SAUGATUCK, Mich. — For 18 years, Lauren Stanton worked as a news anchor in West Michigan, keeping people engaged and entertained through her storytelling. Now, she's connecting with her community in a different way, as the co-owner of Retro Boat Rentals in Saugatuck.
"It was one of those things where I was just kind of looking for a career change," Stanton said. "We started this with the idea, (thinking) maybe it would replace my salary. Then my husband and I both quit our jobs. We do this full-time now.”
In 2016, the pair saw a building for lease right on the bank of the Kalamazoo River. This empty, waterfront property seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.
"So we went to the owners and said, 'Hey, would you mind if we tried to do something here?'" she said. "We gave him a proposal and he agreed to it. Then, over the winter, we rehabbed the building, got it all cleaned up, and then started to come up with the concept of doing this with the retro boats.”
Stanton said the boats are from the best part of the fiberglass boat era.
"It's the jet age, which if you notice the cars from that timeframe, late 50s to early 60s, they were incredible," she said. "The boats were also incredible from the late 50s to early 60s."
She added, "they have the fins and the taillights and the headlights. They look like little cars back in the day. The colors from them — the turquoise and the yellow and the reds — they just have that uniqueness to them that you wouldn't get if you weren't in that late 50s or early 60s timeframe.”
Their fleet is full of more than just retro boats. They also have duffy, pontoon and donut boats.
Plus, they've since expanded to other waterways across the country.
"Now we have the retro boats on the Chicago River," she said. "Our donut boats are on the Chicago River. We have boats in Austin, Texas, and Tampa, Florida, and donut boats in Tempe, Arizona.”
All the boats are fully electric, cruising at a casual speed of five miles an hour. Most can be rented anywhere from one-and-a-half to three hours.