The reason we can actually say “all of Florida”

Plenty of marine repair shops claim statewide service. Very few of them have solved the only problem that makes statewide service real: the boat is in Pensacola, or Marathon, or a storage yard in Polk County, and it cannot be run to Stuart.

After a storm or a lightning event, that is the normal condition, not the exception. The vessel may have no reliable propulsion, no navigation, no charging system, a compromised bilge pump, or hull damage nobody wants to test at cruising speed. Running it is not a plan. Once the boat cannot move under its own power, the repair capability sitting 300 miles away is theoretical.

So we transport. We arrange haul-out, we move the vessel over the road to our facility at 3601 SE Dixie Hwy in Stuart, and we document the whole thing as part of the claim file. That is what turns statewide service from a marketing line into something you can actually use.

How a boat that cannot move gets to us

Step one — the free inspection comes to you

Before anything moves, we need to know what we are dealing with. The initial storm damage inspection is free, our storm response hotline is answered by a live person 24 hours a day, and we guarantee an inspection within 48 hours. In most cases we inspect the vessel where it sits — in the slip, on the trailer, on the hard, or in the yard where the storm left it.

That inspection determines two things: what the damage is, and whether the boat can safely be run, needs to be towed on the water, or needs to come out and travel by road.

Step two — haul-out and load coordination

If the vessel needs to come out of the water, we coordinate the haul-out. That means working with the travel lift or crane operator at your marina or boatyard, scheduling the lift, confirming the yard’s requirements, and having the transport equipment there at the right time so you are not paying for a boat to sit in slings.

For trailerable vessels, the process is simpler and often same-visit. For larger vessels, blocking, cradling, stands and load configuration all have to be arranged in advance, along with the road permitting that beam and height require. This is the part owners most often underestimate, and it is the part we take off your plate entirely.

Step three — the road

The vessel is secured, moved and delivered to our Stuart facility. Pickup happens from wherever the boat is: a marina slip, a private dock, a public ramp, a dry stack, a storage yard, a repair yard that has told you they cannot take on the work, or the owner’s driveway.

Step four — intake and diagnostics

The boat arrives, is received into the yard, and goes into the diagnostic process — including the system-by-system electrical testing described on our Marine Electrical & Electronics Diagnostics page. Photos, condition notes and arrival documentation are captured at intake so there is a clean record of the vessel’s state on delivery.

Step five — the return trip

Transport back is arranged the same way. The boat goes back to your marina, your yard, your lift or your driveway, splashed and running, and the return leg is documented alongside the rest of the file.

What you have to arrange, and what you don’t

You arrange almost nothing.

What we need from you is straightforward: the location of the vessel and how to access it, contact information for the marina or storage facility and anyone whose permission is required to move the boat, your keys and any gate or access codes, your insurance and claim information if a claim is open, and a decision about anything you want removed from the boat before it travels. Personal items, electronics you have already pulled, fishing gear, documents — take them off or tell us and we will note them.

What we handle: scheduling the haul-out with the yard, coordinating the lift operator, arranging the transport equipment and driver, permitting where the vessel’s dimensions require it, securing and blocking the boat for the road, the delivery to our facility, arrival documentation, and the return transport when the repair is complete.

The one thing worth doing before we arrive, if you can do it safely, is photograph the boat where it sits. Not because we won’t — we will — but because owner photographs taken before anything moved are useful in a claim file and they cost you five minutes.

Is transport covered by my insurance claim, and how is it documented?

This is the right question to ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on your policy. Marine hull policies vary widely in how they treat recovery, removal, haul-out and transport costs, and some owners have coverage for it that they don’t know about while others don’t have it at all. We are not your carrier and we don’t make coverage determinations.

What we do is make sure the question can be answered properly. Transport and haul-out are documented as line items in the scope of repair with the reason they were necessary — for example, that the vessel had no reliable propulsion or that the bilge pumping system was inoperative and the boat could not be left in the water. That documentation goes into the estimate we prepare, and we coordinate with your adjuster so the transport component is reviewed with the rest of the file rather than showing up as an unexplained charge at the end. If additional transport-related costs arise, they go in as a supplement.

In plain terms: we prepare the estimate and coordinate with your adjuster. Your carrier decides coverage. Our job is to make sure they are deciding it with complete information.

The counties we serve

We serve all of Florida. That is not an abstraction — the state’s recreational fleet is enormous and it is spread across every coast and a large number of inland counties. FWC’s 2025 registration data counts 997,102 registered recreational vessels in Florida.

