How Do You Make Money with Your Love of Boating?

People who love boats are typically driven by intrinsic motivation. They subjectively love the look and feel of the water and find comfort in operating these aquatic vehicles. But if you're interested in making the hobby more practical, or if you just need a supplementary source of income to help keep your hobby going, you might be interested in making money while simultaneously pursuing your love of boating.

How do you do it?

General Strategies for Making Money with a Boat

These general strategies can help you make money with your boat more effectively, regardless of which activities you choose.

• Stay legal. First and foremost, it's important for you to stay legal in all your business and side-hobby operations. Make sure you fully understand the law as it applies to your area and stay well within the boundaries of those laws. Certain activities may be prohibited and may be associated with harsh penalties.
• Find something you genuinely enjoy. There's nothing wrong with wanting an extra stream of income; most of us would be happy to make more money in any way that's accessible and convenient. However, your income stream will be more sustainable and much more pleasant if you find something you genuinely enjoy. Since you already love boating, this shouldn't be a problem; there are probably lots of activities you'll find enjoyable. Experiment to find which money-making activities are going to be the best fit for you.
• Build your own skills first. If you're buying a boat for the first time, or if you don't have much experience as a captain, it's a good idea to build some of your own skills first. For example, you won't be able to make much money giving tours unless you're already familiar with the area and competent in piloting your vessel. Additionally, having more experience means you'll be able to prevent potential issues and troubleshoot any issues that happen to arise while you're trying to make a profit.
• Understand the risks. As with any business or side gig, there are going to be some risks involved. The exact nature and severity of those risks will depend on what exactly you're doing, so it's important to assess and analyse the risks before you even get started. At the very least, your side gig will probably require an initial financial investment, so avoid spending more than you can afford to lose, especially if you're partaking in a somewhat risky venture.
• Start small. Similarly, you should start small. Minimising your financial and time investments is a way of mitigating risk; it gives you an opportunity to explore new territory and build new skills without excessive exposure on your end. When you become more competent and more familiar with the territory, you can expand your operations and start making more money.
• Account carefully. Even if this is only part-time gig work, you’ll still owe taxes on the money you make from it. You can also decrease your tax burden by claiming certain expenses. Accordingly, it's important to account for your income and expenses as accurately as possible. Consider working with an accountant, or at least using accounting software if you plan on making significant income from this endeavour.
• Experiment and improve. As any entrepreneur can tell you, you probably won't get everything right the first time you try it. Instead, you'll need to continuously experiment and improve to make more money, minimise your expenses, and expand your operations to be available to more people.

Now let's turn our attention to some of the best strategies and side gigs that can help you make money with your boat.

Charters

One option is to make your boat, and possibly yourself, available for charter. There are many ways to charter a boat, depending on the nature of the vessel, the level of experience of the chartering party, and the personal preferences of the chartering party.

For example, you might make your vessel available for use by an experienced captain, who can control and operate the vessel as they see fit for a defined length of time. You can also make your boat available for charter with a crew and/or yourself as a captain. This option is especially favourable to people who don't have much seafaring experience.

Starting a chartering operation may seem straightforward, but there are several things you'll need to keep in mind. First, you'll need to think about potential liability issues if you're making your vessel available to others or if you're hosting them. Second, you'll need to think about the level of competition in your area. There are probably lots of chartering operations for people to choose, so you'll need to find some way to stand out. Third, although making your boat available for charter won't cost much money upfront, you will need to prepare to invest in things like marketing and advertising if you want to attract more people to your operation.

Overall, charters can be a great way to make money, but they also come with some drawbacks and trade-offs. If you don't mind making some of these sacrifices (and potentially being without your boat for a while), it might be a viable option for you.

Peer Rentals

A similar option is making your boat available for rental to your peers. In this arrangement, you'll be renting the entire vessel to another captain, who will use that vessel as they see fit within the parameters of the law and your arrangement for a defined length of time. This is similar in nature to chartering, but there are a few key differences – with the most notable being that a peer rental provides much more autonomy to the renter. They will be free to make more decisions with your vessel and may have it for a longer stretch of time.

If you live in an area where boating is popular, there's probably already a peer rental service in place. You can use this service to make your boat available for rent. You'll be afforded significant flexibility and autonomy here, but you're still going to be bound by the terms and conditions of the service provider. This will give you some level of protection but will also restrict how you can rent your boat and how much you charge for it, among other factors.

