Boat Clubs

Interesting. I always thought of boat clubs as boat sharing with all the insurance, dockage, maintenance taken care of and the member gets to use the boats. I was not aware they help with gaining experience, but that does make some sense.
In Portland there is a very active sailing club that runs, it seems, 20 or so small day sailboats. Mostly Catalina 22. They are always out on the Columbia. I wonder how many members end up becoming owner operators?

Is there another way for an interested boater to "begin his boating experience"?

Friends with boats, chartering, crewing is very common in the sail world as a way to get on board (as you know Judy), I guess boat clubs are another avenue.

It seems most boat clubs are into toons and small run-a-bouts in our neck of the woods. Columbia River.

I have seen a few boat clubs in Fort Lauderdale and considered joining the one on the New River to get away from constant maintenance and cleaning of my own boats.
Another advantage was the availability of most if not all the boats during the weekdays, when I usually go boating, and they were mostly booked during the weekends, when I would stay home.
(Crazy boat traffic and drunk driving weekends)
Also there was a choice of boats from 20-40’ the larger ones for the Keys and overnights.
Seemed like a great concept and I may still do it later in life although I am close to the same idea now living on a residential marina where the My boat is being launched, cleaned and stored inside again after use.
I think Freedom Boat Club is the one I looked at, 400 locations.

Judy. Are you talking about one of the boat rental clubs, where you take the boat out yourself? If so, I'm not sure there will be any educational value there other than "do we like boating". I suppose one could join those clubs, and hire a captain for the day. My general feeling though, is that the quality (maintenance and build) of these boats isn't great.
If they want to get out on the water without the hassle, they could look at Barton & Grey. They operate a fleet of crewed boat (mostly Hinckley) out of several locations.

Some of these clubs do provide training:

Well, what do you know... er' what don't I know. I stand corrected. Thanks, Dag.

Judy requested it:

Judy
Call your local clubs. Up here, the Greenwich Water Club has a program where members can take boats for the day but for a little extra, a Captain will take people out for the day, but they will also give boating instruction. Maybe you can find the same near you. I'd really suggest getting a Captain or a well-qualified person to go out with you until you are very comfortable, and they agree that you understand everything. I always encourage new boaters to step outside of the lines, explore and have fun but safety is my, and everyone here, top priority. Bad stuff happens very quickly but if you're willing to learn, you are going to have a great time!

Freedom is a popular one and well run. You give an initial down payment of like $5k which you don't get back, and then a monthly fee depending on package. They have a weekday only package, a anytime all week package at one location, and then a package that lets you use boats at any location which is really nice IF you want to boat in many different cities. Honestly for about half of the boaters under 30' this is a better way than owning their own boat.

My father had tried one of those clubs down in Palm Beach (I think Freedom), and it was a nightmare. Boats were not taken care of, many not having services that work. Owner was a Jerk. I think he lost that franchise. It can make sense in the right situation, but, I would very carefully check out each boat that you would be interested in, makes sure everything seems to work, etc, before signing.

Rent boats on boatsetter.com. People rent out all different sizes. I don't know of any rental company renting out inboard boats nor 30-36'.

The problem is, almost body in South Florida wants an inboard boat in the 30-38' size range. Let alone wants to rent them out with all of the additional maintenance over outboards. So it's going to be really tough to find.