Since there are so many gift ideas for boaters listed here, I’ve included only a picture, brief description, and a link to the online store where you can currently purchase the gift at the best price. That means no fun descriptions of why each of these items makes such a good gift!

If you’re interested in learning more about each of the gifts and reading my reviews of the items, please use the menu to select other categories where you can find a lot more helpful information on the best gifts for boaters!

The Complete List of Gifts for Boaters

Note: My “Gifts for Boaters” list is getting quite large. You might find it more convenient to use the navigation to select a specific category that you’re interested in, like “Gifts for New Boat Owners”, “Gifts for Kayakers”, or “Nautical Gifts”, or browse by price range. Also, the sub-pages contain a lot more detail about each of the gift items, why I recommend it, and who it would be a good gift for, information that you won’t find on this page due to lack of space!

• Brass Sextant
  This beautiful brass sextant is equal parts work of art and nautical instrument.
• Recycled Sailcloth Bag
  A perfect gift idea for boaters.
• Weems & Plath Gimballed Barometer and Clock
  Excellent for people who appreciate quality. Definitely a gift to impress!
• Nautical Chart Marble Clock
  For the person who enjoys nautical decor in the boater’s home or office, these clocks display a piece of the nautical chart from your favorite boating grounds.
• Boatowner’s Manual
  Every boat owner needs this!
• Clear Dry Bags
  Clever and extremely practical!
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  Explorer Motion Sickness Relief BandCure seasickness without drugs!
• GlobalFix iPRO Category I GPS-Enabled EPIRB
  The safety device that no boater should be without! This is the best EPIRB out there right now IMO, and perfect for any Boater on your Gift List whom you’d like to keep safe!
• Sailing World’s Best of Dr. Crash Calendar
  A fun and economical gift idea from Sailing World!
• Traditional Weather Station
  Combines the beauty of traditional brass instruments with the practicality of always knowing when the weather is right for boating!
• Model Schooner
  A perfect gift for the lover of model ships.
• Brass Harbormaster Telescope
  As beautiful to look at as to look through!
• Old Town Guide Canoe
  I wish I had a canoe like this to explore the Adirondacks with!
• Canoe and Kayak Sail
  Finally, canoeing and sailing are brought together– a gift for kayakers or canoeists.
• Loose Fit Rashguard (Men’s)
  Comfort makes boating more fun!
• Women’s Paddling Rashguard
  No more scratchy itchy rashes after a long day of paddling!
• Mini Anchor
  Wish I had one of these in my canoe — gift list anyone?
• Neoprene Water Gloves
  Cozy warm gloves are one of the best gifts for boaters.
• Pelican Dry Case
  A great gift idea from a company who really knows boaters!
• Neoprene Water Gloves
  Trust me, they’ll appreciate these!
• Ship’s Wheel
  A ship’s wheel makes the perfect gift for a pirate (or pirate at heart!)
• Nautical Bookends
  Fun nautical decor!
• Antique style Desk Globe
  Sail the world, or give it as a gift!
• The Perfect Christmas Cards for a Boater
  Christmas gifts for boaters by boaters!
• Galileo Thermometer and Barometer
  This is how they told the weather hundreds of years ago– and it was probably a lot more accurate than all that rubbish on the interwebs, too!
• Outside Inside Kayak Santa Ornament
  Perfect Christmas Gift for Kayakers
• Personalized Surfing Santa Ornament
  Everyone appreciates a personalized gift for boaters!
• The New Boat Owner’s Kit
  Step #1 gift for the new boat owner is right here all in one beautiful package!
• Teak Logbook Cover Engraved with the Name of their Boat
  Perhaps my favorite gift for boaters of all types!
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  Small Craft Safety Bag
  Safety makes a great gift!
• Navigation Sextant
  Sextants are sexy!
• Combination Fishfinder/ GPS Chartplotter
  Fishing made easy!
• Personalized Embroidered Crew Shirts
  Just because you don’t sail like a professional doesn’t mean you can’t look like one! Magically transforms the crew of even a dilapidated dinghy into a well-oiled racing machine (at least that’s that they’ll look like around the bar in the evening!)
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  FastFind 210 GPS Personal Location BeaconA great gift for the boater who appreciates safety and likes cool gadgets!
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  Clamp-On Rod Holder
  This gift idea keeps your rod at the ready for anytime a fishing opportunity should arise!
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  The West Marine Gift Card
  West Marine is like a Mecca for boaters; they have literally everything you could imagine for boating, fishing, sailing, etc. If you can’t choose a boater gift, give ‘em a gift card to West Marine and you can’t go wrong!

• Clear Start Sailing Watch
  OK, it won’t make your boat go faster, but it just might help you be the first over the line– and as we all know, sometimes that’s all it takes!
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  Men’s Billfish Boat Shoes
  The perfect pair of boat shoes makes for a perfect gift for boaters.
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  Handheld Floating VHF Radio
  Sure, all boaters use VHF radios, but how many have one this cool?
  

  
  
  
  

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  Fisherman’s Vest & PFD
  Is this the perfect gift for a fisherman?
  

