Local Freedom Boat Club Exec Launches Women’s Boating Program

Ten years ago, Karen Berry quit her job as a front desk manager at a local resort and went to work as a dockhand, saying goodbye once and for all to the inherent pressures of the hospitality industry.

“I was a bomb diffuser, so to speak,” she said, adding that a disproportionate amount of her work involved taking complaints – so much so that this became a large component of her job, and she eventually got tired of that atmosphere.

The decision to leave that world became easier because longtime friend Tamie Boger was then the director of the nascent Freedom Boat Club franchise in Little River.

“I cleaned boats for eight dollars an hour and tips. That’s how I got started with Freedom Boat Club,” she said.

According to its Web site [www.freedomboatclub.com], Freedom Boat Club was established in 1989 with an aim to “provide an affordable option to boat ownership and to deliver a hassle-free recreational boating experience for its members.” The company now boasts 115 locations and more than 12 thousand members across the United States and now, Canada. Members have access to club vessels without the headaches of ownership.

Berry said she and Boger used to give sailboat rides years ago at the Spanish Galleon, and the pair would sit on the beach and muse about the boating lifestyle and how it would factor into their futures.

Later, she would spend as much time as she could on the water with Boger, who is a licensed charter boat captain.

“She worked for the Sea Screamer and was the first owner of Getaway Boat Cruises [Getaway Adventures] years ago, and I would work for her on my days off as her first mate.”

Boger went on to other pursuits, but Berry is currently membership and marketing executive with what is now Freedom Boat Club of the Grand Strand, and she has run the gamut with her duties there, including a stint as district club director and overseeing all four area locations – Pawleys Island, Murrells Inlet, North Myrtle Beach and Southport, N.C.

Her dance card became full in no time – including member training, one-on- one on-the- water training, sales and marketing, organizing and facilitating events and member socials. And speaking of dance cards, Berry participated in the 2015 “Dancing with the Horry County Stars” charity event.

She created Bras Across the Water, a fundraising event in support of breast cancer awareness in connection with Freedom Boat Club and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

“Last year I kind of stepped down from [district club director] that to focus on the things I like most about Freedom Boat Club because it was too big for me to handle everything,” she said.

Because she has such a passion for boating and for the organization, she said sales is a big part of her job.

“I believe in Freedom Boat Club and what we offer – so much that it would be crazy for me not to try to sell it – and marketing it goes hand-in- hand.”

Her passion paid off. Last year, she won the Marketing Brand Champion award at the organization’s National Franchise Conference at Hawks Cay Resort in Duck Key, Fla., presented to her by president and CEO John Giglio.

Berry was also awarded Ambassador of the Year by the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce in March.

She still organizes open houses, monthly member socials and member boat trips, but lately, Berry has been on a mission put women at the helm with a program called the Boatanistas.

“What we want to do is to empower women to become the captain and not just the first mate all of the time,” she said.

Berry noted that boating is a lot like motorcycling in that it is still segregated.

“Most of the time, it’s men stepping onboard and taking charge – working, taking the helm – and the women will take over and steer the boat once in a while. But they are not the ones who dock the boats and anchor them – and we want those days to be history. We want women to feel confident that they can go out with their girlfriends and do all of these things at the end of the day just as well as a man can.”

The name “Boatanista” was coined and later trademarked by Jacksonville, Fla., and St. Augustine, Fla., Freedom Boat Club franchisee Lisa Almeida.

“Lisa had the name, and she always called herself Lisa the Boatanista, but there wasn’t anything to go along with it, except for her, basically, and her definition.

Berry and Almeida are both on Freedom Boat Club’s national marketing advisory board.

“My idea was to get the women involved in a women’s club within Freedom Boat Club,” she said. “I met with Lisa, and she agreed that it was a great idea. We brought it to our marketing council meeting, and they approved it and have actually rolled it out to all of the franchises, and there are several that are already participating in the program.”

The plan is to roll this out further at the next national conference.

Locally, Berry holds outings and workshops with her Boatanistas, including one-on- one on-the water training.

