3 Tips to Be a Frugal Boater

June 03, 2014

Are you a frugal boater? That may sound like an oxymoron since boating is a very expensive hobby. But if boating is in your blood, here are three ways to save money and still enjoy a nice day out on the water this summer.  

Tip 1:  Don’t buy a boat!  Seriously, there are other options to consider where you can still feel the spray of the water and the wind in your hair as you hit the waves.  Boat U.S. Magazine features an article in their latest edition about sailing clubs, where only about 1 in 5 members may actually own a boat and the other members volunteer to be deck hands for sailing trips.  It is a win-win situation: the owner of the boat gets a crew with extra helping hands for docking duties that come aboard with food and drinks and the crew gets a day out on the water. Believe me, on a windy day on choppy waters, you can never have too many hands on deck trying to get the boat safely back into the slip.

Another option is a boat club that offers fractional ownership such as Freedom Boat Club.  With multiple locations all along the East Coast, membership gives you access to boats at any of their locations and you can pick from different types of boats each time you go out.  You can even bring your pet on board!  According to their website, they “clean, maintain, store, and do all the prep work for your enjoyment. There are no hassles like dock fees, insurance or trailers. Instead, you spend your time having fun on the water.”  Just be forewarned that similar to considering fractional ownership of a vacation home (timeshare), there is a pretty aggressive sales pitch to listen to, which I heard at the Bay Bridge Boat Show this spring.

Tip 2:  Put some thought into the location of your marina.  For my first few years as a boat owner, I had my boat at the closest marina to my house, about a 20 minute drive away. Unfortunately, that meant that my boat sat at the very top of the Chesapeake Bay in the Elk River.  To get anywhere interesting, like the C&D Canal or the Sassafras River, it would take close to an hour by water.  Since the boat only gets about 3 miles per gallon, these were pretty expensive trips.

I wised up this year and moved the boat further south to be closer to favorite boating destinations like Annapolis and the Baltimore Inner Harbor.  Now it’s about an hour’s drive to the marina but my car gets 25 mpg and once we hit the water, it’s just a few minutes by boat down the Back River to get to the Bay Bridge or Baltimore.

Tip 3:  Pack your own food.  One thing I miss about my old marina is the onsite restaurant.  What I don’t miss are the bar tabs and expensive crab cake dinners we couldn’t resist after a day on the water.  Our new marina is pretty basic – no bar and grill or snack shack as a temptation.

That has forced me to be more thoughtful about packing food to bring aboard.  A day ahead, I make grilled chicken and pasta salad, mix it up and pack it in Tupperware, and then throw it in the fridge.  It goes very well with my homemade orange crushes!

When considering boating as a lifestyle choice, make sure it doesn’t sink your budget. As a good rule of  thumb, you shouldn’t spend any more than about 5% of your annual income towards the overall expenses of boat ownership if you want to be a frugal captain. If you have any more tips of your own, leave them in the comments section below.