A love of boating doesn't always mean a love of boats.
Some mariners want to be on the water, not painting hulls, fixing engines and chasing rust and rot. They don't want to tinker or troubleshoot or trailer. At the end of a great day, they want to walk away unencumbered.
Matt Weis gets a hands-on instruction, including some time on the water, before taking out the Tiga competition boat for the first time at the Nashville Boat Club. And in rapidly growing numbers, these boaters are finding their way to boat clubs.
The idea is simple: club members buy in with a membership fee and then pay dues monthly, in return for unlimited access to the club's local fleet. Boaters pull up at their local marina and the vessel of their choice is waiting. Aside from dues, their only other cost is fuel. They pay no slip fees, and the club takes care of maintenance, insurance, repairs and the rest of the minutia associated with ownership.
It's not for everyone – and it may be blasphemous to some. But for those whose aquatic ambitions are simply to have a few days of fun on the water, it is can be a convenient and cost effective strategy.
"We love being on the water," said Donna Ford, of Gulf Shores, Ala. "We pull in, the boat is in the water. It could not be more perfect."
VARIABLE COSTS
Fees vary greatly depending on the region. Up front costs for a regular membership in Nashville, where a Nautical Toys Boat Club opened a year ago, are $1,895 with monthly fees of $298. In Perdido Key, Fla., joining the Freedom Boat Club franchise costs $5,900 and $249 a month. Full membership with Carefree Boat Club of New York costs $6,900 up front and $399 a month.
Alan and Donna Ford joined the Perdido club in 2003, when it offered a five-year unlimited membership plan. It's been worth every penny, she said. Boating hasn't always been so easy for them.
The Fords signed up three years after relocating from Maryland, where they lived a mile from the Chesapeake Bay. There, they bought a center console Bayliner Sportfisher and took it out perhaps eight times. They sold it.
Now, the Fords hit the water at least once a week – they both have Wednesdays off. They have their pick – bowrider, pontoon, deck boat, center console or cruiser, including a Silverton 33 Sport Bridge and a Chaparral 240 Signature.
"It's the best thing we've ever done in terms of enjoying this area to the fullest," says Donna Ford.
Ted and Julie Klee joined the Nashville Boat Club the day they got a flier in the mail last year. He takes some pleasure in watching his Brentwood neighbors who own boats labor away on Friday night and leave for the lake two hours before he does on Saturday morning, so they can get a place in line at the launch. The Klees and their two daughters, ages 9 and 11, get up about 6:30 a.m. and are on the water 45 minutes later.
"At the end of the day, you pull in, fill it up with gas and leave," Ted Klee says. "I can spend six hours on the lake and use seven hours of the day."
GROWING STRONG
Freedom launched the concept in 1989 and has grown to 10 clubs of its own and 34 franchises, including inland locations such as Lake Lanier, Ga.; Clear Lake, Texas; Fort Loudon Lake, Tenn.; and Grand Haven, Mich. Freedom President Mike Reynolds estimates that membership in the last year alone jumped from 3,500 to more than 4,000 across all clubs.
"Our typical member falls into two categories," says Keith D'Aunoy, who owns the Freedom clubs in Perdido and Pensacola and just opened a new franchise in Madisonville, La. "The first category is people who owned boats. They loved boating but hated everything else. The second is the guy who never owned a boat but heard all the horror stories and sees this as the only viable option."
For Melissa Eads of Hermitage, Tenn., just outside Nashville, the calculation was simple. She grew up boating on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. The community relations manager for a large supermarket chain, Eads is single and didn't want to trailer and maintain a boat herself. A year ago, a promotional post card from the Nashville Boat Club showed up in her mailbox.
Eads joined up in April and she's hooked.
"Even though I've had male friends with me, I make sure I do most of it," she says.
The Nashville Boat Club is licensed by Nautical Toys Boat Clubs, another major player. Owner Tim Kiser started the club a year ago on J. Percy Priest Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir with 265 miles of coastline. He is starting a second club in 2009 in nearby Hendersonville on 22,500-acre Old Hickory Lake, another Corps creation. Both lakes are products of dams on the Cumberland River.
