I didn’t discover South Jersey boating. I grew up in it.
My name is Frank Young, and I’ve been on these waters since the 1970s. Not as a professional captain, not as a gear reviewer with a sponsorship deal, just as someone who fell head over heels for boating at a young age and never looked back.
It started with my dad. He bought a bay-front property in Cape May County, New Jersey, and not long after, he came home with a boat. I was a teenager the first time I went out with him. The salt air, the open water, the feeling of leaving the dock behind, something clicked that day that never unclicked. I was hooked, plain and simple.
Fifty-Plus Years on South Jersey Waters
Since those early days out on the bay, I’ve spent more time on the water than I can account for. I’ve boated through every season South Jersey has to offer, gorgeous summer mornings when the bay is glass-flat before the wind picks up, fall days when the fishing is at its best and the crowds have gone home, and even the occasional ill-advised spring outing when the weather had other ideas.
Over the decades, I’ve learned the waterways, the tides, the launch ramps, the marinas, and the hidden spots that don’t show up on any map. I’ve owned different boats, made every rookie mistake in the book, figured out what works, and kept going.
That kind of knowledge doesn’t come from reading articles. It comes from being out there, year after year, in all conditions.
Why I Started Boat South Jersey
For a long time, that knowledge just lived in my head, shared over the dock with friends, passed along to neighbors who just bought their first boat, swapped over a beer at the end of a long day on the water.
When I retired, I finally had the time to do something I’d been putting off for years: earn my USCG captain’s license. Going through that process, studying the charts, the rules, the navigation, it made me realize just how much I’d accumulated over fifty-plus years of actually being out there. And it got me thinking: why not put it somewhere useful?
Boat South Jersey exists to be the local resource I wish I’d had when I was starting out. The kind of site where you get real, firsthand information about boating in this specific corner of New Jersey, not generic advice copy-pasted from a boating manual, but the actual local knowledge that makes the difference between a great day on the water and a frustrating one.
Whether you’re a lifelong South Jersey local, a weekend boater who heads down from North Jersey or Philly, or someone who just bought their first boat and has no idea where to start, this site is for you.
What You’ll Find Here
- Local knowledge, launch ramps, marinas, anchorages, and waterways across South Jersey
- Gear and boat recommendations, honest takes based on real experience, not paid partnerships
- Boating tips, practical advice for navigating South Jersey’s bays, inlets, and coastal waters
- Stories from the water, because half the joy of boating is the stories you collect along the way
Let’s Go Boating
South Jersey is one of the best places in the country to be a boater. I’ve spent my whole life here proving that to myself, and I’m glad to finally have a place to share it.
Thanks for stopping by. If you have questions, want to share your own South Jersey boating experiences, or just want to say hello, reach out. I’d love to hear from you.
, Frank Young
Founder, Boat South Jersey
USCG Licensed Captain