Fifteen years ago I left a comfortable good paying job at Marriott International to found Carefree Boat Club.  There have been many challenges over the years but I have had fun every day and it has rarely felt like work because I have been surrounded by so many fun people.

Just a couple years after starting Carefree, my wife Jessie joined the Boat Club team and in 2007. Together, with my great friends Kevin Bonnema and Frank Fahringer, who had opened their own Carefree Boat Club location in Virginia Beach, decided to share with a few others the fun of operating a family friendly alternative to boat ownership through a licensing arrangement and now there are currently 56 locations, coast to coast in the U.S. and in Canada, with many more on the way.      

We just returned from our annual conference where individual club owners gather to learn about what is new and to share their challenges and successes.  I am writing this specifically to share how proud I am to be associated with all the truly exceptional people who have accepted the challenge of creating and fostering their own branch of the Carefree Boat Club Family. 

Over the course of the year, we will be highlighting our award-winning clubs and outstanding owners, employees, and members.  I hope you will join me in thanking and congratulating them for all they do to make the Carefree Boat Club Family stronger.  If you are not yet a member of your local club or you want to be a part of making a club happen in your neighborhood remember our motto…Boating Without Owning…IT’S ABOUT TIME!

Doug Zimmerman

President, Carefree Boat Club