  
  
  
  

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  Men’s Full Finger Sailing Glove
  
  Sailing gloves are a great gift for boaters that make boating more fun. Play the video to learn about why this makes a perfect gift idea!
  
  
  
  
  
• Fishing for Cruisers
  Fun book will teach you how to fish from your boat, whether you’re cruising the Caribbean, the San Juan Islands, or anywhere in between!
• Fishing Christmas Tree Ornaments
  Cute and fun Christmas Gift for Fisherman.
• Stand-up Paddleboard
  Born in Hawaii of a marriage between surfing and traditional hawaiian canoes, Stand-up Paddleboarding is one of the hottest water sports right now, so a Paddleboard would make a great gift idea for someone who loves water sports!
• Pro Paddle
  This pro paddle is a gift idea for serious kayakers– or those who would like to become one!
• Composite Multi-part Paddle
  This strong, lightweight composite paddle makes a great gift for all your kayaking friends, and it comes apart for easy storage and transport!
• Fishing Kayak
  A kayak for fishing? Yep, it’s true — the avid fisherman knows a quiet lightweight boat that can go anywhere is a great way to find the fish! Another recommended gift for fishermen!
• Touring Kayak
  When choosing a kayak gift, look for one that is light, fast, and comfortable — this model from Wilderness Systems provides all three and is currently on sale at Amazon.com!
• Waterproof MP3 Player
  What does a boater or watersports-lover do when they want to listen to music? Give them the gift of tunes even underwater with this super-cool waterproof MP3 Player!
• Inflatable Kayak
  This isn’t just a gift for kayakers– deflated, this kayak gift can fit anywhere, tuck it away in the corner of your boat or car, and it’s ready for shallow-water explorations!
• Advanced Frame Expedition Inflatable Kayak
  Here’s my review of this kayak: awesome, awesome, awesome!!! The Advanced Frame Expedition Inflatable Kayak combines the strength and agility of hard-shell kayaks with the portability of an inflatable. Perfect gifts for boaters!
• Digital Fish Scale
  Another one for our gifts for fishermen list — for the fisherman who actually wants to tell the truth about how big it really was!
• Ultimate Tacklebox
  This may just be the perfect tacklebox, and therefore makes a great gift for any fisherman in need of a little organization, but also finds its way on to our list of the best gifts for boaters– since all boaters could benefit from this kind of organization!
• Gear Vest
  Keep all of your boating gear right at hand.
• Nervous Waters DVD
  THE classic of fishing cinema makes it on to our list of recommended gifts for fisherman.
• Saltwater Fishing Lures
  Lures for fishermen are like shoes for women: you can never have too many, because each one has a unique purpose!
• Oversized Sailing Calendar
  GIANT wall calendar with big beautiful pictures of sailboats — is it the best gift for sailors?
• Storm Tactics
  Another great gift for sailors, this is a classic of the sailing literature– one of the best to get you through the storms!
• Ship’s Bell Clock
  Classy clock makes a great gift for boaters or anyone who appreciates nautical gifts or nautical home decor!
• Barometer and Comfortmeter
  For the boater who appreciates fine nautical instruments, there’s no better gift than the Weems & Plath Endurance Series.
• Handheld Brass Telescope
  A classy gift for the traditional mariner and nautical decor gift!
• Personalized Message in a Bottle
  Personalized gifts for boaters make every occasion special!
• Pirate Kids’ Bed-in-a-Box
  Here’s a gift for kids who love pirates!
• Navigation Sextant
  Sextants are sexy!
• Brass Gimballed Compass in a Box
  This is a compass like they used to make ‘em! It’s not the kind of compass you get as a gift for a boy scout, but a real boater will know and appreciate this nautical gift item.
• Antique Floor Globe
  A Globe that’s destined to sit in a library, a wood-paneled study, or a nautically-decorated home.
• Ship in a Bottle
  The classic nautical gift!
• Decorative Life Ring
  Nautical home decor makes a great gift idea for anyone who loves the sea!
• Fishing Net Decor
  Try draping this around your home and –voila– instant pirate’s booty!
• Model Square Rigger Wooden Ship
  Another great gift for a model ship builder.
• Kayak Worktable
  If you’re looking for a gift for a kayaker who also enjoys fishing (or the other way around), then this “kayak worktable” is perfect! Turns any kayak into a fishing kayak by giving you a stable safe and convenient workspace to manage your fishing gear.
• Nautical Flashcards
  Here’s a fun gift idea for a new boat owner: flashcards that will help them quickly and painlessly learn everything they need to know.
• Kayaking Santa
  Christmas gift for kayakers.
• Sea Witch Model Ship
  Who knew model ship gifts could be so cool?
• Sailing Trim
  Great gift for the racing sailor, or the cruiser who cares about going fast!
• Mariner’s Weather Book
  Weather is everything for a sailor– this book will help them learn how to know what’s coming, even without a weather report!
• Adlard Coles’ Heavy Weather Sailing
  This books is THE classic on sailing in heavy weather (storms and high winds), and a must for any sailor who’s going to spend some time out at sea.
• Sailing Knots Wall Hanging
  What a fun way to learn sailing knots! Best gift for new sailors learning to sail, or anyone who likes nautical home decor.

