Are there any out there? Thinking about starting up a business. Don't have time and money to tow your boat to Desert Storm, SCOPE, Big Cat and other West Coast Poker Runs? Going to Vegas on business and want to run Mead or Havasu? Or maybe a run from Long Beach to Catalina or Channel Islands to Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe or Discovery Bay? Fly in, go to the water, get in the boat and go! Also would provide guide service or captain service. Can do just boat rental or complete trip packages (lodging, food, even exotic car or motorcycle rentals). Would any of you be interested in this?
Check into the liability insurance, I'm afraid it's going to be stout! And you will probobly need to be a USCG certified Captain to get ins. Hope it works out for you.
Dean
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Check into the liability insurance, I'm afraid it's going to be stout! And you will probobly need to be a USCG certified Captain to get ins. Hope it works out for you.
Dean
I think the insurance deal will be the biggest expense. Depends on what we have for boats but I'm thinking we will have used, but clean & reliable, stock powered 29 - 38 footers that we can buy for under $100K. With a high deductable on our end and customer can purchase additional insurance (like car rental) it shouldn't be too bad. I'm checking locally here with exotic car rental places and the Lake Mead boat rentals to see who they use for insurance.
Captains license would be required for us.
Did the SCOPE run last weekend so probably not going to be out there this weekend. Plus there are a couple other things (car) going on. Maybe next weekend in my 29 Outlaw or my buddy's 36 (or both).
Did check into this myself for the Virginia Beach tourist trade. Was going to sell high performance boat rides to tourists. Saw this done in San Fran a few years ago and thought I could do it here. I am a licensed USCG Master - 50 Ton and did attend Tres's Performance Boat School (I recommend it by the way), and have completed the RYC Yacht Master courses. Also, already am a licensed charter guide and have commercial coverage. Checked with my current Insurance provider, MARKEL, the whole lot - no one will write coverage for that type of business any longer. Just too many hi-perf accidents. Good luck if you can set it up. I would rent from you.
The Seadog in Chicago is ok but my kids asked if they could go any faster. It ran about 40 MPH with diesels out on Lake Michigan for about 25 minutes of run time and pointed out landmarks like a tour bus would.
I think an older top gun with stock power and fresh paint/ interior would get a lot of attention. The rentals for poker runs would be hard to value but a guided/ capt provided event would be easier to get done. There was a guy renting rides on a Top Gun out of Miami Beach about 10 years ago. The boat was like a genie/merlin theme (pink and white paint) and is in the City Furniture commercial still used on TV today.
The Seadog in Chicago is ok but my kids asked if they could go any faster. It ran about 40 MPH with diesels out on Lake Michigan for about 25 minutes of run time and pointed out landmarks like a tour bus would.
I think an older top gun with stock power and fresh paint/ interior would get a lot of attention. The rentals for poker runs would be hard to value but a guided/ capt provided event would be easier to get done. There was a guy renting rides on a Top Gun out of Miami Beach about 10 years ago. The boat was like a genie/merlin theme (pink and white paint) and is in the City Furniture commercial still used on TV today.
The big tour boats look like fun and are cheap but not quite what I had in mind. I'd like to be able to bring the poker run experience to both non-boaters as well as boaters that don't have performance boats and perofrmance boaters that can't haul across the country. Maybe even joint venture with performance boat dealers to bring in sales (once you do a PR you're hooked!).
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