Three years.
27 locations.
One country club for boaters.

Aerial of a boat wake on deep blue water: Oceans of Opportunity, Nautical Boat Club

A WordPress site that didn't work on mobile — where 87% of the traffic is — became a Webflow brand system that 27 owner-operators run on. Built by Lake Austin Design — Brand Architecture, Web Design, Resource Center.

The introduction
2018
I joined the Lake Austin location in 2018. Best boats. Best service. The kind of place where the people who run it are at the dock with you.

I wasn't a designer to them. I was a member.
Bryan Wallace and Andy Mullady on a Cobalt boat on Lake Austin
The conversation
2018–2023
That's where I met Bryan Wallace. We talked about the club the way members do — what works, what doesn't, what could be sharper. Bryan listened. The fixable things kept getting fixed. Five years of those conversations is what changed everything.
Hand holding a phone with a wakeboarder: Less Wifi. More Air. Nautical Boat Club
The trust
2023
Bryan became president. The casual feedback turned into the work. He asked me to take on what the brand needed — not as a vendor, as a partner who already understood what the club was, because I'd been on the dock for five years. The brief was simple: don't lose what makes us work.

Owner-operators receive a system, not a stylebook.

Nautical Boat Club franchising opportunities in Illinois map graphic
Nautical Boat Club team member in a branded cap at Lake Austin

“Andy's creative efforts have elevated every aspect of our marketing with clean imagery and engaging website design. We would highly recommend Lake Austin Design if you are looking to clean up or refresh your brand.”

Alex McLaughlin, Member — April 2024

The brief
2023
The site was the weakest part of the business. Ten years on WordPress. Not mobile-friendly. Members signed up despite the site, not because of it. Less is more. Do things right. Sweat the little things. Build for what's coming.
Tom Gardiner, Nautical Boat Club, in a branded polo by the water

“Less is more. Do things right. Sweat the little things.”

The brief, in three lines.

Nautical Boat Club reservation flow on an iPhone 15 Pro Max
The architecture
January 2024
Branded house. One identity. 27 locations under one parent. Trademarks first, because the trademarks are the brand's IP, not its decoration. Boat Life Without Limits®. Boating Country Club®. The First & Only Boating Country Club®. Don't Buy A Boat® — Join The Club. Category language, owned.

One brand. 27 locations. Every member room we walk into.

Step onboard. Have fun. Nautical Boat Club poster with a MasterCraft wakeboat
The migration
February 2024
WordPress to Webflow. Mobile-first. Swiss grid. CMS-driven, so a new location goes live in a weekend, not months. Built for the path from 27 to 50. Locations and Membership pages rebuilt around the heatmap data — the two pages members actually used became the two pages we made impossible to miss. Site shipped February 2024.

This isn't about making the site pretty. It's about how it works — for the owner-operator, for the member, for the boater who hasn't found us yet.

Built for what's coming.

The brand system
2024–2025
The work didn't stop at the site. A design system in Adobe Express. Adobe Garamond and Helvetica on the same grid. Every owner-operator at every location runs the brand without a designer in the room. Local push. National consistency.
Open magazine spread featuring Nautical Boat Club
The Resource Center
2025
Ship in a weekend.
Conversion is one job. Discovery is another. Editorial-grade. Modular across all 27 locations. Built so the boater who had never heard of Nautical now finds Nautical first — cited across AI answer engines at a 27% share of category authority. Locations and Membership stayed the highest-intent traffic on the site. Exactly as designed.

Built to grow. 27 today. 50 by 2030.

Feet over the water: Where memories are made on the water, Nautical Boat Club
The recognition
2026
Competing chains started imitating the look. The boating industry called it the new standard. Members noticed the polish. Three years in, the brand was carrying the weight that used to be carried by hand.

Weekly traffic stepped from about 3,900 to a sustained 15,000–18,000 sessions — roughly 193,000 a quarter, 87% of it on mobile. The numbers backed up what members already felt.
Bryan Wallace, Nautical Boat Club, at the helm of a boat

“I met Andy as a member, not a designer. That's how I knew he understood what the club is. Three years later, he's not the vendor. He's the partner who built the brand we're growing into.”

Bryan Wallace, President, Nautical Boat Club

Nautical Boat Club phone carousel and social post mockup
The path
Today
27 locations today. 50 by 2030. The architecture is built to absorb the growth without rebuild. Every new location ships in a weekend. Every owner-operator gets the same system on day one. The site is no longer the weakest part of the business. It's the engine.
Bryan Wallace, Nautical Boat Club, at the helm of a boat

“The system Andy built means I can focus on growth and the brand runs itself. That's what I needed.”

Bryan Wallace, President, Nautical Boat Club

Nautical Boat Club wakeboats docked at the marina on Lake Austin