My Story: Captain Russ

            As a child, I spent summers on a small island in Great South Bay, off Long Island, NY. My maternal Grandfather had "Sunrise Fish Company."  My Father had the fishing boat  "Capt. Richie" which sailed out of Captree State Park.  Sunrise Fish Company had pound nets out in the Atlantic, just outside of Fire Island Inlet.  While my Grandfather would go to sea and retrieve fish from the nets, my Father was fishing the bay for fluke and flounder.  I've had Captains on both sides of the family, including cousins, uncles and my brother.

            During my teen-age years, I worked at a bait dock, when not digging clams in the meadows.  My brother and I shared our first boat when I was 4 yrs old and he was 7.  I would take the boat to the bait dock in all types of conditions.  A 5hp Evinrude was my power. Currents and tides were learned at a young age. Fog was always fun too. 

            I worked for my father on his head boat out of Captree State Park when I was 17.  He would take families out for the day to get away from the city heat and catch a few nice fish.  

            At 18, I began working as a mate on a 48 ft Pacemaker sport-fish.  For 4 yrs I was the mate before taking over as captain in 1985 at age 22, after earning my U.S.C.G. 100 GT Master certificate. I remained Captain on her for the next 5 years.

            I earned my U.S.C.G. 500 GT Master upon Oceans certificate in 1995, after running a 70 ft Hatteras M/Y for 6 yrs.  The owners were moving up to a 150 ft Oceanfast M/Y, so I spent a bit of time in Australia, where Oceanfast Yachts are built.  While there, I semi-circumnavigated the continent on M/Y Mercedes, a 125 ft Oceanfast.

            On my return from Australia in 1996, I formed a yacht management company where I performed many yacht deliveries, some of which were for a South Florida yacht brokerage.  This reinforced the use of traditional navigation, as many of these vessels did not have electronic navigation.  The brokerage focused mainly on their sport fisherman line, but with my large yacht history, I was commissioned to deliver their motor-yacht line.  This morphed into “Owner Orientation” for new owners.  These new owners would express to me afterwards, how comfortable they felt, and were looking forward to being able to go to the Bahamas or up the east coast with confidence.  Over time, this transformed into what could be considered, an earlier, less detailed version of “A Prudent Mariner.”  I have been teaching this casually for many years, but I am now presenting the entire program.

           I have been the Captain and Yacht Manager for a wonderful family in South Florida, whom I have had the honor to serve on two vessels over the last 24 years, but will now be focusing on Concierge Yacht Management along with safety and navigation through our course along with transporting yachts.

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As a side note, I am honored to use my Father, Captain Richie,

who was ever the Prudent Mariner, as the logo for

"A Prudent Mariner" 

I feel he would be proud.

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Captain Richie Westerlind 1932-2022

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