Dive shop in GCM w small boats?

[caydiver]

I am with Doctorfish. We have a Newton that is big enough to have 14 guests in addition to crew but top off at 8 guests unless it is a private charter because that is what our guests expect. We think the number on the boat is more important than the overall size. It is all relative.

 

[mi000ke]

I am with Doctorfish. We have a Newton that is big enough to have 14 guests in addition to crew but top off at 8 guests unless it is a private charter because that is what our guests expect. We think the number on the boat is more important than the overall size. It is all relative.

This is the point I was trying to make. I guess I would consider a 14-diver Newton to be a medium size boat at most (same with Indigo and LTD's boats), as I often go with an operator that has much larger (what I would call "large") boats. I consider a 25-30' boat to be small to medium. ( @Doctorfish, I didn't intend it to be spin - apologies if it came across that way.) The key point however is that the boat I usually go with usually goes out half full - as does @caydiver 's boat (and Indigo limits to 6 divers on a 32' boat, and LTD's newest 34' boat is certified for twelve but limited to 6 ) - and that is more important to me than the size of the boat. I would rather go out on Caydiver's half-filled boat than a smaller 6-pack with 6 divers on board.

 

[Alucard]

I have dove with Divetech (under the previous owners), InDepth Watersports, and Cayman University Divers.

If small boat is really a priority (and I agree with others that it's more about the space on the boat and the number of divers in the group than the size of the boat), then InDepth and CUD would be great options. They usually go out of the West Bay Dock (as do many other smaller ops) and will go where they can to make things interesting. If they are going north, sometimes they will bring their boats around to Morgan's Harbour, which is also very handy to get at from the west side. They will pick up guests from the major condo complexes. I think all of them offer Nitrox these days.

Whether you get all experienced divers is not going to be something that you or the Dive Op can control, however. But I would say you are more likely to get less of them with the smaller ops.

 

[kensuf]

Another +1 for Indepth Water Sports.