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billfish

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Location
Bay Village, Ohio
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi everyone,

I've had this whacky idea(my wife's words) lately that I should get a coast guard captain's license, buy a dive boat and do charters. Not liveaboards or anything, just a 12 to 15 passenger boat, and sell seats to the local dive shops. Problem is I have only a little boating experience. But I'm extremely comfortable on the water, and really think I'd enjoy the lifestyle. I need someone with experience/knowledge to shoot my idea full of holes so I can get on with more realistic endeavors. Start up funds are not a problem. I believe the market here(Oahu) is good. The boats I've been on seem to be full most of the time. What am I missing? Is the license the stumbling block? I've heard it takes a lot of hours/days on the water to get one. Does a dive boat cost way more than I'm imagining? Any input would be GREATLY appreciated.

Cheers, billfish
 
Not hard to get, but you do need 360 days of sea time (lifetime); 4 or more hours in a day on the water counts as "sea time".

Making money doing this is another matter. Run the numbers carefully, and budget 10-20% of the boat's cost for annual maintenance - and don't forget the fuel expense!
 
1st step - You need approximately 2 years experience at sea for that license. If you keep it to a 6 pak, you can take the test with approximately 1 year experience. Sounds like you have some time to put in before the 2nd step.
 
may be the biggest stumbling block. I looked into getting the license a few years back for other reasons and if I recall corecctly you had to acquire 720 days "away" which was defined as 4 hours away from the pier per day.

Other than that its the same as any small business---to make a small fortune doing____________start with a large fortune.

Know your competition i.e. strengths, weaknesses.
Know what you can do to be better or more desirable to potential customers.

The biggest killer of small business is insufficient cash.
 
And note that a good part of it must be in the last 3 years, and it must be documented.

(The 100 ton masters, as it implies, is for a vessel to 100 gross tons. The OUPV, or "six pack", is for up to six passengers and also 100 ton maximum, and requires 360 days of "sea time".)

The other thing to pay attention to is that the USCG wants time on a vessel that is roughly similar in size to that which your ticket is for. You cannot log 720 days on a 21' center console and then get a 100 ton masters!
 
the memory jog. That was for the 100 ton masters. Yes the USCG does want that time to be in a boat of similar size.
 
Unless things changed since (1987) I got mine, that 720 days is for a license for any (I had a 40 ton license) inspected vessel. Only inspected vessels are permitted to carry more than 6 passengers. It was about 360 days for the license to operate an uninspected vessel (6 pack).
 
How do you get "sea time" if you don't have a license? I smell a catch 22 here. I'm assuming that just being on a boat as a passenger doesn't count. Can you get "sea time" by being on the boat in any working capacity such as deck hand?

Does anyone care to take a stab at what they think a 12-15 passenger dive boat in reasonably good condition would cost???

Regards, billfish

PS - You gotta love Scuba Board. I make a post, go to the hardware store to buy a ladder, and by the time I get back there are six quality replies. You guys are great!
 
Can you get "sea time" by being on the boat in any working capacity such as deck hand?

Yep. So does time on your own private boat, assuming its of some respectable size. For the OUPV they're pretty lax about documentation requirements, but I understand they can be quite tough about documentation on the time for the 100 Ton Masters.

Does anyone care to take a stab at what they think a 12-15 passenger dive boat in reasonably good condition would cost???

There's no simple answer to that; its all price, condition, and capability. A 'working boat" will be much less expensive than a private yacht, but it will also be a lot less pretty :)
 
Steve and Bill, sat arond in a Garage with this whacky notion of making computers accessable to the general public, making them easy enough for anyone to use. Pretty Whacky notion, really. These things were clunky monsters then. Years later, Enter Apple Computer and Microsoft.

Amos thought his chocolate chip cookies were better than anything you could bake or buy, Years later, who hasn't heard of "Famous Amos" in those little packages at the checkout of your local convienance store.

Someone else had this crazy notion that we could carry our telephones with us anywhere and be reachable 24/7. That idea was pretty whacky and impulisive. "Pardon me buddy, but is your pocket ringing"? I guess a fe other whacky people thought it was pretty smart, whacky ideas are pretty contagious, Enter Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile, etc.

Another mad man a long while back hauled out this contraption called an "Aqua lung" to allow the eccentric to breathe under water. Where would Luxfer, Genesis, Scuba Pro, Dacor, and a truckload of others be now without?

Imagine what would NOT have happened had these people stuck with their day jobs?

I'm the way wrong guy to ask to shoot your notion of being a dive charter boat captain all to hell.

I'm in process of a whacky notion of selling Scuba instruction to every joe out there, and his or her mother.

Some ideas are not inventions at all, but improvements that started out with a crazy notion. Some ideas are contagious.

I was parusing over some paid out checks with my bank statement when a friend of mine who was watching had seen one in particular. It was a $90.00 dollar check with the memo portion that said "Bottom scratcher". Who pays a hundred bucks for a bottom scratcher? That's easy, a guy like me who likes to hop on dive charter boats, be treated like a king, pampered, fed well and have trouble free dive excursions. Had Captain Greg not scratched his bottom and decided to stick with his Day Job, he wouldn't be sitting in his wheelhouse now and I would be on the Catalina Express having my luggage tossed all over the place by some 19 year old zit farming dweeb who plays a very poor portrayal of "Gopher", mind you, he's clueless that this tin can isn't really "The Love Boat", and Cap'n stubing might as well be Cap'n Crunch.

Here's where you turn to your wife and say "Hey, ever thought about being a dive master"?


billfish once bubbled...

Hi everyone,

I need someone with experience/knowledge to shoot my idea full of holes so I can get on with more realistic endeavors.
Cheers, billfish
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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