A lot has changed in the recreational boat industry in the past decade and a half. Luke Kujawa, president of Your Boat Club, has experienced all of those challenges, and he’s learned how to keep his head above water.

Twenty years ago, Kujawa was president of Crystal-Pierz Marine, one of the Twin Cities’ biggest boat dealers. One of its most successful brands was Glastron. During the first decade of the new millennium, the family business’s 12 locations sold around 800 Glastron boats annually. “It’s a family-friendly boat,” Kujawa notes. They were easy to operate for recreational boaters, with a “Stable Super Vee” hull designed to provide smoother rides and more stable turning. Another part of the brand’s appeal: Glastron boats were Minnesota-made, manufactured in Little Falls.

Then the Great Recession hit. The boat-buying market dried up. Minneapolis-based Genmar Holdings, Glastron’s parent company, went under, declaring bankruptcy in 2009. Over the next several years, Crystal-Pierz Marine was forced to close many of its locations, selling the rest to Bass Pro Group.

After the Great Recession, Kujawa notes, people still loved boats—but fewer wanted to actually own one. He cites the cost of maintenance as one reason, as well as having to own a towing vehicle. “Boating became cost-prohibitive for families,” Kujawa says.

Kujawa saw these signs back in 2010. He and business partner Michael Jellish shifted to a new business model. Rather than selling boats, Your Boat Club focuses on boat rentals on lakes that are particularly popular with boaters. Thirteen years later, the Minneapolis-based company has more than 40 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Florida, with plans to expand in other states.

And in the past couple of years, Kujawa has reunited with an old friend—Glastron.

The brand was acquired by France-based boat-building giant Groupe Beneteau in 2014. Though it moved manufacturing from Minnesota to Michigan, Groupe Beneteau has maintained Glastron’s fundamental design and its focus on family recreation. And like Kujawa, it has adjusted to a changing market.

“What we foresee is that the entry level in boating won’t be defined by small and cheap boats,” says Paul Blanc, a Groupe Beneteau vice president who leads the boat-builder’s foray on the rental market. “It’s going to be defined by the user economy. New boaters are going to rent boats first.”

Seeing this as the direction of the recreational market in the U.S., Groupe Beneteau took a 49% stake in Your Boat Club two years ago. “Your Boat Club had a very good business model—very focused on service,” says Blanc, adding that Glastron’s value proposition works well for the rental market. “Glastron still makes boats for the family, boats that are very versatile and easy to handle,” Blanc says. But now, it’s “a brand focusing on the needs of these rental companies and boat clubs.”

Those requirements include making Glastron boats even sturdier. Rentals get a lot of use. As Blanc notes, recreational boat owners put their vessels on the water about 50 hours a year on average, “but a Your Boat Club boat will be used four to five times that.”

To help develop what Blanc calls “the ideal boat club specification,” Kujawa has advised Glastron’s designers and marketers on ways to improve the boats for Your Boat Club’s members. Case in point: building bimini tops out of steel rather than aluminum. Glastron also has shifted from electronic to analog dials “because they are simpler to read and less likely to break,” Blanc says.

All this has changed how Groupe Beneteau markets Glastron boats. “In a way, it is the first B2B boat brand because we are no longer distributing these boats through dealerships,” Blanc says. “They are exclusively supplied to Your Boat Club and their partners for the specific purpose of being used in rental situations.”

Your Boat Club now has about 120 Glastrons in its “fleet,” and it has positioned itself as an “on-the-water sales floor” for club members or renters who want to rent, try out, or buy a new or “gently used” Glastron boat. Your Boat Club has ordered an additional 130 Glastron vessels for that purpose. Meanwhile, Blanc and Groupe Beneteau are working to develop boat rental clubs similar to Your Boat Club in other countries. It’s a nontraditional business model, but it’s keeping the recreational boat business afloat.