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The Boat Sharing Economy Is Exploding, Here's Why You Shouldn't Buy a Boat · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Have you ever thought about buying a boat?
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  I'm gonna share a story today about why I've always been interested in boats and
• 0:07
  why I'm interested in purchasing a boat.
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  But now, after learning about what we're gonna be talking about in today's
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  episode of the boat-sharing economy, I have maybe changed my mind about boat
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  ownership, but I'd still be able to get out on the boat whenever I need it.
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  So we're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  This is a podcast where you find out everything about ocean news from what's
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  happening in science, the latest trends, some of the advocacy things that are
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  going on, and some of the business end trends that we're seeing in being able to
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  have a sustainable business that is good for the environment, good for people,
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  and good for the economy all in one.
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  About like a triple bottom line, and make some money of course.
• 0:45
  And so that'll always be good, and this is where we talk about Monday to Friday.
• 0:49
  So if you like this type of information, feel free to hit that follow button,
• 0:52
  because this is where you're gonna get it.
• 0:54
  And we have an interview, and we're talking about businesses and how people
• 0:57
  are making wages and sustainable decisions about businesses and having businesses
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  that allow people to be better for the environment all week this week.
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  And on Friday we have an interview with Alexandre Mongeon, who owns a
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  boat-selling business, and he sells boats, and we're gonna hear about electric
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  motors and why those are so great.
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  We're gonna hear about it today too, 'cause in the boat-sharing economy,
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  electric motors are actually really handy.
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  So we're gonna talk about that today.
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  Now first, a little story.
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  Okay, so when I was a kid, I was always interested in being a marine biologist.
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  I would talk to my dad, I would talk to my mom about it.
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  My dad was on a fishing boat briefly when he was a kid, right
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  out of high school in Quebec City.
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  And I remember him talking these stories and talking and talking about being on
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  this boat and being fishing, and he says he'd always loved to get a big sailboat.
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  And of course, you know, when I was a kid I'm like, "Dad, one day I'm going
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  to buy you a boat. Like, that is my dream. I'm gonna get you that boat."
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  And so it was almost like an on-running joke.
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  I don't think my dad ever expected me to buy a boat.
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  I think he would've been happy with a boat.
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  I never did buy him a boat before he passed away, but
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  we always talked about it.
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  And of course, we would get lavish with a yacht, and he's like, "Well,
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  I don't wanna drive the boat.
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  I want a captain and I want a crew, and take your mom everywhere, and
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  take you and your brother everywhere around the world," and all this kind
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  of stuff like we were millionaires.
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  And we weren't but we, you know, we did all right.
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  But not enough to get, like, a big yacht like that.
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  But that's something that I valued.
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  I wanted to get that for him, and deep down I still wanna get one.
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  Like, over the last couple months I've been really looking at buying a boat
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  because of those stories and because it reminds me of my dad now that he's gone.
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  But also, I've always wanted to have a boat.
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  But I don't always need a boat, 'cause the thing is, it's a big investment.
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  You know, you're looking at tens of thousands of dollars, if not
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  hundreds of thousands of dollars, almost like another mortgage.
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  It's costly to maintain and it's a tough thing to have for a lot of people.
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  So I'm always at that point where I'm like, "I want to be able to have a
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  boat whenever I go to a cottage or if I wanna go out on the day to do something,
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  and that would be kinda cool to do.
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  And to be honest, I never really thought you could rent boats, or I
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  did know you could rent boats, but I thought it'd be extremely expensive.
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  I didn't think there'd be a lot of people who did it.
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  Apparently, the boat-sharing economy is growing.
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  So apparently, as of, the last study in 2026, valued the boat-renting
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  market between 19 and $23 billion US, depending on the research firm
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  that you're looking at, but it's growing roughly 5 to 7% annually.
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  And full electric boats are the fastest-growing power source segment
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  in boat rentals, projected at about 17.62% compound annual growth
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  rate through 2031, compared to gas-powered boats rentals, which will
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  still dominate the current market.
