Kiwi’s flock to the water according to Skipperi State of Boating Report.
Shared use boating service, Skipperi, has released its global State of Boating report – arguably the most comprehensive data set on recreational boating. The data in this report is based on 110,000 trips of shared use and rental adventures. Skipperi gathers the data via its app which logs user activity such as distance travelled, speed, locations and weather. Skipperi is a shared use boating service with a monthly subscription you get access to 400 boats and can experience your local water areas as well as new archipelagos around the world. Currently, Skipperi operates in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand. Looking at the gathered data, New Zealanders went the furthest but the Finns were the fastest. On average, users in NZ travelled 22.1nm at 7.9 knots on average, whereas the Finns averaged 8.8 knots and travelled 16.2nm.
Since being established in New Zealand in 2021, Skipperi has seen over thousands of trips booked by Kiwi’s, culminating in over 20,000 hours of boating from subscribers. The most popular Island destinations for Kiwi’s were Motuihe Island, Rangitoto Island and Rakino Island.
“During covid-19 Skipperi saw a huge, fast growth in boating across their services & locations,” says Skipperi NZ CEO, Alex Rosenthal. 35% of New Zealand Skipperi subscribers, were new to boating. The restrictions left people with no other choice than to find activities outdoors and boating was an obvious choice for many. In 2022 Skipperi saw boating activity returning close to pre-pandemic levels, although a bit higher.”
To meet demand, Skipperi has added more boats to the fleet, and is opening up more locations. “We have more Haines Hunter SF545’s on order, with Yamaha outboards, and are adding some Haines Hunter SS660 models to the fleet. We are also intending to open up a location at Gulf Harbour by Summer.”
