Washington DC skyline glowing at dusk, the view from aboard a Yachtsy private picnic boat

Proudly Black-Owned

The best seat in the city was always on the water

Yachtsy is a private, bring-your-own boating experience built for everyone — not just boat owners. Two harbors, your people, your playlist, and the skyline all to yourselves.

The Yachtsy picnic boat underway on the DC Tidal Basin — black hull, red bimini canopy, lush green trees

2020 · How it started

One boat, and one stubborn idea

Our founder kept noticing the same thing: the most beautiful view of Washington and Baltimore was never from a rooftop bar or a waterfront table — it was from the water itself. But getting out there meant a boating license, a packed group tour, or a five-figure private rental. The water was right there, and somehow it was closed to almost everyone.

So in the summer of 2020, Yachtsy launched in DC with a single picnic boat and a simple promise: make a private afternoon on the water something a group of friends could actually afford. Bring your own food, your own drinks, your own music — and make the day yours.

Friends celebrating together on a Yachtsy cruise at sunset

The Experience

The kind of afternoon people remember

Picture it: you push off from the dock, the skyline opens up around you, and for the next two hours the city belongs to you. Your people, your cooler, your playlist over the onboard Bluetooth speaker. No crowds, no schedule but your own, and no boating experience needed — add a driver for $25/hr, split it among your group, and simply enjoy the ride.

Today Yachtsy welcomes thousands of guests across two harbors, and the goal has never changed: make the water feel easy, personal, and yours. Every cruise is fully private, and every detail runs through people who genuinely care how your day turns out.

Explore Occasions

Proudly Black-Owned

Black-owned, locally run, open to everyone

Yachtsy is one of the only Black-owned boating companies on the DC and Baltimore waterfronts — and accessibility is written into everything we do. A luxury day on the water shouldn't be reserved for people who own boats or belong to a club. We built Yachtsy so that any group, from any background, celebrating anything at all, can pull away from the dock and feel — for a couple of hours — like the whole city belongs to them. That's the entire point.