Freedom Boat Club - Clearwater: Harbor Marina — Restaurant in Clearwater

This review should allow me to rate our most recent experience a three to begin with and a five at the end. Our first boat out of clearwater Tropical Marsh had engine alarms every ten minutes. Took it back to the dock expressing concerns over engine overheating after being out for one hour at idle speed and three alarms during the hour. The motor actually alarmed as we pulled to within earshot of the dock. Dock hands said not to worry...that's typical with mercs and just means some kind of gas/water issue and we should be fine to take it back out. NOT!! We kindly helped these younger folks know that our trust in the motor was at stake, this was NOT operationally ok, I had been to Merc school as a younger man, and wanted another boat and were willing to go to marker 1 or marker 8. The staff -- after seeing that we weren't going to be bamboozled into taking Tropical Marsh out became very apologetic and found us another boat at marker 8. They comped our fuel at Clearwater and I tipped them anyway. Marker 8 team was super getting us into another boat 'Bubba's Paradise" and we headed out to three rooker to finish out day with friends who joined us at marker 8 so the day ended up a 5 start despite a...

The boat needed to be cleaned when we arrived. The boat didn’t have gas in it so we had to take it to get gas which took an hour once we filled up. The motor would not turn on a few times after it was fueled. The dock master told us it would be fine to take it out after it did turn on but it continued to turn off while out. The ladder was broken so trying to get back on the boat was difficult and resulted in a few people bruising their knees. When we finally got back to the marina the boat turned off again while trying to dock and the crew couldn’t check me out there because the gauges wouldn’t turn on. When they tried to contact Greg Goldsmith ( assistant manger at Clearwater harbor island location) for comping the gas he refused. Even after all of this we had family from out of town and two young children on the boat, the crew mentioned that they knew this boat had multiple issues and still thought it was safe enough to take out? I know this is a business but to put the lives of children and multiple individuals at risk and not even have the empathy to cover the fuel...

The Freedom Boat Club guys were happy to see us at the docks and in good spirits, as we were also!. So on our way we down to Clearwater to get our pontoon boat we called ahead and reserved a SeaFox fishing boat instead, what a treat! We used our fingerling mullett to go catch some big fish, well unfortunately the waves kicked up and it was just to windy. So we headed back into the pass and fished off the rocks by the Cleareater Beach Bridge. The stone wall turned out to be stacked with Sea Trout. We had a blast and fished and watched the parade of boats go by. Then around 2:30 pm we went over to Frenchy's docks to have lunch. It took about 20 mins to get a spot but was worth the wait. The food was delicious. Then we went back to the overpass area and fished the flats but no luck. The tide had not changed just yet. We called the guys at the club and they happily unloaded the boat, we're excited to see our catch and took care of us getting off and loading our car. By then we were just worn out. We tipped the guys and left after a wonderful day on the intercoastal. Can't wait for...