Miami / Southeast · Key Biscayne
Beach-cat rentals on Hobie Beach, the Rickenbacker Causeway strand named for the boats still rented there. Hobie Waves and Getaways by the hour, booked online, with a briefing before you push off and staff watching from the sand. No prior experience needed in settled conditions.
Hobie Beach is the strip of sand along the Rickenbacker Causeway where Miami has launched small boats for decades. The current operator is PADL, which runs self-service paddle stations across Florida but keeps sailing at this one location: a staffed shop on the sand renting the 14-foot Hobie Wave, which takes up to four with a minimum operator age of sixteen, and the 16-foot Hobie Getaway, which takes six with a minimum age of eighteen.
Rentals are sold by the hour with a briefing included, and the site says no prior experience is required in basic conditions. You sail the boat yourself, with staff on the shore. Booking runs online, the last rental of the day goes out at six, and the water is Biscayne Bay, shallow and steady in the prevailing easterly.
The concession has changed hands and names over the years, most recently from Miami Watersports and before that the long-running Sailboards Miami. If an old guidebook or map pin points here under either name, this is the operator on the beach now.
Featured Miami / Southeast · Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale bareboat operator working from its own docks on the Middle River, chartering sailing catamarans since 1979. A Lagoon 45 and a Bali Catspace 40, bareboat or captained, by the week to the Keys and the Abacos. A boating resume stands in for a certificate.
Crewed Miami / Southeast · West Palm Beach
Private sails for up to six on Carpe Vita, a 42-foot Fountaine Pajot Venezia catamaran, from the City Docks in downtown West Palm Beach. Sunset and celebration charters, a summer anchorage off Peanut Island for swimming and snorkelling, and longer runs down to the Keys.
Miami / Southeast · Delray Beach
Beach cats rigged on the sand at Casuarina Road and A1A, Hobie Wave, Getaway and Hobie 16, pushed straight into the Atlantic. Walk up and sail, with a refresher from the staff if you want one, a captain if you would rather be driven, and dry storage for your own boat.