In the first week of September 2026, JetRide Boat Club closed every Florida location. Members were told on September 2 that all locations had closed "until further notice," a day after operations stopped. Eight days later, Carefree Boat Club of the Treasure Coast followed, citing "the cumulative effects of inflation, sharply higher costs for boats, financing, insurance, dockage, labor, maintenance and repairs." Members who had prepaid dues and deposits, one of them $4,000, are still waiting to hear whether any of it comes back.
None of this happened overnight. It only looked that way.
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Read the public forums from the weeks before the closure and a pattern shows up that has nothing to do with paperwork. Members described boats booked days ahead that were not available at check-in. Growth under the waterline. Trim coming loose. Reservations cancelled for "operational issues." Locations quietly closed on weekdays. Calls and emails that stopped getting answered.
A boat club has one product: a clean, working boat, at the dock, when you reserved it. When that product starts failing, the business behind it is already failing. The fleet is the financial statement you are allowed to read.
The people working those docks saw it first: in interviews with WPTV after the closures, former staff from both clubs described fielding frustrated members without support from above — "I feel management failed us," one former JetRide employee said.
The people working those docks saw it first: in interviews with WPTV after the closures, former staff from both clubs described fielding frustrated members without support from above — "I feel management failed us," one former JetRide employee said.
The closure notices did not come with refunds. Reporting from the Treasure Coast describes members who paid monthly dues for years, members who had prepaid several months in advance, and at least one member whose card was charged after the doors closed. When a club ceases operations, a prepaid deposit becomes an unsecured claim against a company that has stopped answering the phone. Legal recourse exists in theory. In practice, one member told a reporter it was not worth pursuing unless a class action formed.
That is the real cost of a club failure. Not the lost weekend. The lost deposit, the lost season, and the months of not knowing.
A well-run club will answer all seven in one tour without checking with anyone. That is the tell. For a second filter, read the club's employee reviews before you read its member reviews; we explained why in Before You Join a Boat Club, Read the Employee Reviews.
Some people should not join any club, including ours. If you own a Gulf-access home with a dock and want your boat twenty feet from the back door, if you fish a specific rig you have spent years setting up, or if you plan to be aboard for weeks at a time, owning is the better fit. No club solves those cases well, and we would rather say so now.
And if you were a member of a club that just closed, the honest advice is to slow down. Remove any card on file with the old company, document what you paid, and do not sign with the next club until it has answered the seven questions above.
"I have been a member of Nautical boat club for 5 1/2 years total. The staff and managers are always there to help us with everything we need to have fun on the water. The boats are clean well kept, and never left in the water like other boat clubs.
Remember this I have owned boats since I was 10 years old, I am now 70 years old and this is the only way to go.
It took me 6 months of research on the best boat club. This is the only one to Join. The boats are always fresh and replace them every 2 or 3 years, before they get tired they replace them."
— Frank DeLuca, Nautical Boat Club – Naples (Google Review, 5★)
Six months of research, boats kept out of the water, and a fleet replaced every two to three years. Frank ran the checklist before it was a checklist.
Owning a $60,000 boat in coastal Florida runs roughly $9,000 to $15,000 a year once you count depreciation, a year-round slip, bottom paint and zincs, coastal insurance, and service. Membership at a premium club runs a $3,000 to $8,000 initiation and $300 to $600 a month in dues, with the club carrying the fleet, the slip, the insurance, and the maintenance. The full breakdown is in our 2026 membership cost guide.
The closure this month adds a line most comparisons leave out. A membership is only cheaper than ownership if the club is still open next season. A $4,000 deposit at a club that fails is $4,000 spent on nothing. Price the club's stability the same way you price the boat, and the cheapest offer on the table stops looking cheap. We made the same argument from the other direction in Why "No Initiation Fee" Should Be a Red Flag.
Every Nautical Boat Club location will walk you down the dock and answer every question above on your first visit. Explore our Southwest Florida clubs in Cape Coral, Naples, and Key West at nauticalboatclub.com/locations, or call Nautical Boat Club – Naples at (239) 945-6493.
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