“We put them with one of our captains and we make sure that they get behind the helm, that they are comfortable reading the channel markers and docking the boat,” she said. “We do anchoring and man overboard procedures with them – everything they need to feel safe out there. Usually after they have spent three or four hours with our captain, they will feel confident in taking out our smaller to midsize boats.”

After that, it’s continuing education.

“The last meeting we had, I taught them how to tie nautical knots,” she said.

Lisa Almeida said she is such an addicted boater that her friends call her a crack boater.

In addition to her role of director of sales and marketing with her Freedom Boat Club franchises, she is also on the City of Jacksonville Boating Committee. This puts her at myriad boating related events and expos in Florida.

One month, she said she was doing event after event, and a woman who was with her ad agency at the time said, “Oh my God – you’re the Boatanista.”

And then it hit her. After a surprised gasp, Almeida said, “I am the Boatanista.” The pair laughed about it at the time, but the word stuck with her.

In no time at all, Almeida became Lisa the Boatanista – a moniker in her radio ads that has taken on a life of its own.

The trademarked word’s definition is this: “A very nautical person, especially one who works in the boat club industry. A person devoted to boating, particularly when it comes to the social characteristics of the boating experience. Someone who facilitates the boating lifestyle, their motto would be: Inboard, Outboard, On Board, NEVER BORED.”

“The Boatanista has been for me, a logo – a presence of the woman boater,” she said. “I have always been a stand for women boaters and I owned my first boat when I was 22 – and now it’s like seven boats later.”

One of three girls, she said her parents were competitive water skiers and boating is encoded into her DNA.

“My dad never said we couldn’t. We had to learn to back the trailer and drive the boat. No one ever said, ‘You’re a girl – you can’t do that,’ so I did it.”

And she is constantly telling other women that they can do the same thing.

When Berry got in touch with her about the Boatanistas club idea, Almeida was all ears.

“I have always done ladies boating, and Karen has always been a proponent of woman boaters, and I said ‘that’s a cool idea.’ She was going to do it just for her location, and I said, ‘You know, if we’re going to do it, why not do it companywide.”

The idea went over well when the pair presented it to Freedom Boat Club’s chief marketing officer Wanda Kenton Smith, who put the concept out to all of the franchises.

“So now we are in the process of creating it,” said Almeida. “I have the trademark for Boatanista and for the apparel – so I have to make sure I am covered as far as the trademark goes. I want to make sure it stands for what I meant it to stand for.”

In all, she feels the concept is on track.

“I think it’s going to take off,” she said. “It’s not just being around the helm. Women will get so much confidence and resilience within themselves, and that’s really what it’s all about.”

She knows what she is talking about.

“I admit that when I pull my 32-foot Monterey up to the dock in the ripping current, and I dance it right up there and some guy standing on the dock goes, ‘That was pretty awesome,’ I do have to say I enjoy it.”

In April, Mary Burns lost her husband, Sam Kanekoa, known to many as Chief Kamu, who delighted audiences for years with his fire and hula shows.

Burns said she spent a lot of time on the water with Kanekoa and their daughters.

Burns and Berry have known each other since the 80s.

“It’s been a tough year for my girls and I,” she said. “All of my Facebook memories were of us out on the water, and I almost went out and bought a boat, but I don’t have a car to pull the thing, so that’s when by chance Karen and I hooked back up.”

She said that as a widowed mother of two, joining Freedom Boat Club gave her a chance to continue what she used to do without having to hassle with putting the boat in and all of the other attendant headaches that go with owning a boat.

“The club has given me a chance to get out of my grieving and enjoy what my husband and I used to be able to do together without having a man there to do it for me.”

She said she already had some boating skills because she grew up around it, but Freedom Boat Club captains helped her solidify those skills and made her feel comfortable as a woman out there doing it by herself.

“The club made it possible for my family and I to keep doing what we love out there – whether it’s Wacca Wache, Murrells Inlet or North Myrtle Beach,” she said.

Burns sees the Boatanistas as a way to meet new friends and bond in a beautiful, natural setting.

“I think the Boatanista program will empower women to become better boaters, feel more comfortable on the water, and provide options to grow and learn.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Local Freedom Boat Club Exec Launches Women’s Boating Program."