So, what do you think? Do you prefer this format, of the individual pages format? I’ve spent a lot of time putting this site together, so I’d like to make the information as useful as possible… If you leave me a comment with your suggestions, I would really appreciate it!

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Being a boater myself, and having many friends on my own gift list who are boaters, I’ve spent a LOT of time scouring the interwebs to find this year’s very best gift ideas for boaters. And that, my friends, is exactly what you will find in this list:

• Recycled Sailcloth Bag
  The perfect gift should be something unique, functional, well-made, and ideally also environmentally friendly. This bag fits the bill perfectly! Made from old sails, it definitely has some green cred, but most importantly it lets sailors show off their passion for their hobby in a way that is classy and uber-creative. I got one of these bags a year ago and can’t tell you how many great comments I’ve received. In fact, two friends liked it so much they’ve bought one for themselves! This is truly a perfect gift idea for boaters.
• Weems & Plath Gimballed Barometer and Clock
  For the perfect elegant gift idea, consider this high quality brass barometer/ clock combination. Weems & Plath has been making high quality marine instruments for decades, and it shows in the high quality workmanship that goes into a piece like this. Equal parts work of art and functional tool, I imagine it displayed in a sailor’s office so s/he can be reminded of the sea even while working the “day job”! This is definitely a gift to impress!
• Nautical Chart Marble Clock
  Another great piece of nautical decor to display in the boater’s home or office, these clocks display a piece of the nautical chart from your favorite boating grounds.
• Boatowner’s Manual
  As the name implies, the Boatowner’s Manual is a book that no boat owner should be without! Sail magazine said “This book should come as standard equipment with every boat. If the boater on your shopping list doesn’t have one yet, get it as a gift!
• Clear Dry Bags
  Boaters have long used dry bags to keep sensitive items safe in the constantly-wet marine environment, but anyone who’s used a dry bag knows that they’re not exactly user-friendly. Basically just one long tube, there are no pockets for organization, and you can spend hours digging through your dry bags trying to remember which one has the chap stick. Now there’s a better way. Clear dry bags let you immediately see what is in each bag, and where it is, so you don’t have to waste time digging. I haven’t seen many boaters who have these yet, so it definitely should make a good gift for any boater!

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  Explorer Motion Sickness Relief BandIf you’ve ever spent time on a boat in less than ideal conditions, you know how quickly motion sickness can spoil the fun. Of course there are pills you can take, but they have side effects that are often worse than the disease (they put you to sleep). Finally, there’s a sea sickness cure that doesn’t require drugs: the Explorer Motion Sickness Relief Band from Abbot Labs. This is FDA-approved so you know it’s legit, and it works by providing electronic stimulation that blocks the signals that cause nausea. A great gift for any boater that gets seasickness (and really, who doesn’t?!).

GlobalFix iPRO Category I GPS-Enabled EPIRB
If you’ve ever read the book Black Wave (or nearly any other modern sea survival story, for that matter), then you know that the family’s lives were ultimately saved thanks to a mysterious little device called an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). In interviews, the father of the family has said that they had hesitated about buying an EPIRB because of the cost. Little did he know that little “splurge” would ultimately be responsible for saving their lives. Nothing makes a better gift than safety, and an EPIRB is the ultimate in boating safety, automatically transmitting your location and a distress signal if it detects that the boat is sinking (it can also be manually activated). The GlobalFix iPRO Category I EPIRB shown here is the latest generation, and the top-rated EPIRB at West Marine– you can be proud giving this to any Boater on your Gift List!

• Sailing World’s Best of Dr. Crash Calendar
  Looking for a gift that’s economical, but still unique and enjoyable? Consider this one-of-a-kind calendar from the venerable Sailing World. Hundreds of calendare have pictures of boats, but this one’s different: it features high-powered racing yachts captured at the moment of capsizing, and the result is a dozen stunning images that are sure to take the breath away of any sailor or boater. The best gift for boaters that costs less than $20!
• Traditional Brass Weather Station
  Boaters who are fans of traditional nautical instruments will especially appreciate this gift idea. Mounted on a slab of polished Mahogany are three high quality weather instruments from the venerable Weems & Plath: a barometer, quartz clock, and a comfortmeter (a combination hygrometer for measuring humidity and thermometer). Give this to your favorite boater, and he or she will always know what the weather is like outside (also makes a great display item!).
• Model Ship Schooner
  Every boater enjoys model ships, and this lovely schooner model is one of the best I’ve seen!

http://GiftsforBoaters.com/telescope

• Brass Harbormaster Telescope
  Back in the day the harbormaster would sit in his perch and use a telescope like this one to observe the ships coming and going, in order to keep track of what was happening in his harbor. Now the traditional wood and brass telescope is likely to be looked at as much as looked through — it makes a great nautical decor piece in any boater’s home!

Please try some of the other articles on this site to discover more great ideas for gifts for boaters!

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