boat captain

club manager

staff member

location manager

executive

Freedom Boat Club

I was hired by the Sales Manager for my area in Florida. The interview was demanding, hard questions that were scenario based and geared toward overcoming objections. He verified my references and claimed that it was a $70,000 job (minimum). After drilling me and my background, he wanted to hire me. I should have known better as there was no written offer, training pay, or proof of previous success by the former Sales Rep. 

Typical Workday started at 8:30 or earlier to make phone calls, tons of calls that the CRM requires you to make. Many of these calls are badgering to brand new members of the club for referrals. Way too soon to bite the hand that fed you just last month.

During the week, a customer may walk into the club or you might be able to set an appointment with a new internet lead. You may average about 4 person-to-person pitches and would be fortunate to close 1 of those. End of the day for me was around 6 PM only because I packed up my computer and just left. The manager was a workhorse, but he was paid very well with override, so he was all-in and stayed late. I tried to get excited about the job the rejections and intense scrutiny was a bit much.

The manager's style was to initially micro-manage. I explained that I could not sell memberships under oversight that hovers on my every word. This manager critiqued every call I made, every voice mail I left, and every word during my pitch to prospects. I began to fear his critique after a few days. I worked 11 straight days without a day off and without a day off in the foreseeable future. 

Salary is commission only, no training pay, no travel pay, no fuel pay, and yet Membership Sales Reps are expected to travel to meetings, BNI, Chamber Events, Trade Shows, and weekend events all over the area. It's a good club, but it's a tough sell in the wake of Red Tide, higher entry fees than every other club, and the leads were shoddy and had a ton of tire-kickers. Don't come into this job unless you can afford to struggle for a few months as there is NO ramp-up or base salary. Other Sales Reps that have been there for a few years have watched a 40% drop in new enrollments. Something is in the water, and it's not FBC boaters. A thriving economy has enriched boat buyers and reduced boat memberships from increasing. 

Listen, it's a great club, nice facilities, and a great business model for the manager and a sales rep with multiple locations, but I was at a hidden marina in old Florida, off the beaten path. If you are at a club in a popular marina that is easily found and in a populated community, you are way better off. For example, the Tampa and Naples market have dropped, but the Sales Reps there are still doing pretty well because of the dense population. 

The short version is that if you can go a few months with very few sales and don't mind ramping up slowly (much like a realtor), this may be a good fit. In my case, the manager tricked me into believing I would get 2 or 3 sales within the first 2 weeks. Zero was the accurate number after I prospected for free. This job cost me another good opportunity by trusting their system.

Good luck to you.

The locations in the Brevard areas are franchised, I believe 9 included Lake Toho.  The ownership is completely unreasonable, disrespectful, unappreciative, and etc. They do not give promised yearly raises, or bonuses during holidays. They do not uphold their company moto anymore. They are pinching pennies left and right. The male owner talks down to you, like you are a problem child. This is all regardless of being an outstanding, on time, in dress code, honest, respectable, and member-loved employee. Nothing appeases the ownership, not one bit. We handle everyday dock situations, and also life saving/emergency situations with Coast Guard/Sea Tow, etc. Never any thank you’s, praises, or bonuses/raises. You will get blamed for everything that naturally goes wrong no matter how well you handle a situation. The job itself and members are great. Management is iffy. It’s amazing to be able to work on boats, be outside, help great people/members, but the way ownership treats their employees really takes away from a lot of it. The only single benefit you get is a membership for $5/m after working 6months . Which sounds good, until you work everyday, get told you can’t take boats out, and get so tired of the drama all you want is a day away from the docks. Maybe before applying to any of the locations around Brevard County, vet your management. See how they feel and if they back up their employees when it comes to ownership, and how often ownership is involved with that specific location. I’m on here looking for another job for a reason. They have a high turnover for a reason. A lot of us have reached our limit of roll overs and yes sirs. 

it is a fun summer job if you are a young adult, being by the lake and working outside is definitely a plus. some managers are very helpful but there are ones who are very dull and micro manage even the the smallest tasks. lunch breaks or any type of breaks are rare because most of the time you barely have enough time to get the tasks done at hand. there is occasional downtime when all the boats are out which you would think would be a great time to take your lunch or even a 15 min break which is a law in Illinois but they will always come up with some type of minute task and you will have a manager basically breathing down your neck the entire time. in my opinion the pay is too low for how hard you have to work most days, they do have a weekly tip pool which is nice on a busy week you can expect to get a decent amount of tips which somewhat makes up for the poor pay. there is really no room to grow in this company either as they always pick favorites and even family members to become managers which is very unfair in my opinion. great job for someone who just graduated high school and is looking for a pretty fun summer job, no two days are the same which is a nice change of pace. 90% of the members who take the boats out are very nice and understanding but the other 10% have unrealistic expectations which can be frustrating. Best part of the job is being outside on lake Michigan. Hardest part of the job is sometimes there are unrealistic expectations from the members and managers.

I worked for Freedom for just over a month before I had to throw in the towel. Most employees dont take their job seriously and milk the time clock. The management doesn't actually manage. They sit in the office, drink lousy beer, chat and hold pointless meetings. Very few of the dock crew take their job seriously but for a majority of them its a way to pay for their "habits". The boats are VERY poorly maintained. TONS of stuff is broken on them. The maintenance guys are YouTube mechanics and they are filthy and lazy! Expect to do double work when they are around. Especially boat cleaning. The members are great. I hardly ran into any grumpy members while there and a majority of them tip well. The biggest issue with this company is management not caring and stepping up as managers. Don't expect them to actually help you on the dock. A typical work day is a 12-14 hour shifts at close to minimum wage regardless of experience! Shifts start at 7am and boats dont have to be back until 30 minutes before sundown so during summer time its a 14 hour day easily! Weekends are total chaos! Their check in and out app/website is terrible. They also claim that they aren't very corporate at all BUT dont listen to that. They are VERY corporate! Expect to have weekly inspections by inspectors, do mechanics jobs by filling out reports and doing repairs, unannounced visits from corporate, and they even try to make you do "mandatory overtime" on your days off to try and catch up on workloads!  Don't expect any benefits other than a BI-weekly paycheck because they dont offer anything unless your a manager or higher. Workman's comp, what's that?

