I stored my trailer here last season and had a fantastic experience working with the folks at the small boat exchange. Thank you John, Stephen & Drew!

May be a little short in patience but they are helpful nonetheless. Place is cool, packed full of every odd and end you could want, absolutely 100% better stocked than west marine, if you need something specific chances are a lot better finding it here than they are anywhere else in town.

John was a great help with a project I had come up. I am also in the boat business and know that good help has been hard to find as a small shop and the demand this past year or two has been unprecedented. Despite that he stepped up and helped us out in getting some things we needed. Respect and thanks!

Had one of the worst customer service experiences here ever. Owner acts like you are wasting his time. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere, life is too short to be treated this way by a local business.

Great local boat shop. No job is too small for them and prices are reasonable. Had my Hobie 16 repaired here years ago and they did a great job. They are local and good people; very friendly and easy to work with. Truly passionate about boating/sailing.

Fast and friendly service. Tight showroom...full of goodies.

There are a limited number of places In Burlington to buy small watercraft (new and used), as well as boat accessories and spare parts. By far the best place to do it is Small Boat Exchange. “Small Boat,” as locals call it, is owned by John Freeman, a guru on every aspect of boating, including hardware, customer education, and advising you on what you want to do - and what you don’t.John takes great pride in sharing his knowledge and he enjoys taking the time to learn about his customers’ practices, which enables him to help them make the best choices. Even for tricky jobs, John can quickly figure out what parts you need and can have them shipped over within a day or two.If you are into boating, write down John’s number. Pay him a visit and introduce yourself. You will make a lifetime friend, and you will be pleased to discover that boat fixing can be both fun and affordable.

I brought my boat in believing that there was a problem with the rack and pinion steering or one of the dual steering cables that connect it to the motor and turntable rudder assembly. When John and Steven went to diagnose the problem they realized that this wasnt what was wrong. Instead they found that even though my boats only 10 yrs old a bolt had rusted out on the complicated turntable rudder assembly and some of the nylon ball bearings that the assembly rides on had dropped out from the race causing the rudder to jam. At that point a lot of places would have thrown up their hands and said they couldnt fix it and Id need to take the boat to an authorized repair shop that works with the manufacturer of which there arent any in VT. Instead they carefully disassembled the mechanism and working with the manufacturer (who unfortunately doesnt have the best post sales product support) they rebuilt the assembly and even did some custom fabrication to improve its design so that hopefully this problem wont happen again. It took a little time for them to do this and they had to wait on parts from the manufacturer but the steering system now works great and I got my boat back in time for the start of the sailing season. They definitely went above and beyond what a lot of shops would have done.

John provides excellent customer service. I highly recommend the SBE for your stand up paddle board purchase! Robin Miller

Easy to work with

Just rude on the phone

Great deals

Goodplacetosee

Cluttered and disorganized...