The distribution tells you why a single-marina repair model doesn’t work in this state. FWC 2025 registrations by county include Miami-Dade at 73,202; Pinellas 49,500; Lee 48,607; Broward 43,118; Hillsborough 41,778; Palm Beach 36,738; Brevard 35,037; Orange 33,716; Polk 30,975; Volusia 28,999; Monroe 27,680; Duval 26,682; Manatee 26,497; Sarasota 24,762; Collier 24,563; Charlotte 24,018; Martin 17,567; St. Lucie 13,840; and Indian River 11,579.

Two of those deserve a note. Orange County has 33,716 registered vessels and Polk County has 30,975 — both well inland, both nowhere near a coastal boatyard, and both in the part of the state that takes the most lightning. Vaisala Xweather’s 2025 data ranks Florida as the most lightning-dense state in the US at 305 lightning events per square mile, records Polk County as having more total lightning events than any other US county in 2025 at 1,057,635, and identifies Seminole County in the Orlando area as having the highest lightning density of any US county. Inland Florida boats are stored in yards and on trailers, they get hit, and they are the hardest vessels in the state to get to a competent marine electrical shop. Transport is how that problem gets solved.

We also serve counties not listed here. If your county isn’t named above, it is still covered — call and tell us where the boat is.

Why the transport capability changes the repair itself

There is a practical argument for bringing the boat to the shop rather than sending a technician to the boat, and it is worth understanding.

Post-event electrical diagnosis is bench work as much as boat work. Isolating systems, testing components individually, and re-integrating them without letting a damaged board short a healthy one is difficult in a slip, in weather, on shore power of unknown quality, with limited light and no controlled environment. In the yard we have the equipment, the power, the shelter and the time. The result is a more complete diagnosis, a more accurate scope, and fewer surprises after the boat goes back in the water.

It also removes an ugly dynamic that owners run into constantly after a big storm: the local yard is full, the local yard doesn’t do electrical, the local yard does electrical but has a nine-week queue, and the boat sits taking on additional damage while everyone waits. Moving the vessel is often the fastest path to having it fixed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My boat is disabled at a marina three hours from Stuart. Can you still take the job?
A: Yes. We serve all of Florida and we transport vessels that cannot safely be run. We inspect the boat where it sits, coordinate the haul-out with your marina or boatyard, arrange the road transport, and bring the vessel to our facility in Stuart. Transport back after the repair is arranged the same way.

Q: Do I have to arrange the haul-out or the travel lift myself?
A: No. We coordinate haul-out and lift scheduling with the yard directly, and we make sure the transport equipment is on site at the right time. What we need from you is the vessel’s location and access details, marina contact information, keys and access codes, and permission to move the boat.

Q: Will my insurance cover the transport?
A: That depends on your policy, and your carrier makes that determination. What we do is document haul-out and transport as line items in the scope of repair with the operational reason they were necessary, include them in the estimate we prepare, and coordinate with your adjuster so the transport is reviewed with the rest of the file. If further transport costs arise later, they are submitted as a supplement.

Q: My boat is inland, on a trailer, nowhere near the water. Do you cover that?
A: Yes, and inland vessels are a meaningful part of what we do. Polk County alone has 30,975 registered recreational vessels per FWC 2025 data, and Vaisala Xweather’s 2025 data records Polk as having more total lightning events than any other US county in 2025 at 1,057,635. Inland boats get hit, and they are usually the furthest from a shop that can properly diagnose the electrical damage.

Q: Should I take my personal belongings off the boat before transport?
A: Yes, please remove personal items, valuables, documents and any loose gear you care about, and tell us about anything you want left aboard. It is also worth photographing the vessel where it sits before anything moves; those owner photos are useful in a claim file.

Q: How soon can you pick up the boat after a storm?
A: Our storm response hotline is answered by a live person 24 hours a day and we guarantee an inspection within 48 hours. Transport is scheduled off the back of that inspection. After a major storm, the earlier the call, the earlier the slot.

Q: Why not just send a technician to my boat instead of moving it?
A: Sometimes that is the right call and we do it. But post-event electrical diagnosis requires isolating and testing systems individually under controlled conditions, and doing that properly in a slip, in weather, on unknown shore power is difficult. In our yard the diagnosis is more complete and the scope is more accurate, which usually means fewer surprises after the boat goes back in the water.