There are three ways to get on the water if you don’t already have a boat. Book a charter each time, join a boat club, or buy one. I’ve done the first two and watched a brother-in-law do the third, and I’d say most people pick the wrong one at least once. Here’s how to think it through before you do.
Booking a Charter Each Time
A single charter is the simplest option. Book, show up, go. No commitment, no membership fee. It’s the right pick if you’ll only go out once or twice a year, or you want to try a few boats before deciding on anything bigger.
The downside is the price per trip. If you notice you’re booking every month, the receipts stack up, and you might be paying more than a club member would for the same boat. Popular dates go fast too, so holidays and sunset slots need booking ahead.
Charters come captained or self-drive, same as clubs. If nobody in your group wants to drive, captained is the easy answer. You board, the captain handles the boat, and you walk away at the end without hosing anything down.
Joining a Boat Club
Clubs sit in the middle. You pay a membership fee and get access to a fleet without owning any of it. Two styles. Self-drive clubs hand you the keys, so you need to know how to run the boat and read the waterway. Captained clubs put a licensed captain on every trip, and you get to be a guest on your own outing.
Before joining any club, ask what each trip includes, how booking works for members, and how long you have to use your trips. Clear terms up front save a lot of grief later.
One captained example is the club run by BocaRatonBoatRental.com. Members get 5 captained trips on any boat in a fleet of 30 or more, from 22 feet up to 122 feet, for $10,000. That’s $2,000 a trip. Every trip boards at the same marina, and there’s no cleaning, docking, or storage to think about afterward. To their credit, they also say the club pays off mainly if you plan to book larger boats, since single charters on the small ones can cost less. I appreciate a company that tells you when not to buy.
Owning a Boat
Ownership is total freedom. The boat is yours and you go whenever you want. The costs go well past the purchase price, though. Slip or storage, insurance, cleaning, upkeep, fuel. Then there’s weather. Storm season means hauling out or tying down, and that’s your problem now, not a company’s.
In Florida there’s paperwork too. Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles requires every motorized boat to be titled and registered within 30 days of purchase, with registration fees based on the boat’s length. Owning makes sense if you’ll use the boat a lot, you like maintaining it, and you can drive it with confidence. My brother-in-law uses his maybe eight days a year. He won’t say that out loud, but his wife will.
How to Decide
- How many days a year will you really go out? Be honest, not optimistic.
- Who’s going to drive? If the answer is nobody, you want a captained option.
- What size boat do you want? Bigger boats make clubs and charters more attractive, since owning one is expensive.
- How much time do you want to spend on upkeep? If the answer is none, skip ownership.
A Rough Guide
- 1 to 2 trips a year: book single charters.
- 4 to 6 trips a year on larger boats: a captained club can pay off.
- Out every week and happy to do the work: ownership might be worth it.
There’s no wrong answer here. The goal is to spend your money on time on the water, not on a boat that sits at the dock looking expensive.