Cool Boating Club Option

Rene and I have belonged to a pretty cool organization here in Southwest Florida for about 8 years called "The Freedom Boat Club". They have 20 locations that we're able to utilize with our membership from Bradenton on down to Marco Island and many points in between. We've taken boats out of 4 primary locations that are closest to us but have so many more options to consider in the future. When we joined there was an initiation fee and we pay a certain amount monthly for 6 months of usage. We're able to choose the 6 months we want and that can also be changed which is great for when we decide to travel. We're fortunate to have joined when we did since our monthly fee has been locked in for life.

Recently, we've been out on the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) and taken 6 of our wonderful friends each time in order to treat them to the experience. They've all loved it and we've been so fortunate with the weather. We also have an option to consider going out on the Gulf of Mexico, but will still need to take our proper training for that so it's something else we have to look forward to if we so desire.

All of their boats are in great condition as they're current year or at least no more than a couple of years old. Other than the monthly fee we pay, we're only obligated to pay for gas. Even "Sea Tow" insurance is included at no additional cost if it's ever required and we've been fortunate enough to never need it so far.

Booking a boat is very easy by either calling their locations or preferably booking online. You can generally have 4 concurrent reservations going at a time and once the first booking is done, you can book yet another. They have everything from kayaks & sailboats to pontoons, center console fishing boats, and deck boat cruisers.

They are a franchise operation and are offering opportunities all over the U.S. and Canada. They currently have over 170 locations with over 20,000 members. They're even ranked on the Franchise 500 list for 2019 in position 270.

I thought this would be an appropriate topic to enable me to lead into other ways to cruise if you love being on the water, with my topic to follow...