Towing Services

[marc8201]

hi everyone. I currently have SeaTow and have been extremely pleased with them. But they are not really to close to the areas of Cape Cod that i am usually in. I have been thinking of Tow BoatUS since they are right out of the marina i am at in Cape Cod Bay. BoatUS is cheaper then SeaTow but I haven't been able to find out what exactly BoatUS offers compared to SeaTow. Didnt know if anyone has BoatUS for their on the water needs and could share some opinions or stories? thanks.

 

[greggholmes]

Re: Towing Services

i have boatus. the seatow makes it hard to find out what you get.

 

[gstanton]

Re: Towing Services

I am a Sea Tow member. One price fits any situation. As I listen to the VHF calls for help - usually on Sunday afternoon in the Tampa Bay area - Sea Tow usually says "we're on our way", or at the very least, it will be XX minutes until we can get to you. The "other" one usually ask what type of membership you have, do you have your number... etc... That's enough for me! If I'm in trouble, I don't want a bunch of technicalities, and added charges.

 

[m&m252]

Re: Towing Services

i have had sea tow for a lot of years / never ever had to call on them , but just the fact that for 100.00 dollars someone will come out to help you ,even if its joe in a row boat is peace of mind...i would ask other boaters in your area and see what experience if positive or negative they've had...

 

[Boatist]

Re: Towing Services

I guess I think it better and cheaper to have a second motor than a tow service. In My life I have never been towed. I have towed a lot of people in but mostly people who did stupid things, ran out of fuel, ran aground and bent or lost the prop, ran the battery down with their radio.

Also I fish the Pacific Ocean and almost every weekend I here something like this. Boat call the Coast Guard and explains they are dead in the water as motor will not start or for some reason the outdrive is broke. Coast Guard Makes sure they have no emergency then says they could put out a call for assistance. Boater will respond we have a tow service but can not get them on the radio. Cost guard will take there position and call there service and then call the boat back. On weekend afternoons it is often a reply like this. The tow service is currently towing in a boat from 30 miles out and that will take 4 hours then they will refuel and have a ETA of about 2 hours to your postion. So it 1600 and there tow service eta is about 6 hours or 2200. People are never happy and the Coast Guard will just set up a watch and call then every couple of hours to see how they are doing.

Sometimes the tow service may have several boats waiting. Now this is in an area north of San francisco where there may be 1000 boats out on a nice weekend.

For me I would rather go pull the roap on the kicker and head in at 5 miles per hour.

If their washing up on a rocky shore or have a medical emergency then the Coast Guard will go get them but most just have to wait.

 

[GatorMike]

Re: Towing Services

I've boated all my life and only had to be towed 3 times. Once in a borrowed boat that had a broken fuel gauge somehow I actually talked a Florida Marine Patrol officer into breaking department policy and towing me a few hundred yards to a marina, once 15 miles offshore canaveral and thank god a good semaritan intercepted my call to seatow and offered me a tow and once an inshore tow in the backwaters area around Marco Island. The third tow cost me several hundred dollars and since then I have carried Seatow insurance.

Anyway I just lied....the incident I was fixing to ask about was my 4th tow. Last weekend I was fishing off Longboat Key at night and left my anchor lights and sterio going for several hours. Little did I know that my backup battery was dead. Anyway about 1:30 AM we decided to crank up and go in. Instead of calling seatow I called my brother in law who was not happy about having to crank up his 50ft comercial fishing vessel at 2AM and come get me. My question is, is it possible to get in touch with seatow at that time and will they come out or do they just wait until the morning?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Towing Services

if you are in danger they will come. if real danger the coast guard will come.

 

[BMOLCHANY]

Re: Towing Services

I guess that I have been lucky when I was only a couple hundred yards out when my electricial went out on me(faulty harness) and I was able to flag someone down that towed me within about 5 min.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Towing Services

I've had BoatUS for 10 years now. Knock on wood I've never had to use them.

The BoatUS coverage area is defined as a minimum 25 mile radius from port and a lot of them have 50-75 mile coverage area. I looked at Seatow but they only have 2 ports on the Bay and Boat US has 3 within 20 miles of my home port alone.

BoatUS has me covered out 75 miles from Ocean City, Md. Virginia Beach and Oregon Inlet so I feel well supported in the areas I regularly fish offshore as well.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Towing Services

I guess I think it better and cheaper to have a second motor than a tow service. In My life I have never been towed. I have towed a lot of people in but mostly people who did stupid things, ran out of fuel, ran aground and bent or lost the prop, ran the battery down with their radio. Quote]

Glad I read this thread. Never had to have been towed yet, but the "ran the battery down with their radio" statement got me thinking . . .

We often pull off into a bay and relax for hours at a time while I have the Sirius tuner, the stereo and the vhf all running in the back round. Who knows how close I'm coming to draining it flat before the alternator brings it back up when we start cruising again. I have a cheap led tester, but it's work to pull it out, open the hatch and hook it up each time.

So I just ordered two in dash battery gauges. One for the starter and the other for the deep cycle battery when I have that one on board for my days out fishing. I like to not have that 2nd battery on board if I'm not trolling, to save the extra 50 lbs.

I bought two separate gauges, I saw they have one gauge with a switch that you push to read the other battery, but my dash space is tight so I plan to mount both on wall below the back seat. If a switch sticks out someone boarding is bound to shear it off with their foot!

Sorry to go off topic, but boatist's post about "the radio draining the battery down" comment probably saved me from a future tow!

Also, I have a main battery cutoff switch, but I forgot to shut it off last week while parking in a downpour and boat sat for 5 days in the driveway as the FM powered antenna continued to drain battery down. Took about 1 1/2 hours to bring it back to full on a charger so it was down quite a bit. A gauge would have alerted me to the batteries weaken state, before I hit the water.

 

[d_saum]

Re: Towing Services

Does anyone happen to know if there are services like that for inland lakes? I finally got my boat out on the water the other day and had a hell of a time starting it, and was nervous about something breaking, engine not starting, or the battery dying while Im out there. This is the most money I've ever invested in a boat and I still dont feel comfortable with it so something like "LakeTow" would be somewhat comforting.

Im also looking into boat insurance. Is SeaTow covered by most boat insurance?

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Towing Services

There's a list of lakes they cover at http://www.seatow.com/about/locations.asp just choose Lakes from the regions drop-down. Typically, insurance doesn't cover Sea-Tow that I'm aware of but with the $150 annual membership fee, you get unlimited towing and other services. Earlier this season, they delivered a prop to me on the water when I broke mine. I had to pay for the prop, but the delivery and assistance with installation was covered.

 

[Rogue427]

Re: Towing Services

I have Boat US. Most of my boating is on rivers or lakes but sometimes I go out on Green Bay. A small price to pay for help thet is just a phone call away.