Boat Delivery, Coaching, and Consulting: Every Service I Offer, Explained

Half the calls I get start the same way: "I'm not sure if this is something you do." Usually it is. Sometimes it's two of the things I do wearing one coat. So this is the answer I give on the phone, written down: every boat delivery, coaching, and consulting service I offer, what each one actually involves, and how to tell which fits your situation. If you'd rather see the short version, the services page lays them all out in one place.

Vessel delivery

This is the core of the business. You need your boat moved from one port to another, over the water, and you either can't make the trip or don't want to. I plan the route, make the weather calls, run the boat, and hand it back to you at the destination with a complete log of the trip.

Deliveries range from an afternoon run across Lake St. Clair to multi-day passages, including runs from the Great Lakes down to Florida. Every delivery requires an insurance rider naming me on your policy before we leave the dock. That's not red tape for its own sake. It protects you, and I've written before about why I won't run a delivery without one.

If you're weighing what a move like this runs, I've broken down what boat delivery costs and the factors that drive the number. The full scope of the service is on the vessel delivery page.

This is your service if: the boat needs to be somewhere else, and your job is to meet it there.

Owner-assisted delivery

Same trip, one difference: you're on board. I run the delivery, and you spend the miles learning your boat in real conditions with a licensed captain standing next to you. Fuel management, weather decisions, harbor entrances, locks if the route has them. It's the fastest education a new owner can get, because nothing teaches like real water on a real schedule.

Most owners who choose this route just bought a new-to-them boat and want their first long trip to come with training wheels that know when to come off. I wrote up how an owner-assisted delivery works in more detail, and the service itself lives on the owner-assisted delivery page.

This is your service if: the boat needs to move and you want to come out the other end a more capable captain.

Seasonal support

Spring launch and fall haul-out are the two most compressed, most error-prone stretches of the boating calendar. Systems that sat all winter get asked to work on day one. Marinas are slammed. Owners are rusty. This service covers launch support, haul-out support, and relocation runs to and from summer or winter moorings.

Some clients book the same two weeks every year and never think about it again. If you handle your own launch, my spring launch checklist covers what I check before any first run of the season. The service details are on the seasonal support page.

This is your service if: the start and end of your season should be handled by someone who does forty of them a year.

Captain's coaching

Five modules, taught on your own boat: docking, running the boat, anchoring, trip planning, and creating a log. Preparation, planning, and practice, in that order. We start where most owners need it most, which is entering and leaving the dock with confidence, and build out from there.

This isn't a classroom course. It's your boat, your home waters, your actual dock with its actual crosswind. New owners book it. Owners moving up from a 30-footer to a 45-footer book it. And plenty of experienced captains book a single module to fix the one thing that still makes their shoulders tense. The full curriculum is on the Captain's Coaching page.

This is your service if: you own the boat, and now you want to be fully in command of it.

First Mate coaching

Watch the best-executed docking you can find at any marina and you'll notice something: the captain is only half of it. There's a first mate managing lines, fenders, and dockhands at the same time, and making it look easy.

This package covers deck leadership, line and fender work, radio operation, trip planning, and the emergency protocol that matters most: what to do if the captain suddenly can't do his job. Every first mate should know that one cold, and I laid the whole thing out in the first mate's emergency playbook. The package itself is on the First Mate Coaching page.

My wife Denise has been my first mate for the better part of a decade. This package exists because of what we learned building that partnership, and it's the service I'd argue is the most underrated on this list.

This is your service if: two people run your boat, and only one of them has had any training.

Consulting

The catch-all for everything that isn't a delivery or a coaching day. The most common engagement is boat purchase guidance: a second set of experienced eyes before you sign, including sea trial support. If you're at that stage, start with the questions worth asking before you buy. Trip planning is the other big one, especially for owners eyeing their first long run up Lake Huron or around Lake Erie.

Consulting is also where custom requests land. If your situation doesn't fit a category above, this is the door to knock on. Details are on the consulting page.

This is your service if: you need judgment more than you need a captain at the helm.

How to figure out which one you need

Here's the honest answer: you usually don't have to. Most engagements sort themselves out in one phone call, and plenty of clients end up combining services. A delivery becomes owner-assisted. A coaching client books next spring's launch. A purchase consultation turns into a delivery of the boat we just evaluated.

Everything I do runs from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, with deliveries ranging well beyond. My credentials, including the USCG Master license and the Mariner Reference Number your insurance carrier will ask for, are all on the credentials page.

If any of this sounds like your situation, get in touch and tell me about your boat. Worst case, you get a straight answer and a professional opinion for the price of a phone call.