Boat owners are overpaying. Businesses are overspending. There's the gap.
That was the starting point.
I’ve spent years around boats, and the same issues come up time and time again. Owners accept high ongoing costs because they think that’s just how it is. Businesses spend heavily on marketing and visibility, without always knowing what they’re getting back.
It didn’t make sense to me that both sides worked hard and spent money yet failed to achieve the best outcome.
That disconnect is what led to Think Boats.
A Broken Middle Ground
Owning a boat isn’t cheap—that's a given. But there’s a difference between expected cost and inefficient cost.
Pricing across the industry can be inconsistent, and often inflated. At the same time, marine businesses are under increasing pressure.
Rising costs, expensive boat shows, and marketing channels that don’t always deliver a measurable return are becoming standard challenges. More businesses are actively looking for ways to reach customers that are targeted, efficient, and trackable.
You’ve got businesses spending thousands to get in front of people, without knowing what a sale has actually cost them.
From where I was standing, the issue wasn’t demand. It was how the two sides were connecting.
A Simpler Model
The Boat Club was built to strip that back.
Members join the platform, access offers from marine businesses, and buy directly from them. We don’t sit in the middle of the transaction—we make the introduction and let it happen.
That was important from day one. We didn’t want to interfere with the relationship—we just wanted to make it work better.
It’s a cleaner, more transparent way of operating, and it gives both sides more control.
Recognised as a New Approach
When we launched the platform, the intention was clear. It was positioned as a free digital marketing solution for the marine and leisure industry, designed to reduce upfront cost for businesses while increasing visibility to a relevant audience.
That’s exactly what we set out to do.
Remove the research-friction for boat owners.Make marketing more accountable.Give businesses access to an audience that’s already engaged.
Why It Works for Businesses
For the model to hold, it had to make sense commercially.
So the approach is simple.
No upfront cost to join.No listing fees.Discounts only apply when a sale happens.
They know exactly what that sale has cost them. There’s no guesswork.
That level of clarity is a shift away from traditional spend-heavy channels and towards something more performance-led.
Built With Intent, Not Speed
This hasn’t been rushed.
We could have pushed it harder earlier, but it wouldn’t have been ready. We wanted to get it right first.
We started with a free membership model to build traction, understand behaviour, and collect the data that larger brands expect before they engage.
That groundwork is now starting to pay off.
More Than Just a Club
The Boat Club is the core, but the wider platform reflects how boating actually works.
It’s not one journey. It’s multiple entry points.
Charter opens access without ownership.Fractional ownership lowers the barrier further.A developing crew platform supports the people behind the industry.
All of it feeds into the same idea—making boating easier to access and more connected.
Filling a Gap the Industry Has Lived With
This isn’t about disruption for the sake of it.
It’s about addressing something that’s been there for a long time.
I just felt there was a gap in the middle. People were paying too much and retailers were or spending too much to reach them.
The industry is strong, but it’s fragmented. That fragmentation creates inefficiencies for both sides.
Think Boats is built to close that void.
What Comes Next
There’s no shortcut with something like this.
It’s taken longer than I expected, and it’s been harder than I expected—but anything worth building usually is.
The focus now is steady growth.
Build the member base.Bring in the right partners.Continue proving the model.
The objective hasn’t changed.
Create something that works properly for both sides—and let it scale from there.
Simply sign up and start accessing the discounts here