Boating Is a Notorious Money Pit. This Club Wants to Change That.
Two things about me are true: I love spending time boating, and I’ll never own a boat. Despite how much I love to parade atop the water, I don’t see boat ownership through rose-colored glasses—it’s a notorious money pit.
Boating has always had a high barrier to entry that other outdoor pursuits don’t: you can rent a kayak or SUP for an afternoon, but a motorized boat has usually meant a dock of sorts, a trailer, a license, and a five-figure commitment before you’ve even revved the engine. Sailboats, while glamorous, are even worse.
Clubs like Freedom Boat Club, now with roughly 450 locations across the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East, are trying to lower that barrier. Treating access to the water less like a purchase and more like a gym membership. An estimated 100 million Americans get out on the water every year, but only about 150,000 new boats are sold. That’s the gap this membership is attempting to bridge: people who want to boat, but never saw a realistic way in.
Freedom Boat Club operates like a timeshare, with some key differences. The first being that there are a lot fewer strings involved, and also, no free conference room lunch. To join the club, there’s an initiation fee of around $5,000 and then additional monthly fees of around $500. Membership includes access to a fleet of over 5,000 boats, and after a few mandatory introductory courses on safety and operation, members may rent boats anywhere, at any time. That means snowbirds can boat all summer long off of Long Island, then flee down south without missing a single day on the water. Or, a bride-to-be can take her bachelorette crew out on Lake Austin, no scammy boat rental needed.
Up to four reservations can be booked at a time, each for around three to four hours, and yes, double booking is allowed so you can enjoy the whole day on the water. Aside from a few popular water days (think Fourth of July or Labor Day Weekend), boats typically don’t need to be reserved more than a few days out, and to date, around 670,000 trips are booked a year.
The boats themselves are leased through Brunswick Boat Club (the parent company of Freedom Boat Club), and include myriad styles for all types of outdoor activities: smooth Boston Whalers and pontoons perfect for family trips, zippy bow riders, inshore or offshore boats perfect for fishing, sailboats and plenty more. Some of the boats require additional training, but as Will Sangster, the President of Business Acceleration at Freedom Boat Club, tells me, it’s only about 10 percent of the fleet. Best of all, the boats are new. The club cycles out boats after about three years, so you won’t be getting any sort of water jalopy.
Of the roughly 400 locations in the U.S., the club occupies space in a variety of waters: open ocean, lakes, rivers, bays, so wherever you want to get outside, there’s a boat to help you do it.
The idea of getting more people out on the water is the central message for Freedom Boat Club. In fact, the club aims to bring a new wave (pun intended) of boaters to the scene. The club’s membership base is clustered in the late 30s to mid-40s, much younger than traditional boat ownership, which is somewhere between the 60s and 70s, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
Roughly four out of every 10 members of the club are new to boating altogether, and according to Brenna Preisser, the President of Brunswick Boat Club, women make up nearly 30 percent of the club’s membership compared to around 12 percent of traditional boat ownership.
For me, reading a book under the sun while gently bobbing on the deck of a pontoon on a lake in Upstate, New York is as close to utopia as I’ll ever get. What I love most about that feeling is how nothing feels so big or scary out on the water—it’s as close to a moment of pure peace as I’m capable of having.
As much as I love it, boat ownership is not for me. The maintenance, fuel, docking, and storage fees amount to a bill I never want to see. What I yearn for is far simpler: the open water, sunshine, a fresh breeze, and of course, my book sitting on my chest, dog-eared. No room for the angst of individual boat ownership or the vague hope of getting an invite onto a friend’s boat. Instead, I’m just a reservation, and a few intro to boating courses, away from my perfect summer day.
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