I wouldn't really encourage anyone to try and make this a long-term job and certainly not a career.  The job is kind of fun, and the money is okayish depending on how much customers want to tip.  Sometimes you'll come home with almost nothing in tips and sometimes you'll come home with a nice sum of money.  The biggest issue is that it always feels like they're looking for a reason to fire you which kind of indicates to me that the whole "sign-on bonus," which you don't get until after you've been working there for a while might be a bit scammy, along with the 5 dollars a month membership that you won't get until you've worked there for a long time.  They've stated repeatedly that the winter is their slow period, and I suspect, based on how almost everyone around me is a new hire that they try to fire off all of the people that they hire in spring and only keep a few around over winter, and then repeat the process next spring.  

Management is obviously location dependant, but from what I've seen there's a lot of telling you to do something one day only to say that, that's wrong the next day.  Likewise, there is kind of an attitude of "my mistakes aren't mistakes, but your mistakes are catastrophic," attitude you get from some of the management.  

Also, the date range for when I worked here is BS along with the location.  I just didn't want to give out any information that could expose my identity.  I'm sure they read these because the person who initially hired me acted like I was some kind of weirdo because I didn't have any social media he could dig through.  

They work these guys for 14 hours a day with no shade. Low pay with a lots of responsibility ! Tips can be very good if working on the right days. There is NO positive communication . Can't keep good help,  went through 4 managers in less the 6 months. Nobody knows what is going on in upper management , lower management are not trained enough to be managers. They tell you its a great place to work , far from the truth people are more afraid of losing their jobs more anything. You can't speak your mind or suggest positive things without being told you are be defiant. NO 90 day raise as you are told in the beginning you have to beg for it. They say the rate is 10.00 to 12.00 dollars but started me at 9.00. If you want a great company who has your back. DON'T WORK HERE!! All lies unless your in tight with the upper people. The customer service to their clients is zero. The dock people take all the complaints for the customers and get no credit for deescalating them for promise's broke from sales and service. Its a sad day when a company can't figure out in this day and age to take care of their hard worker's instead of their-selves.Don't waste your time taking on a company that could care less about their employees or their customer's

This was a great place to work. More hands on with the boats. Set up member reservations, was in charge of detailing and making work orders for service on up to 15 boats and 5 yachts. I would train the new members on the single engine and twin engine vessels. Safety inspections prior to every departure and damage inspection upon every return. This is where I learned how to drive and operate boats of man sizes, single and twin engine. Management was not bad but wasn't great. Communication was lacking. Co-workers were great and work very hard to maintain the company. We were constantly on-call for any emergency situations involving the boats. The hardest part of the job was the long hours and the constantly being on-call. My most enjoyable part of the job was the perks when you were off. You had access to any available vessel on your days off to take you and your friends or family out for a fun day on the water. The money wasn't bad either.

Typical day started at 8:00 am, I began my ritual of driving boats to the fuel dock where I fueled each boat to the top. As a Boat handler, I made sure boats were clean, fueled and working properly. Each boat had a checklist that was cleared before a boat was to leave the marina, in which i made sure all safety gear was accessible. This often was difficult as the club had 65 vessels ranging from 17-60 feet. I learned how to operate each vessel, as well taught orientations whenever the captains were short handed. The people were great to work with and it was always a great day to work at New Port Cove Marina. Mostly, gaining experience with boats was the ultimate success, I know have a better understanding for boat mechanics and how to operate vessels on the water. The hardest part of the job was the constant repairs that each boat needed, being clever and thinking outside the box allowed me to quickly fix problems and get the customer out on the water.

The first season i worked went great. I had lots of fun and it was a great environment to work in. However the second season was a very different experience. They had promised me and my coworker a raise and did not deliver, claiming they never said anything about a raise. They would commonly cut multiple employees hours to make sure that they did not hit overtime. If anything went wrong with a boat you were immediately put to blame for “a bad inspection.” There was also a lot of favoritism towards certain employees because they were related to the manager. This meant that if said employees blamed you for anything the manager immediately took their word over yours. All of these issues led to 4 employees quitting because of their mistreatment. I do not recommend working at any of the East Tennessee locations as the management will simply try their best to screw you over. 

I rarely came to work with less than a big smile on my face. Working in this industry near to my heart was both challenging and rewarding. The people I have had the pleasure to work with and to serve as customers were the best. One of my duties as lead dock manager was to resolve problems as they occured on the dock. It allowed me to aquire skills in quick but accurate decision making. If a boat was stranded while out, it was my decision on how to best handle it's recovery both safely and econonically. I did not find any part of this position to be particularly difficult other than possibly the heat in the middle of the summer. Ten hour work days in the heat and humidity found me a little beat the end of the day. But I was always refreshed and ready to go the next. I enjoyed the responsibility I was given at the club and was always backed by the management in the decisions I made.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Boat captain 6 salaries reported	$25.83 per hour
Club manager 11 salaries reported	$24.73 per hour
Staff member 44 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Location manager 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Executive 11 salaries reported	$81,455 per year

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