ST PAUL, Minnesota — A Minnesota company is making waves in the boating industry in more ways than one.
"We believe the feeling of being on the water belongs to everyone and we try to make that easy and help facilitate that," said co-founder of Your Boat Club, Luke Kujawa.
Kujawa launched Your Boat Club with Michael Jellish in 2010. Prior to that, Kujawa was helping the family-run business — Crystal-Pierz Marine.
Kujawa has been in the boat business since he was 11 years old.
"It's been a wild ride ever since," he said.
Your Boat Club's primary business is annual Boat Club memberships that give people access to their fleet of up to 400 boats at over 40 locations. The club also offers daily rentals, winterization, storage, and more.
"I always try to build our team with the smartest and the best people we can find. I think the boating industry has been a little male-dominated, historically," Kujawa said. "We want people who want to work hard, and play hard, and they love boating like we do. It just turns out that we have found a lot of women with those characteristics and those qualities that make up a very important part of our team."
Jade Monkey has been a mechanic for the company for the past two years but started off in the automotive industry. Monkey became interested in the industry after taking an automotive program at Central High School in St. Paul.
"I like fixing things. My mom worked in precast construction. So I have a history of watching women in the male-dominated industries," Monkey said. "The thing about being a mechanic is it doesn't matter what gender you are or what your orientation is. It's about how well you fix the engine or the problem."
Sarah Paris has been a technician for Your Boat Club since April.
"I actually prefer to be in the back, getting dirty," Paris said.
Two out of three technicians on their team are women.
"I've been in the boat business since I was 11," Kujawa said. "I think I can remember two female certified technicians through all that time. And we happen to have two really, really talented women on our staff here."
According to Kujawa, about 80% of the corporate staff are women. Kujawa said that includes their CFO, office manager, director of retail, director of marketing, human resources director, customer service manager, slip and leasing manager, half their sales team and most of their customer service team.
At the company White Bear Lake location, Katelyn Stack is one of about 9 women who work as dockhands. Stack just finished her freshman year of college and has been working for Your Boat Club for the past four summers.
She recalled a sign they upgraded at the location.
"It said dockboy tips are appreciated and it just kind of made us mad because we're dock women; we're not dock boys," Stack said. "So we changed it to dockhand. We like taped over it and we wrote dockhand on it."
Paris said, with a smile, "It's no longer male-dominated... we got a couple of us girls here now so I think it's kind of girl-dominated here."
Your Boat Club memberships range from $109 per month to full unlimited access to over 400 boats for $699 per month. There is a one-time initiation fee.
Kujawa said they limit the member to boat ratio and expect to stop accepting membership applications soon at many locations. The company also offers daily rentals.
Watch more Behind the Business:
Watch all of the latest stories from Behind the Business in our YouTube playlist: