Interview with Chris Reiser and David Martin.
Chris: 97.7 ACK-FM. It’s true island radio and look, it’s 2 guys in the car drinking coffee back on the set. Good morning I’m Chris Reiser.
David: I’m David Martin – we’re back in the car.
Chris: Yeah we are – we are very much near the car.
David: But last week was a boat.
Chris: Right. We were on the boat. The ship actually.
David: The ship. But now we’re next to a jeep with a license plate that says “Summer”.
Chris: That’s right. And we’re near the owner of that jeep as well. A lovely young lady.
David: Kelly Lyden is with us and its a brand new company. She walked into the chamber and we met with her. The company is called KellyBoat and they essentially match boats with guests.
Chris: Oh!
David: I think this is such a cool idea. So you have private yachts, with a captain, and you can have an unforgettable day on the water. Kelly I said that right?
Kelly: You did! You nailed it perfectly. I’m going to hire you!
David: Talk a little bit about how the company got started, where the idea came from, and its just a fascinating idea and I think people are going to love this.
Kelly: Sure, thanks for having me. Last year we had some friends coming out to visit, and they said let’s do something different. Let’s go out on a boat. Find us a boat. And I looked and looked and I couldn’t find anything that matched our needs. And it seemed strange to me that on an island, we wouldn’t have access to the ocean. So, I looked into the existing models and spent a year designing this company to overcome a lot of the pitfalls I saw in the existing models. To make sure that the owners feel incredibly safe with their precious yacht in my hands. So we partnered with the number one provider of marine insurance to make sure each yacht is covered, every chatter is covered. We only allow US coast guard certified captains to operate the vessels. We don’t do bare boating. And it’s been really fun putting that together.
David: So you are essentially a boat broker in some ways?
Kelly: Yeah, our platform is a peer to peer platform. Boat owners can upload pictures and a description of their boat right on the platform, and guests can go to the platform and just click through a bunch of different options and book it right their on the platform.
David: So if you’re someone visiting the island and you want to have a day on the water, that is a reason to contact you, but if you are the owner of a boat and its maybe just sitting in a slip not doing much, that would be another reason.
Kelly: Exactly. So I’ve been a boat owner my whole life and one of the things I’ve always – it sort of gnaws in the back of your mind as a boat owner is “gosh another week went by and we didn’t get out on the boat.” We launch the boat, we pay all the money for the insurance, cleaning it, for dockage, all of that – it really adds up to quite a bit of money and you don’t use it as often as you want.
David: It’s an expensive proposition to be a boat owner.
Kelly: It is, it is. And this is just a really great way to monetize an asset for people who own yachts and made a lot of great decisions in their lives to be in a position to owning a yacht and you look at your yacht as an asset it should be issuing returns, this is a way to do that.
Chris: What sort of response are you getting?
Kelly: It’s been fantastic! Thank you for asking. It’s been really fun. It’s interesting that this hasn’t really existed before and and the response from concierges, event planners and real estate agents has been “This is the thing our guests will just love. We really need to do this. And from the boat owners as well has been “you know what I was thinking of selling my boat – I just don’t get to use it enough to justify owning it and this is a way I can still own the boat, but also offset some costs of ownership.
Chris: What size groups do you typically hear from?
Kelly: Many of the boats because of licensing issues that I won’t board you with are for six guests or fewer. We do get some larger requests. We had one for a group of twenty people who just wanted to have dinner on a boat. They didn’t even want to leave the dock which is a really interesting proposition and we can accommodate all of those.
Chris: Give your contact information. I’m sure someone’s heard this and said “I got an idea. Going to Nantucket and this is something I want to look into.
Kelly: Great! You can look us up online where its pretty easy. It’s KellyBoat.com. Look up the boats and click and ship.
Chris: So a quick question. If you were to recommend a boat for David and I, what color dingy would it be?
Kelly: I’m going to go with red.
(Laughing)
David: As we stand next to the red jeep with the “summer” license plate. I don’t know how you pulled that off.
Chris: Thank you so much. KellyBoat
Kelly: KellyBoat
Chris: KellyBoat
David: KellyBoat
Chris: I want one now.
David: I do too! We’re gonna plan something. Two guys on a boat drinking coffee
Chris: With Kelly.
David: Yes
Kelly: I like it. Or a dingy.
(Laughing)
Chris: Alright. It’s two guys in a car drinking coffee. Thank you so much!
Kelly: Thank you!
