Making money with boats

A few tiny marine businesses

To answer a few questions in this thread. We have built several small marine businesses from scratch, and yes, up until I retired a few years ago, I published the businesses separately as business plans which every neophyte business needs. The thought with the business plans is to make your mistakes on paper up front, and correct them, rather than making mistakes later where it costs precious dollars. By the time you have finished your business plan you should know almost everything about your business including what your competition is, your marketing strategy, your growth strategy and how much you can reasonably expect it to earn.
Some of these successful businesses are.
1. Eco-tours: One 32 passenger pontoon boat that was bought used and rennovated by me. Sold the boat to another operator in Myrtle Beach because it started looking like a real job. Lots of hours, but good money maker.
2. Small Wood-By-Water business. All of the northern waterfront condo communities have one thing in common, each unit has a chimney, therefore sales of cord wood to their docks during the fall brought in a lot of money. One 35' x 15' x 4' home made self powered barge was used. Other contracts for hauling followed. Waterfront condo communities along the ICW are great ports of opportunity.
3. As a licensed captain, I operated small ships in the Caribbean and tugs/pushboats and barges in the Gulf of Mexico and all ICWs. I helped a young man buy a 26' foot professionally built push boat and used 130' x 30' x 6' barge and did the marketing for him. He now owns a 65 foot pushboat, a 50 model bow tug and the original pushboat. His net worth is well over a million dollars.

 

A few tiny marine businesses

To answer a few questions in this thread. We have built several small marine businesses from scratch, and yes, up until I retired a few years ago, I published the businesses separately as business plans which every neophyte business needs. The thought with the business plans is to make your mistakes on paper up front, and correct them, rather than making mistakes later where it costs precious dollars. By the time you have finished your business plan you should know almost everything about your business including what your competition is, your marketing strategy, your growth strategy and how much you can reasonably expect it to earn.
Some of these successful businesses are.
1. Eco-tours: One 32 passenger pontoon boat that was bought used and rennovated by me. Sold the boat to another operator in Myrtle Beach because it started looking like a real job. Lots of hours, but good money maker.
2. Small Wood-By-Water business. All of the northern waterfront condo communities have one thing in common, each unit has a chimney, therefore sales of cord wood to their docks during the fall brought in a lot of money. One 36' x 15' x 4' home made self-powered barge was used. Other contracts for hauling followed. Waterfront condo communities along the ICW are great ports of opportunity.
3. As a licensed captain, I operated small ships in the Caribbean and tugs/pushboats and barges in the Gulf of Mexico and all ICWs. I helped a young man buy a 26' foot professionally built push boat and used 130' x 30' x 6' barge and did the marketing for him. He now owns a 65 foot pushboat, a 50 model bow tug and the original pushboat. His net worth is well over a million dollars.
There are a few principles behind starting small business that can almost assure success. More on those in a later posting. The first being "Be innovative and do what others aren't".

 

Charter Boat Insurance.

There are several Insurance companies that handle professional charter boats. Full insurance coverage with a million dollar liability coverage cost about $1,100 a year. If you want, I will go through my records and provide the name, address and phone number of the one we used. Looks as if the web site did a double print on the previous posting.

 

Gerard makes a strong point in regards to whom you take aboard as guests. For day trips creeps are but a soon to be gone inconvienence, on multi-day trips they can be a dangerous nightmare.

That brings up another point. On a 40'+ trawler you would be well advised to have a competent dedicated crewmember on board. Anchoring, shore trips in the skiff/dinghy, mechanical checks underway, helm breaks for the head, ect.... all require a trustworthy extra hand. In a emergency an able crewmember could mean the difference between life & death. Many times you may have a guest who will be qualified. But making such a judgement is tricky, and the presence of qualified individuals cannot & should not be relied upon.

I was mate for Capt. Henry Webb. He ran the only charter boat operating north of the settelment of Nain, up (they say down) the coast into the uninhabited areas of the Labrador Coast. I performed all the above tasks as well as others so know somewhat of what I speak. I've also had two years worth of time in SE AK commercial fishing and operating small craft.

Your idea is feasible but requires a thorough looking over if disappointment is to be avoided at a later date.

Take care & good fortune.

TGoz

 

Some passenger that you don't want (crew too)

Timgoz is right. On short trips, the problem people are gone in short order. On longer trips you can run into real problems that can cost you your license if boarded by authorities. On longer trips we've had to actually put drunken passengers ashore and we don't pay their way home. In other cases, passengers have brought and used illegal substances aboard on cruises such as the New York 4th of July Fireworks display (a 20 hour trip). In every aspect you have to be professional in dealing with passengers and it can be a real pain if not dangerous. Never approach and unruly passenger alone. With those that wouldn't give up their illegal substances, police were waiting at the dock, or summoned onboard by radio. You are a captain and the responsibility of the safety of the vessel and the passengers is 100% legally yours. Also, know your crew members well. There have been more than enough incidents of crew members bringing illegal substances aboard. Best advice is to fire them and put them ashore at the nearest port when they are caught. Best to know maritime law as found in CFR 46 and 37 and take a course in the subject.

 

Thanks Timgoz and Greenseas2 for those generous informations.
I know a charter captain who, after some dissillusions chartering winter cruise in the Bahamas, installed the following process: his boat was on Lake Champlain during summer and potential winter client had to registered for a day cruise before they could be accepted for long term winter cruise.
I totally agree with the extreme awareness suggested.

 

IF anyone already HAS a license to operate a head boat , our BONNY BLUE is for sale.

http://www.bonnyblue.com/

She runs the Dismal Swamp Canal , doing History & Eco tours during the summer and a Lake O' route in FL during the winter is already permitted with the town for a dock.

Inquire at the site .

FF

 

St. Lucie North Fork

Hi Fred, We're over on the other side of the Okeechobee Waterway and did eco-cruises on the North Fork which is relatively unspoiled.