What It Costs to Hire a Boat Captain in Florida

The cost to hire a boat captain in Florida starts with a day rate, and the day rate is the easy part. One quote ends up bigger than another because of what rides along with the day: getting the captain to the boat, a second set of hands, nights away from home. Some costs never touch the captain at all, because they belong to the boat.

You won't find a rate sheet on my site, and there isn't one here. What's here is how a quote gets built for the jobs owners hire me for in Florida, so when one comes in, you'll recognize every line on it.

What you're paying for

A lot of the captain prices you'll come across in Florida are charter prices, and a charter price pays for the boat and the crew together. Hiring a captain for your own boat is a different purchase. The boat and her fuel are already yours. What you're paying for is the person at the helm: a licensed captain who runs your boat while you host, learn or ride along. That's the job of a captain for hire in Florida, and it's why the two kinds of price don't line up.

How is a captain's day priced?

Most jobs run on a day rate. The day isn't the hours the engines run. It's the walk-through before your guests come aboard, the run itself, any waiting the weather asks for, and getting her secured at the end. A half-day rate applies when the job really is half a day.

I don't charge by the hour, because an hourly rate puts a meter on the weather call. On a Florida summer afternoon, the right call is sometimes to come in early, or to sit at the dock while a storm blows through. On a day rate, neither one changes what you pay. It's the same reason deliveries run on a day rate.

What rides along with the day

Longer trips. A run down to the Keys, a Gulf crossing or a passage to the Bahamas works like a delivery. Each day aboard bills at the day rate, and getting the captain to the boat and home again adds travel days at a reduced rate. The mileage or airfare, the hotel and the meals pass through at cost, itemized like everything else. A day held at the dock for weather is still a working day. Routes and run times are on my boat delivery in Florida page.

A mate. A long passage, running at night or a big boat usually calls for a second set of hands, and a mate is a second day rate. A day out with you aboard usually doesn't need one, and I'll tell you which yours is when we plan it.

What stays with the boat

None of the boat's own costs are in my rate. Fuel, dockage and pump-outs along the way, ice and provisions, and parts and repairs if something breaks all stay with the boat.

Insurance stays with the boat too, and it gets settled before the trip: your carrier approves the captain in writing, usually with a rider for a hired captain. Ask your agent whether adding a captain changes your premium.

Your guests can chip in for the fuel and the food. A voluntary share of the trip's actual expenses doesn't make anyone a paying passenger under the federal definition. Splitting my day rate is a different matter, so ask me before anyone does. If anyone pays to be aboard, the trip is a charter, and the Coast Guard's rules for paying passengers apply to the boat and the captain both. Tell me up front, and I'll say what the boat and the paperwork would need.

Lessons, check rides and sea trials

Lessons on your own boat. One afternoon on docking and a full program on a twin-engine 50-footer aren't the same job, so boating lessons in Florida get quoted after we talk about the boat and what you want to work on.

Insurance check rides. The quote for an insurance check ride follows what your binder asks for, whether that's one check ride or forty hours with a captain aboard.

Sea trials. If you're buying, hiring me as your sea trial captain is priced by what you need, from one sea trial to help through the whole purchase.

If the boat has to move anyway, learning her on the way costs less than the same lessons booked on their own. An owner-assisted delivery puts the instruction on days you're already paying for, and with your carrier's OK, the time aboard can count toward any hours it wants with a captain.

What a lower quote can leave out

A lower number isn't automatically a worse deal, but it's worth asking what it leaves out. Start with the license. Anyone can call themselves a captain, but your carrier will want a Mariner Reference Number before it approves one. It takes about two minutes to check a captain's license yourself.

Then the paperwork. A written agreement covers the job, the rate and what happens if the weather doesn't cooperate, and it's settled before anybody needs it. The rest never shows up as a line on a quote: a captain who's aboard early to check her systems, and a note afterward on anything that needs attention.

Five questions for any captain's quote

• Is it a day rate, a half-day rate or by the hour?

• What travel is on it, and is it itemized?

• Does the trip need a mate?

• Which costs stay with the boat?

• What's the captain's Mariner Reference Number, and has my carrier approved them in writing?

Getting a real number

The quote comes after a short call. It goes faster with a few things in hand: the boat's make and length, where she's kept, the date, what you have in mind, who'll be aboard and whether anyone is paying, and the name of your carrier. Holiday weekends, boat parades and the winter months book first, so call early for those.

If there's a day on the water, an event or a run coming up in Florida, tell me about the boat. The conversation is free, and the quote comes in writing.