Meet The Yacht Doctor

Born in New Brunswick, NJ (1967) to a family of boaters, Dave was first introduced to boating on his grandfather’s 1971 Silverton 28-foot cabin cruiser. His love for the sea and the adventure of boating was fostered during his adolescent years by spending summers at his Grandparents canal side home in Toms River NJ, playing and exploring on the waters of Barnegat Bay. Dave purchased his first boat at age 14.

Chasing his love for the sea, Dave joined a division of the Boy Scouts called Sea Scouts and spent several of his young teenage years working and traveling on a 1953 65ft Army T boat out of Rahway, NJ. During his high school years Dave attended vocational school, focused primarily on air conditioning and refrigeration system repair and maintenance. There, Dave learned the fundamentals of plumbing, electrical, brazing, welding and more. After graduation, Dave joined the US Navy for a 4-year term where he attended machinist mate A-School training primarily focusing on 600 and 1200 pound steam boilers and turbines. He spent most of his Navy career on the USS Independence, in the Philadelphia Navy shipyard. After the Navy, he spent several years as a forklift mechanic. First on electric machines and eventually encompassing all types including gas, propane, and diesel engines.

Just before his 30th birthday, Dave was at Atlantic Highlands Municipal Marina where he encountered a man washing a 33-foot Bertram Sport Fish and complimented him on his boat. He explained it was not his and he was a deckhand/fishing mate that worked on the boat doing charters. During the conversation, Dave was referred to another boat captain that was looking for help. Dave was hired the next day where he worked hard, gained experience, and never looked back.

Dave spent the next several summers working the Atlantic Highlands Charter & Party Boat Fleet, accruing the necessary documented time on the water to obtain a USCG Captains License. In 1999 Dave applied for, and received, a 100-ton OUPV USCG license to operate in near coastal waters. Soon after, Dave started working as a licensed Captain on a 47ft Buddy Davis out of Great Kills, Staten Island, NY.

After fishing in several large tournaments, chasing Giant Bluefin tuna in New England, and spending winters in Beaufort, NC, Dave moved on to a custom 47-foot Cape Fear out of Atlantis Marina, in Staten Island, NY. During this time Dave also worked freelance on some of the best boats in Staten Island for some of the most influential boaters in the harbor where he continued to work hard and gained invaluable experience. He also worked closely with the owners of Atlantis Marina in day-to-day operations, boat brokerage sales, sea trials, docking lessons, and more.

In summer 2006, Dave started as the captain of a brand new 52ft Viking convertible. For the next decade Dave ran that 52-foot Viking, and later a 74-foot Viking after the owner decided to upgrade. During this time, Dave made over 40 trips between New England, South Florida, and the Bahamas, traveling the entire east coast via the Inter-Costal Waterway (ICW) and open ocean when weather allowed.

In 2016, a new opportunity arose to further his marine career and Dave took a job with Jersey Cape Custom Yachts in Lower Bank, NJ. Hired as a marine mechanic, his duties quickly expanded to all phases of operation in the yard. Experience there included new boat construction, complete repowers, generator replacements, running gear repair and retrofits, fuel tank replacements, fiberglass repairs, carpentry, complete plumbing system overhauls, electrical rewires and panel replacement, air conditioning installation and repair, site management, and much more. Tasks included running cranes while removing tuna towers and hardtops for complete re-paints, running forklifts, travel lift hauling, blocking about 100 boats each year, and winterization of up to 80 boats each fall. Jersey Cape was a boat repair college for Dave and exposed him to an infinite number of problems and valuable experience in assessing how to overcome them.

After a lifetime of experience obtained by working for others, in 2020 Dave took the opportunity to start his own mobile marine repair business and founded Yacht Doctor. Dave’s vast experience and skills help our clients feel a sense of comfort when managing, repairing, and/or improving their yachts is necessary.