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  So that's a pretty big deal.
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  It's increasing.
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  I'll be honest, I didn't hear much about the electric boating industry until this
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  week, and I've done one other interview with an electric boating company.
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  But they were like a smaller type company that were designing their own
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  engines, just like Alexander's gonna talk about today, but he's got a bigger
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  platform to work off, and we're gonna hear more about that this Friday.
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  But you have these peer-to-peer platforms now called GetMyBoat or
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  Boatsetter or Click&Boat and Sandboat.
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  They're expanding access-based boating instead of ownership.
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  So if I didn't want to own a boat and pay for all the maintenance, and I
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  don't really know what I'm doing.
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  Every time I hear about buying boats, people are like, "Well,
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  if you buy a boat, you're always fixing the boat, so be prepared
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  to have a budget to fix the boat."
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  So it's nice to have something that where it's like if I wanna go out on the water
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  and I wanna be on the water, I wanna be in nature, I like hiking and everything,
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  but I'd rather be on the water.
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  I can actually rent a boat and go out.
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  I don't have to invest the money to go out and do that.
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  It's almost like cottaging in Ontario right now.
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  If you want to go to a cottage, you can rent a cottage, and you can spend
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  a good amount that week, but you can rent a cottage, and it'll feel good.
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  Like, you'll have the amount of money that you need to have or you'll
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  have what you need, and you can have fun, and you can return that boat.
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  Maybe you'll be able to get that boat another time.
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  In a cottage, you can do the same thing.
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  You can rent the cottage, you can go stay at the cottage, and then you're done.
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  You don't have to worry about maintenance.
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  You don't have to worry about upkeep.
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  You just enjoy.
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  You pay a little bit more, but if you're only using it for the
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  week, maybe two weeks, it's more like a vacation than anything else.
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  You're not gonna go out and buy a hotel room at a resort, or
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  some people do, at a timeshare.
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  But it's nice to be able to go and just not have to worry about
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  the cottage that you're at.
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  It's the same thing with boats.
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  It's nice to be able to rent a boat, go out and enjoy that
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  time, and then come back.
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  When you're done, you just give it back.
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  And as long as you keep it in good shape while you're using
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  it, then it's pretty good.
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  And so membership and boat club models are growing faster than
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  traditional ownership and this is according to industry trend reports.
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  So that's pretty cool.
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  Because like, let's be honest, like I said, boat ownership has, like, they carry
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  a high upfront cost, and the maintenance burdens, like, I don't wanna have to
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  deal with or most people try to avoid.
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  And then digital booking platforms have made peer-to-peer and short-term
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  rental far more convenient than having to look it up on a website, send
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  an email, wait for that to come back, and all that kind of stuff.
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  And then you got, from the boat rental position, you have electric propulsion
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  that has a lower maintenance requirements 'cause like, my electric vehicle, I have
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  a Tesla, my electric vehicle, when I bring it in, I bring it in once a year.
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  And the maintenance is a lot lower than it would with my gas-powered car.
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  So an electric propulsion boat would be the same as a gas-powered boat.
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  It'd be less maintenance every year.
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  And so when you have lower maintenance requirements than combustion
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  engines, that makes electric boats a lot more attractive for rental
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  fleet operators specifically.
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  And then since like fewer moving parts means like less of that downtime, right?
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  So you're not fixing that boat all the time.
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  ' Cause let's be honest, like the one thing, if I were an owner and I was renting
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  out boats, I would be worried about what people are doing to that boat, and all the
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  little things in the motor that could go wrong that will allow for more upkeep on
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  the boat and more maintenance on the boat.
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  You'd be paying a lot more maintenance fees.
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  Whereas an electric boat, there are less parts, and it might be more expensive
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  to fix if it needs fixing, but you'd probably have to do it less times.
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  And so that's always a great thing.
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  Now, of course, the interesting thing too about rentals, like with the
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  shared use models, means fewer total boats and engines that are needed
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  to serve same number of boaters.
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  Not everybody could afford a boat, just like not everybody could afford a cottage.
