This Website Makes Owning and Renting a Boat Completely Worth It
A new company takes the Airbnb model to sea
By Lexi Bolton July 25, 2014
This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Seattle magazine.
When August finally arrives in Seattle, owning a boat seems like a genius idea. Imagine it: tooling around Lake Washington every weekend, sailing up to the San Juans or just buzzing over to Bainbridge. The sun shines, the water sparkles…unfortunately, for most of the year the boat sits at the dock, racking up marina fees. This reality inspired last year’s online launch of Boatbound (boatbound.co), a San Francisco–based company that applies the Airbnb model of peer-to-peer (in this case, “pier-to-pier”) rentals to watercraft. Having expanded to Seattle, Boatbound makes it possible for boat owners to offset costs, and for those curious about the boating lifestyle to live it without the storage hassle. Owners set the prices, which in the Puget Sound area range from $110 for a full day on a classic inflatable-hull Zodiac to $1,100 for a full day on a Catana 472 luxury performance catamaran. Powerboats are a popular offering here (around $200–$400 per day), but mellow boaters may prefer a 17-foot canoe ($75/day). Renters and owners review each other online, and Boatbound screens renters (25 and older only) for driver’s licenses and previous DUIs, and provides boat insurance and round-the-clock water support (including towing, should your rental conk out). Boat shoes not included.
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Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy
Words and photographs by Anna Starr.
Riding the ferry is my favorite Seattle pastime. At any given time on a Washington State Ferry you will find a group of tourists with too many suitcases, someone in work clothes peacefully napping, a jigsaw puzzle diligently being completed, lovers having a Titanic-esque moment on a balcony (fun fact: those balconies are called pickleforks),…
AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle
From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…
Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World
The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life.
On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…
Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…