Boat Club Memberships: Why Should You Join?

You may not feel completely ready to choose a boat even after shopping around and using our Boat Finder tool, you might need to wait to pull the trigger because of economic factors, or maybe you just think easing your way into the boating lifestyle is a smart move—whatever the reason, boat clubs offer an excellent alternative to buying a new boat. In fact, boat clubs have experienced soaring popularity since they first began showing up a few decades ago.

Boat club costs are significantly less than purchasing a boat outright, boat club membership often comes with additional perks like boating education classes, on-the-water training, insurance coverage, and/or social events, and there are boat clubs near me, near you, and near just about everyone else who lives anywhere close to a popular waterway. In fact, there are hundreds of locations across the nation from several different providers and whichever you choose to be your boat club, endless boating opportunities for you and your family probably lay right around the corner.

Follow along as one family explores what a boat club membership is all about in their local area.

Explore Different Boat Types

How Boat Clubs Work

Don’t think of this option as a boat rental club, nor as a boat share club, nor as a peer-to-peer service. Renting, sharing, and peer-to-peer are each a bit different. In this case, the way it works is the boat club itself owns and maintains a fleet of various types and sizes of boats. You pay a membership fee and monthly dues to join the club. Then the entire fleet is available to you—cruisers, bowriders, fishing boats, sailboats, and more.

You can choose a center console and catch some dinner one day and then take the kids out on a watersports boat for some wakeboarding the next, so the experience is really an entire family boat club experience no matter what sort of boating one family member or another likes the most. Plus, most boat clubs maintain some form of reservation service or website so you can choose whichever boat you’d like to use on a specific day, ahead of time.

Find out more about other alternatives to boat ownership, including...

• Boat Rentals
• Peer-to-Peer Boat Sharing
• How to Charter a Boat

Boat Clubs in Your Area

While boat clubs are most heavily concentrated along the East and Gulf Coasts, it’s hard to find an area that offers good boating access without having a boating club nearby. In fact, the nation’s largest boat club has over 190 locations. Which is the best boat club in your area? That’s open to debate, but in many areas, you’ll have several to choose from. 
                                       

Carefree Boat Club | Freedom Boat Club | SailTime | Boatsetter | Your Boat Club | Get My Boat    | Nautical Boat Club