Of course, it's also possible to rent your boat privately, using private contracts and individual arrangements. If you do this, you'll have much more flexibility in how you rent your boat, but you won't be afforded as much protection. Keep this in mind if you want to limit your liability.

Depending on the nature and performance of your vessel, and depending on how much you rent it, this can be a viable way to make significant income. In fact, if you make your vessel available for rent enough, it could more than cover the costs of boat ownership.

Tours

If you love the idea of driving people around in your boat, or if you have significant knowledge of your local area, you could start a touring business. For example, you could shuttle people around to various islands and archipelagos in the area, detailing the history and geography of the landscape or showing people some of the best spots to see on the water. You could also host fishing tours, taking passengers to ideal fishing locations so they can find the game that's most appealing to them.

As you might imagine, it's hard to get this type of operation up and running. Most locals won't be interested in tours; instead, you'll have to appeal to tourists and people unfamiliar with the area. These people may also be reluctant to go on a tour with a random boat owner, so you'll need to show off some credentials or build your reputation to get your business off the ground.

There are several strategies that can help you with this, such as branding your tours, promoting your tours with marketing and advertising, or employing a referral system to get more business. But all these strategies take time and cost money, so you'll need to be prudent in how you exercise them.

Deliveries

Another option is to use your boat for making deliveries, which is especially important in areas where water-based travel is necessary. Running deliveries affords you lots of flexibility; it's something you can do whenever you have free time, and you can make individual arrangements as a courier at your discretion. However, demand for seafaring deliveries isn't especially high and may fluctuate wildly, so it may not be the best option for a consistent income. Additionally, you'll probably have other courier services to compete with.

Expeditions for Specific Activities

Similar to tours, you can plan expeditions for specific activities. There are lots of people who want to enjoy various sports and hobbies on the water, but they may not have the vessel or the expertise necessary to guide their own boat to such a destination.

In this arrangement, you'll typically operate your vessel for a set fee and for a prescribed length of time, in pursuit of a hobby or activity like the following:

• Fishing. You can help people find rare game or good fishing spots – or even introduce people to fishing for the first time.
• Sports. There are lots of sports and activities you can enjoy on the water, including wakeboarding, sailing, water skiing, and more.
• Diving. If your vessel can handle it, you can even take people on deep sea diving voyages.
• Whale/dolphin watching. If you’re in a location where whale and dolphin sightings are common, why not make this the subject of a boat trip. However, it’s important to make it clear to your customers upfront that sightings are not guaranteed; you don’t want to be refunding customers if the aquatic actors don’t show up for the performance.

Again, you'll have nearly total flexibility and control over the clients you take on, how much you charge, and more. However, if you want to turn this into a reliable stream of income, you'll need a solid business plan in place.

Instruction

Are you deeply familiar with any sports, hobbies, or activities on the water? If so, you could become an instructor. For a fixed fee, you could take an individual or group of people on the water, show them the basics, and take them back to shore. Your fee will depend on your skill level, the number of people you're carrying, and the extent of the experience.

As with many of the other options on this list, you'll have lots of flexibility in how you choose to execute this. However, it will be your responsibility to find a way to generate demand, such as through marketing, advertising, referral programs, and similar promotional efforts.

Fishing and Competitions

If you're an avid angler, you might be able to make some extra money fishing and selling your fish at a local market. Just keep in mind that you'll need to make a concentrated effort to stay compliant with local laws and regulations if you pursue this activity.

Alternatively, you can take part in competitions and pocket the cash prizes, though this isn’t exactly a reliable stream of income.

Maintenance and Repairs

Experienced boat owners know that maintenance and repairs are vital to ensuring the functionality, safety, and longevity of your vessel. As a boat owner, you'll likely gain familiarity with these responsibilities naturally over time. With a bit of commitment, you can become a specialist in performing maintenance and repairs on vessels like yours.

Once you have the skills, you can make these services available to boating enthusiasts in your area. You can start your own mechanic shop or work more in a freelance capacity, helping out occasionally in exchange for small fees.

Vending

Though it's not especially lucrative, you can also sell various items at the marina or on the water, especially during popular days and big events. Selling bottled water, beverages, snacks, and even merchandise can be profitable under the right circumstances.

You can’t make money with a boat until you have an actual boat. TheYachtMarket makes it easy to find the perfect boat for your needs – whatever those needs happen to be. So if you’re ready to start shopping for your next vessel, check out our selection of new and used boats for sale today!