How to Hire a Captain to Move Your Boat

Most owners who hire a captain to move their boat have never done it before, so they don't know what the process is supposed to look like. They can find a name. What they can't do is tell whether the thing is going the way it should once it's underway. The boat needs to be somewhere it isn't, they can't take it there themselves, and from there it's mostly unknowns.

I run deliveries for a living, so I see this from the inside. The part that trips people up is almost never finding a captain. It's the order of operations: what happens first, what's on you, and what a professional handles without being asked. Here's the whole sequence.

First, decide how the boat is actually getting there

Before you hire anyone, settle one question. Is the boat moving over the water on its own bottom, or going on a truck?

Trucking makes sense for smaller boats, for long overland distances with no sensible water route, or when the calendar leaves no weather window. It's a different transaction with a different set of vendors, and it isn't what this article is about.

Moving the boat over the water under its own power is the option that needs a captain. For most cruising boats in the 30 to 65 foot range traveling a route that connects by water, this is the move. It puts hours on the boat, but they're normal operating hours, and it spares you the loading, strapping, and over-the-road risk of putting a hull on a trailer for a thousand miles.

If the boat's running on its own bottom, you're hiring a delivery captain. Keep reading.

Decide whether you're riding along

There are two ways to hire the run. Decide which one you want before the first phone call, because it changes the whole shape of the trip.

An unassisted delivery is what most people picture. You hand over the keys at one end and meet the boat at the other. The captain handles everything in between. It's the right call when you can't spare the days, or the route is long.

An owner-assisted delivery puts you aboard. The captain runs the boat, but you ride along, learning your vessel and your route as you go. I've written separately about owner-assisted delivery, so I won't repeat it here. The short version: if the boat is new to you, the delivery is the best lesson you'll ever take. You finish knowing how she handles instead of guessing.

Neither is better. They're different products for different situations. Knowing which one you want before you call means the captain can quote the right trip the first time.

Find candidates, and vet them before you commit

This is the step most owners worry about, and it's the one I'll spend the least time on here, because I've already written the whole thing down. The full version is what to look for when hiring a delivery captain: the credential, the insurance rider, the contract, and the red flags that tell you to keep looking.

The one thing worth repeating up front: the title "captain" isn't regulated. Anybody can use it. What separates a professional is a USCG Merchant Mariner Credential, and you can verify any captain's credential yourself through the Coast Guard's credential verification tool in about two minutes. Do that before money changes hands.

Where do candidates come from? Broker referrals are the most reliable, since brokers move boats constantly and know who does it well. Your marina office and your insurance agent usually have a name or two. Captains' associations and a plain web search fill in the rest. Wherever the name comes from, the vetting is the same, and it happens before you commit.

Confirm insurance before you hand over the boat

This is part of vetting, but it gets its own step because owners assume it's the captain's problem. It isn't. It's yours.

Most carriers require a rider: a one-page addition to your policy that names the professional captain and confirms the boat stays covered while he's operating it. The captain supplies his credential details. You and your carrier put the rider in place. A pro has done it a hundred times, but it has to be confirmed before the boat leaves the dock, not sorted out after. I've covered the why and the how in two companion pieces, on why I won't deliver without a rider and what your carrier actually wants to see. Read at least one before your delivery.

Sign a written agreement

Every delivery worth taking has a written agreement before the deposit is paid. It defines the work: departure and destination, the planned start date, the rate structure, cancellation terms, who's responsible if the boat breaks down or a storm parks across the route for three days, and the captain's right to halt for safety. None of it is adversarial. Almost every delivery ends with a handshake at the dock. The agreement is just there so both sides know the shape of the job before it starts. A captain who "doesn't really do contracts" is telling you something.

Get the boat ready

Here's the part that's genuinely on you, and the part owners most often underestimate. The captain shows up to run the boat, not to fix it. A delivery that starts with a dead battery or an expired flare kit starts with the meter running while problems get sorted.

Before the captain arrives, the boat should be mechanically sound and legal to operate. A good captain will hand you a readiness checklist as part of the agreement. Run it honestly. The trip goes better for everyone when the boat is actually ready on day one, and "ready" is a word that means something specific to a professional.

What the delivery itself looks like

Once the boat's ready, the insurance is confirmed, and the agreement is signed, the run is the captain's job. What you should expect from a pro:

He plans the route around weather, not around the calendar. Power boats generally run daylight hours; longer passages may run longer. He keeps you updated as the trip goes, by whatever communication works for the route. He exercises judgment about when to go and when to wait. A captain who'd push out into conditions the boat shouldn't be in to protect a schedule is the wrong captain, which is exactly why the right to wait out weather belongs in the agreement.

At the destination, expect the boat handed back the way it should be: secured, squared away, with a rundown of anything he noticed about how she ran. Good captains tell you what they learned about your boat on the way. That's free information from someone who just spent days listening to your engines.

The sequence, start to finish

Strip it down and hiring a captain to move your boat runs in a predictable order. Decide water versus truck. If it's water, decide unassisted or owner-assisted. Find candidates and vet them before you commit. Confirm the insurance rider with your carrier before the boat moves. Sign a written agreement before the deposit. Get the boat genuinely ready. Then hand it over, or ride along, and let the captain do the job.

It's not complicated once it's laid out. The owners who have a good experience are almost always the ones who understood the order before they started.

When somebody calls me about moving a boat, whether it's a run across the Great Lakes or bringing one up from Florida in the spring, that's the order the conversation goes in. If a move is on your mind, a quick call sorts out most of it.