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Over the past few years my best friend and I have talked about moving to St Thomas and start some sort of business. We recently decided on possibly the charter boat aspect of it. We are both knowledgeable about fishing and diving, as I have been fishing for over ten years. We decided recently to make this a reality in 3-4 years. He is recently married, and his wife is fully on board to move and help out in any way. We are talking to a few people who could invest with us and make this dream come true. Through the research I have done, I realize this is a very competitive market. We are looking for a way to stand out. For the people that live on the island and see the business of fishing, what are some opinions that we can use to make this work? Knowledge is the key to any fishing estuary to produce catching. We have talked about me moving in the next year and mating on charter boats to learn the area. Are there plenty of jobs available if I wanted to do this? We are all young enough to make this work and have a lot of fun with it. We want to make our dream come our life. I don't want to be the guy 20 years from now say "I should have done something more with my life" We all realize what we will be giving up, but people make sacrifices everyday to have the life they love. Thanks for the help!!
Posted : October 7, 2008 4:46 pm
I would definitely encourage you to come down and work on other people's boats for a while before starting your own charter business. That will give you a great idea of what kind of businesses are already here and the good and bad of running a charter business.
Posted : October 7, 2008 5:07 pm
You're going about it the right way. Just sticking a toe in before diving head first is a great idea. Good luck.
Posted : October 7, 2008 10:46 pm
This is based on stx
The biggest complaint I hear from tourist on fishing trips is the cost of the trip, usually about $600. And on top of that you don't get to keep the fish. I don't know if there is anyway around that though.
One of the newest excurision boats here on the boardwalk, (I wish I could remember the name) seems to be doing very well. They offer something out of the norm for stx at least. They offer weekend or week trips to the bvi and other places. The have a large 4 berth catamaran. And they do it all for a really great price. I would assume that is pretty much the norm on stt though. Whenever we rent a boat (we live on stx) we go to the bvi and sail around there. But I know we are going to try the new boat on this boardwalk, soon hopefully.
So it all depends what you want to do. If you can think up a original way to put your toe in the market you may do better on stx. Most of the boats here to trips to buck island (which get very dull after a while) or are dive boats. With a few fishing boats thrown in. With cruise ships coming here next year (cross your fingers) there should be some holes in the market as well.
Posted : October 7, 2008 11:40 pm