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  And reducing manufacturing demand and fuel use per person on the water
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  would be a great advantage as more and more people are renting out
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  cottages and they're going to cottages.
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  They wanna be on the water.
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  Like I see in my neighborhood, I don't know what it is, but a
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  lot of boats are being bought.
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  I think what happened is during COVID, a lot of people bought boats,
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  and then now are selling them for cheaper because they don't need boats.
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  So I think that's kind of interesting in that respect.
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  So I think electric motors are making a big push.
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  And then, the first-time renters make up to close to 38% of the total
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  customers in some of these markets.
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  That suggests that like the access model is pulling new boaters rather
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  than converting existing boaters.
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  So people who are boaters, they may like the boat ownership 'cause they're
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  used to it, they're used to that model.
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  But for people like me who've never owned a boat, and I may not have the
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  ability to buy a boat and then afford the maintenance, and I just only
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  use it like once or twice a year, it doesn't make sense for that for me.
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  So this is a way to really go out and get that information there, and I
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  think that's really, really important.
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  The politics around all of it is that marina infrastructure
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  investment's gonna have to increase.
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  It's gonna have to include more shore charging stations, which is
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  being driven by both private rental operators and in parts of Europe and
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  North America, municipal waterfront upgrade programs, which is kinda nice.
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  And there's no major federal regulatory push specifically for
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  electric rental fleets yet, but the growth so far is market driven.
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  At marinas, you're probably gonna start to see a charging
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  station as well as gas stations.
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  So I think that's gonna be real interesting of who plays that role,
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  who's gonna be involved, and what goes into it when people are gonna be using
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  it for marinas and stuff like that.
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  And of course, with rentals like cottage rentals, are they gonna have an electric
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  charging station on their docks if they're starting to have that so people can
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  actually just charge right on the dock?
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  That's a big thing.
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  Or bring their electric charger from the house to the boat.
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  That'll be interesting as well.
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  If you enjoy boats and you don't wanna buy a boat, you can consider renting it or
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  joining a boat club instead of buying it,
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  especially if you're just gonna use it a little bit.
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  And then when renting, you ask operators whether electric options are available
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  so you're not using as much gas.
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  Let's be honest, if you use electric, as long as there's a charging
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  station involved or somewhere you can charge, then you are looking at a
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  much cheaper time because you're not gonna have to worry about gas, you're
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  not gonna worry about moving gas.
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  And let's be honest, electric motor compared to a gas-powered propulsion
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  motor, you're gonna be able to drive the boat and still talk to your family.
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  You're not gonna have to worry about the noise pollution, the smell, any worry
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  about spillage or anything like that.
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  And of course, you can support marinas that invest in shore power and
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  charging infrastructure by charging the boats that you rent there.
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  There's a lot of things that you can do that are directly
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  related to you doing the work.
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  And then of course, you can always push for more charging stations
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  at docks as well as marinas.
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  So I think there's a lot of things that we can do here as
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  individuals, which is great to know.
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  That's it for today's episode.
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  I think this is always interesting when we're talking about new businesses
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  that are profiting off of the sustainability of the world, really.
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  And this may not make huge changes in global climate change, but it's
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  gonna help in just the way we, react.
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  It helps us feel like we're doing something good for the ocean.
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  It helps us save costs overall, and we don't have to own a boat, but you can
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  rent a boat, so that's always great.
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  And an electric motor, you can always try it out.
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  If you wanna buy a boat, you can always try out an electric motor when you
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  rent one for the weekend or for the week, and I think that's really cool.
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  All right.
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  That's it for today's episode.
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  If you have any questions and you wanna get a hold of me, you
• 10:13
  can do so by just reaching out on DM on Instagram or on TikTok.
• 10:17
  Social links in the show notes.
• 10:18
  And if you wanna support the show, as I said, you can go to the Patreon community.
• 10:22
  You can join it, speakupforblue.com/patreon.
• 10:26
  That's today's episode.
• 10:27
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 10:32
  Have a great day.
• 10:33
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.