Foster City Considers Boat Rental Program

Written by Brian De Los Santos

Foster City resident Michael Terner often encounters the same two questions when he pulls his electric boat into Leo Ryan Park.

“Where did you get that boat?”

“Can I rent one?”

Terner and his company Edgewater Marine are now looking to provide answers to those questions. He and his partner Dave Murdoch are currently in negotiations with the city to provide electric boat rentals in Foster City, hoping to reach an agreement to be approved by City Council on Aug. 19. 

“I’ve been in the city for 18 years and this is the first time that we’ll actually have the opportunity to rent these type of boats,” said Kevin Miller, the Director of Parks and Recreation in Foster City. “It’s been available where you can rent one with a captain or where there is someone driving it for you, but this will be the first time ever that Foster City has an electric boat program where you can go out there on your own.”

The fine details of the program will still ironed out through the next month. But if approved, the service would allow customers to cruise the Foster City lagoon seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to dusk., in an electric boat from the company Duffy. 

The boats ride at about 5 miles per hour, and can hold anywhere from 8-12 people. 

There will be anywhere from two to three boats open for rental, and will cost $100 per hour, Terner said.

Terner and Murdoch are actually the Northern California representatives for Duffy and currently sell and service Duffy electric boats in Foster City, Redwood Shores and San Mateo, Terner said.

“Foster City has about 260 electric boats, 85 percent of them are Duffy,” Terner said. “They are very, very popular boats.”

The problem has been, though, that the ownership of those boats has been limited to waterfront property owners, Terner said. Other residents don’t have a place to park or charge the boats over night, he said.

This service should help fix that.

“The benefit is: For people who don’t necessarily have homes on the water and can’t own an electric boat, those people will get to enjoy a trip on the Foster City lagoon, which is one of the most delightful things in Foster City,” Terner said.

The boat rental service will also come with a $2 million insurance policy, a standard requirement for other services such as windsurfing, paddleboat rentals through the city, Miller said.

“It covers everything,” he said. “They’re all required to carry that $2 million liability to the city. We try to transfer all risk on the concessionaire.”

The insurance policy is just one of the many things, though, to work out in this negotiation period. After it is finished, Terner hopes to have boats in the water by late August or early September, if approved.

Miller remains optimistic it will.

“I’m very confident in bring forward a proposal on August 19 to enter an agreement with them,” Miller said.

What do you think of this plan? Tell us in the comments.