyer or buyers broker present. With all of the heartbreak and loss associated with the year 2020, we are pleased to report this story has a happy ending
Kim’s article uses Howard and Gingers’ story as an example of how the trawler market has stayed active and relevant, despite the dramatic changes in how business is now being conducted. Traveling across the country and around the world has been an essential part of growing JMYS. That all abruptly halted for at least 12 weeks and we wondered when the light would show at the end of the tunnel. We didn’t have to wait long – the pent up demand created by people tired of staying at home and wanting to find a way to safely travel as a family, created a huge demand for trawlers. Since June there have been more buyers than boats, and some buyers have happily paid a premium just to have the ability to get away and enjoy some independence.
The summer months of July and August were exceptional – it seemed like the JMYS team was involved with one survey a week – a record pace that was exhilarating and more than made up for that winter hibernation.
As we ease into the last quarter of 2020, it appears the public is more conscientious about health safety, air travel is less risky and in general emotions are more confident. As everyone has witnessed, all businesses are rethinking how they can logistically adapt new ways of doing things and some of the changes being implemented are better and will likely remain in place for the foreseeable future.
PassageMaker magazine has been kind enough to give JMYS permission to post this article on our website and we’d like to thank Kim Kavin for writing about such an interesting topic. We hope you enjoy reading this.
