3361 Bell Road
Nashville, Tennessee 37214
(615) 232-9100
www.nashvilleboatclub.net
Located at the exciting Elm Hill Marina, about 20 miles east of Nashville, TN.
Recently, the Nashville Boat Club was featured by Nashville's WSMV and Better Nashville — See the video to the right!
Published on MadMariner.com
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.
Boat club member 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.
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 mail box. 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. "He's got a hot market here," says Nautical Toys President Donald Spong. "Nashville is the second largest inland boating market in the U.S. (behind Dallas/Fort Worth)."
In Nashville, more than 65 people signed up the first year. Kiser just added his tenth boat – a competition sea boat. A sailboat is likely to follow. "The majority of our members are young families with kids who are too busy to own a boat and maintain a boat," Kiser says. Mitch and Kealah Anderson fit the profile. He's a director of corporate financial planning. She's a fitness and yoga instructor. Their children are ages 7 and 3. They belonged to the Nautical Toys (Volente Boat Club) in Austin Texas and when preparing to relocate to Nashville for Mitch's job, didn't want to give up that part of their lives. It turns out they didn't have to. Mitch said he spent about a year looking at boats to buy and then the Nashville Boat Club opened. They go out almost every weekend.
Shaun Washburn Help awaits at the dock when Melissa Eads pulls in after spending the morning on J. Percy Priest Lake. Boat club members have two options, reserving a vessel from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 2 to 8 p.m. "For us, it is the ease and the convenience," he says. "With kids, after a big day on the lake, everyone is tired. You flip them the keys and leave, walk 200 yards to your car and drive away."
Nashville provides its members with a boating safety course before handing over any keys. Members call ahead to reserve their vessel of choice – Nautical Toys says 97 percent of the time members get what they want when they want it – and the club loads it with the gear requested, from knee boards to skis, tubes, and other water toys. A table in Kiser's office is stacked with orange tackle boxes, one for each boat, that contain a first aid kit, maps, a hand-held GPS unit, Coast Guard whistles and other safety gear. Each time a member tries a new boat, the club staff gives them 30 minutes of personal instruction, including some time on the water. Aside from the initiation fee and monthly dues, the only other cost is fuel. Nautical Toys started in 1994 but Spong started selling franchise licenses just five years ago. Before any club gets off the ground, the company studies the intended market as well as the prospective licensee to make sure the club will succeed. Business is growing. r Daytona, and a new club will open near Minneapolis, Minn., next year. Nautical Toys already has clubs in Austin, Texas; Columbia, S.C.; and Scottsdale, Ariz., among other spots.
Busy, two-income families and aging Baby Boomers are the markets and, with those targets, the membership boat clubs seem to be weathering the economic downturn far better than boat dealers. More clubs are coming on line and more people are joining existing clubs. Shaun Washburn At the Nashville Boat Club, wake boards, skis and other water tows are loaded up on the boat and waiting for members when they arrive.
Still, company executives and franchise owners don't think they are hurting boat sales much, if at all.The clubs use that idea to market themselves as much on lifestyle as they do on cost. Nautical Toys calls its sites "Boating Country Clubs." Staff, marketing materials and websites tout the appeal of driving to the marina and hopping aboard immediately.