Beyond the Dock: Adding Freedom to Explore

Marina Car is changing the way transient boaters experience their destinations, providing convenient access to a car when they step off the dock.

When you travel away from your home waters to different marinas, new destinations, new locales looking for new adventures and memories have you asked yourself, now that you have arrived, how are you going to get around?  

This is where a new, emerging service that comes in handy, Marina Car, to help you get around.  Marina Car is about helping the traveling boating community enjoy more of their time and reducing friction upon arrival.  Often, when you get to your transient location, you can feel stuck.  You might have access to bikes, maybe a golf cart, and obviously there are ride sharing services, but Marina Car arranges for a car to be waiting for you to give you the ultimate freedom to not feel stuck, to go explore and to see the destination that you ran your boat to, to go see.

Sailfish Boats, spoke to Marina Car founder Peter Rouscher about this up and coming service and why Marina Car,

1. Peter, before we talk specifically about Marina Car, tell us about yourself and how you got started in the boating industry?

I grew up in Bristol, Maine, on a 20-acre farm dating back to the early 1800s. There were several large buildings on the property, and my dad leased space to someone who ran a company called Yacht Tender. The facility wasn't on the water, but they stored, repaired, and maintained dozens of power and sailboats every year.

My first real job around boats was when I was about 10 years old, scraping flaking bottom paint off a sailboat for $20. At 13, I started lobstering with a friend from a 14-foot skiff. My mother would drop me off at his house at 5 a.m., and the two of us would hand-haul about 40 traps.

My father sailed, so boats and the water were always part of my life. After high school, the options were pretty clear: military, college, trade school, or get my own place and find a job. I chose the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, graduating in 2006.

2. How did you come up with this idea?  Why now?  What was the inspiration for Marina Car?

I have always enjoyed the process of finding unique, fun-to-drive vehicles that also represent a great value. More than anything, though, I'm a systems and process person. That's truly what drives me—diving into how something is done and why it's done that way. Is there unnecessary friction?  Can the process be improved?  And if so, what's the best path forward?  That mindset has followed me throughout my career and ultimately played a major role in creating Marina Car.

As Dock Master at a large marina in S. Portland, Maine, serving many traveling transient boaters, for the past 15 years, I interact transient boaters on a daily basis throughout the summer.  At this marina, we offer a courtesy vehicle, which has been amazingly helpful, but even with a vehicle available, I never felt we the best system for scheduling, access control, and the constaint requests and pull of this vehcile.

The inspiration for Marina Car was really twofold: seeing that friction firsthand for 15 years, even at a marina with a courtesy vehicle, and my own love of great cars.

3. How many marina’s offer Marina Car service now?  How many forecasted for the future or next season?

Currently, Marina Car has three Access Points: Kingman Yacht Center in Buzzards Bay, Crocker's Boatyard in New London, Connecticut, and Spring Point Marina in South Portland, Maine.

The Marina Car system can be customized around the needs of each facility, and at its simplest, we are essentially just parking a vehicle at the marina. 

I have big aspirations. My goal is to have Marina Car operating up and down the east coast by next summer with approximately 40 Access Points.

4. Will you deliver a car to a marina that is not a Marina Car facility for the customer?

Marina Car is designed to be location-specific, meaning each Access Point has a vehicle staged at that facility and the vehicle is returned to the same location.

We are not designed to deliver vehicles on an as-needed basis.  Instead, we want the transient boating community to help us determine where Marina Car goes next.

Boaters can submit our Top 5 Destination Marinas form through the Marina Car website (www.marina-car.com) and tell us which facilities they would like to see become Access Points. 

5. How does it work?  What does the Sailfish owner need to do to reserve a car with Marina Car?

Traveling boaters want to get beyond the dock.  They want access to museums, sporting events, nature preserves, to explore the area they choose to visit, restaurants, local attractions, and, of course, the practical needs of reprovisioning and supplies.

Marina Car is being built to help elevate that destination boating experience while reducing friction upon arrival, and answer the question, now that we got here by boat, how to get around.