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General Manager Scott Toole, left, and Mike Shuler, managing partner and principal investor of 32 North, at the Isle of Palms Marina boat club.
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The waterfront deck is all but finished, the parking lot is nearing completion and the store probably will be open for business sometime in July. However, one important aspect of the Isle of Palms Marina already is up and running and drawing interest from island residents. The boat club, according to the company that purchased the Marina leases late last year, drew around 60 members during its first couple of weeks of operation.
“We’re delivering everything we said we would,” Mike Shuler, the manager and principal investor of 32 North, commented. “The boat club is unique. It fits the Lowcountry lifestyle. We want the residents of Isle of Palms to feel that this is their Marina.”
The club offers its members the option to pay $550 a month, on an annual contract, for “essentially unlimited usage” of 21-foot and 24-foot boats, Shuler said. There are no upfront membership fees, and friends, neighbors or relatives can even share a membership for a total of $750 monthly.
“There are 14 prime Saturdays a year, and, of those, you’ll get a boat most of the time,” Shuler pointed out.
The best way to reserve your boat, he said, is to use the club’s app, which gives you the option to order any extras you need for a nominal extra fee, including life jackets, fishing equipment, skis or inner tubes. In addition, all boats are equipped with GPS systems, which means that if you get lost or have engine trouble, boat club employees will have no trouble finding you.
“Even for lifetime boaters, it takes the hassle out of boating,” Shuler commented. “It’s no fun trying to find a parking space for your trailer or washing your boat. When you get back, you just leave. You don’t even have to clean it. We’ve got people selling their boats so they can join the boat club.”
Isle of Palms residents who don’t join the boat club won’t have to pay to launch their boats at the Marina, and they’ll be able to park for free as well, on either side of the road that separates the parts of the Marina under the city’s control from the section leased by 32 North.
Shuler said the parking lot on his side of the Marina, much of which is paved with pervious material, should be completed soon, and the Marina store, which closed for renovations last year, is set to re-open shortly.
“We said what we were going to do, and we’re doing it,” he remarked. “We want this place to shine. And don’t forget: We’re your neighbors.”