My prediction for some Lake Martin boaters: your boat is going to break down this summer.

If that happens, don’t call me, call 256-307-1313 or (800) 391-4869 or use VHF Channel 16.

Your teenager might run out of gas.  Or, your entire ignition may fall into the hull of your boat, like mine did last summer. On Labor Day. At Acapulco Rock.

Alas, something will happen.  Maybe not this summer, but it will.  You are not a real Lake Martin boater until you experience the lonely feeling of being stranded. But don’t call me – I may not be in a hurry to get you, and you’re sure to be heckled.

Lake Martin boaters no longer need to worry.  They can now call Jackson Dozier’s TowBoat US Lake Martin for a tow – any time, anywhere on Lake Martin, for any reason, as many times as needed. Watch the below video where he explains the service.

For $58 a year. I call this a no brainer.

At the Lake Martin cleanup sponsored by Cathouse Marine I had the chance to talk to Jackson about his business.  He’s been towing boats for years in extreme marine locations like Alaska and south Florida, so this is nothing new to him. He’s also a native of Alex City, so he knows Lake Martin.

“I am so cool and have so many friends, I don’t need this towing service,” you might say. I think you’re wrong. You are way cooler than I am, that’s for sure. But I highly doubt you know more people in more places than I do. I don’t want to boast, I’m just letting you know the facts: you plunk me down in any slough over these 770 miles of shoreline, and chances are that I either sold someone a house there, have friends there now, or have cousins who have lived there since the 1960s.  That doesn’t mean I want to call them to tow me.  Why would I unnecessarily burden them when $58 per year solves the problem? Towing is a hassle. It’s a fun killer. I have given and received many tows over the years on Lake Martin because back then there was no other option.  Helping and towing a fellow boater used to be one of our “rules o the sea,” a way of paying it forward.  No more. Now, I am going to drive over to disabled boaters and call Jackson for them.  He can jump off dead batteries. He can deliver fuel. He can pull your boat off of Sand Island.

Go ahead and get your membership now.  If you break down and have to call him before you get around to signing up, the non-member rate starts at $170/hour and the clock ticks from the time they leave their dock in Blue Creek to the time they tie back up. They call that “portal to portal.”  I call that completely avoidable.

They have a cool app you can download here to your phone.Look for him on the water this spring, and as he zips by to save yet another stranded boater, consider that the gas he’s burning on that one run probably costs more than $58.  No brainer.

Long time readers of my blog know that rarely do I openly pimp another business like this, but  I just don’t see a downside to this service. For the price of 20, I mean 14.5 gallons of gas, you don’t have to worry anymore.  And think about this – the ability to call in the cavalry will result in you using the boat more.  If your spouse is like mine, they are unsure about taking the boat by themselves because the worry about breaking down.  Not now.  My wife is already planning a girls trip where they take the boat out by themselves.  This lowers a critical stat for me – cost per boat usage.

When I was talking with Jackson and Nicki, I thought I had finally spotted the one weakness in their plan.  I said, what do you do if you get a call from someone for a tow and they have no clue where they are, and they don’t have or know how to work a GPS on the boat? No problem, he said. I just get them to download the app right there on the water. Not only does it give you your GPS coordinates, but it allows you to request a tow through the app, and the app sends him the coordinates.

But what if the caller doesn’t have a smart phone? I countered.  Then somebody on board usually does, he calmly answered. 

I was finally defeated, so I signed up.

If you have any questions about TowBoat US Lake Martin, click here for their website or if you need a tow, call them directly at 256-307-1313 or (800) 391-4869 or use VHF Channel 16.