Shelter Cove Boat Rentals, Hilton Head

Pontoon boats you drive yourself

A Shelter Cove boat rental is, above all, a pontoon: a wide, flat, stable boat that takes up to 12 people, with shade overhead, a Bluetooth stereo and life jackets in every size from adult to infant. The marina’s own pontoons are 23-foot Aloha boats with a 150-horsepower Yamaha outboard, a 9-foot canopy and a GPS with a depth finder. Anchors are on board for a stop to swim, fish or picnic, and the Coast Guard’s required safety gear is aboard. Reviewers who had never driven a boat say the staff walked them through the boat, the GPS and the rules before they left the dock, and helped them back in afterward.

Shelter Cove Marina Boat Rentals posts these rates: 2 hours $315, 4 hours $525, 6 hours $715, 8 hours $825 and a full day $1,000. Fuel is added at check-out and is not in the rental price, and the Fourth of July holiday has its own pricing. Outside Hilton Head lists its 22-foot pontoon for up to 12 from $315, rented by the hour, day, week or month.

Kayaks and paddleboards

Outside Hilton Head rents single and double kayaks, Hobie kayaks and stand-up paddleboards from $35, by the hour or the day, at the marina. They go on a first come, first served basis every day and take all ages. The creek beside the harbour is sheltered and calmer than the beach, so it suits a first paddle. Our kayaking guide covers guided tours and the other launches.

A boat with a captain

If you would rather not drive, Outside runs private charters from Shelter Cove Marina with a licensed captain, on boats for 6, 12, 16 or 49 passengers. Rates start at $245 an hour for six, $395 for twelve and $495 for sixteen. For a boat you drive but with a guide in front, Bluewater Adventure has you steer your own two-seat catamaran behind a guide.

Water skiing, tubing and wakeboarding are a different kind of trip. Our water skiing and tubing guides cover who runs them on the island.

You are the captain on a pontoon rental, so South Carolina’s boating rules apply to you. Anyone born after July 1, 2007 must have passed an approved boater education course to operate a boat with a motor of 10 horsepower or more. A renter in that age group can use a rental safety certificate issued in their name instead, which the rental company can explain at check-out. The rules come from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and our Hilton Head boating guide sets them out with the accident-reporting rule.

• Age: both companies list their pontoon and paddle rentals for all ages. Neither states a driver age, so ask who may drive when you book.

• Life jackets: the pontoons carry them in adult, junior and infant sizes. Children belong in one while the boat is moving.

• Fuel: a pontoon is fuelled at check-out, and the fuel is on top of the rental price.

• Book ahead: pontoons are most in demand on summer weekends and on the Tuesday fireworks nights.

Shelter Cove Harbour sits on Broad Creek, a tidal creek that runs into the Intracoastal Waterway, so the water under your pontoon rises and falls twice a day. The depth finder on the marina’s pontoons is there for that reason. Look at the Hilton Head tide chart before you go: low water uncovers oyster banks and shoals along the marsh edge, and it is also when the island’s sandbars show. The boating guide explains the low-tide sandbar trips and the marinas and landings around the island.

Plan to be back at the dock with time to spare. Summer afternoons bring thunderstorms that build quickly, and a rental is billed by the hour, so the earlier slots give the calmest water and the most room to explore.