Premier Support Testimonials

I started working with Steve eight years ago as I proceeded slowly along a long path to upgrade my 1986 trawler for full-time cruising. Over those years, I have replaced many of the main systems on the boat, always following Steve's advice.

Now, we are within a few months of moving onboard and the pace is accelerating. As a result, I was one of the first to sign-up for Steve's Captains' Club and also signed up for Steve's systems consulting services. This past weekend, I attended the Miami Boat Show and asked Steve if he would spend some time with me as I made major decisions.

My usual experience, when trying to select equipment and system manufacturers is that, after visiting a number of vendor booths, I have only moved from ignorance to confusion, which leaves me frozen and unable to make a decision. That was the condition in which I was wallowing when Steve joined me to help select a watermaker, an air conditioning system, refrigeration, heads and a dingy/davit combination.

In 60 minutes all of those decisions were made as Steve took me directly to the most reliable manufacturer for each product who met my requirements and price range. He explained their benefits, asked questions of the manufacturers that went beyond my competence and explained the answers in ways I could understand. I also knew that, if I encountered installation problems, Steve's ability to guide me or know whom to call to answer my questions would make my decisions work in the real world of my boat.

In addition, instead of going home unable to make those decisions, I was able to grab the lower boat show prices, which more than paid for the fee Steve charges.

Don't miss this opportunity.
L. Hall

Technical support for an active cruising boat is invaluable, especially in a foreign country. We've cruised in Latin America since 1996, with a two year break between boats. We've had our boats in boat yards from Ensenada, Mexico to Panama. During that time, we never felt we were in competent hands and I had no confidence in the recommendations I received from boat yard managers. You are really on your own whenever you pull your boat in a foreign country. So, even long-distance tech support would be invaluable. I've e mailed Steve on several occasions and his clear, understandable and confident responses gave me the information I needed to make my decisions. Tom Blandford, aboard Imagine Me and You, 55 Hatteras, cruising in Mexico.

mvgracias@aol.com

The head of my boatyard in Virginia has been Steve D'Antonio. In my 50 years of boating experience I'd consider him to be the smartest, most understandable boat technician I have ever met and his integrity is unquestionable. He has become one of the most admired authors and workshop presenters in the country. I have spent thousands of dollars on refitting my boat and every right decision I made was guided by Steve. I've joined his Captains' Club program and have never questioned its value, I wouldn't cruise without it.

L. Hall
Deltaville, VA

Having Steve available:

We have just tied up to a quay in a lovely small town on Crete, Greece, having successfully "Med moored" for only the second time. We plug in to shore power, a rare treat for this vessel and an opportunity not to run the diesel 50-feet from a lovely taverna, when the reverse polarity light goes on. Much running around confirms that the whole quay is this way and it is clear, to the extent that I can communicate, that no one else seems in the slightest concerned.

I have come up with a thought, to reverse the 2 relevant wires on my shore power plug, but it seems far too simple and I have visions of unexpected catastrophes like a smoking battery charger. So I fire off an email to Steve spelling out the dilemma. I connect again a short while later to find a response from Steve giving me the go ahead and clarifying some of the important parameters.

The consequences of the above would have been an inconvenience; however we have been in anchorages in Honduras, Belize and the Bahamas where we have turned to Steve with more important questions, but with similar results. Even in the "jungles" of Fort Lauderdale, when a worker suggested something that did not sound quite right, I checked with Steve to be guided in a much better direction.

In 5 years of live-aboard cruising, we have turned to Steve countless times for questions big and small and found him always thoughtful, thorough and responsive. He has, to my experience, the unique ability to communicate verbally in technical areas (to me as a layman), to ask questions (and more important to direct me as to how to answer them), and to ferret out diagnoses and remedies where I would have been chasing shadows and drowning in data and suppositions. He may rarely have been aboard but he has been a valued crew member when troubles arise; it is immensely important for us to know we have a trusted back up.

Dick and Ginger Stevenson aboard Alchemy
Kemer, Turkey

"I have e mailed and called Steve with various problems on a variety of occasions from the Florida Keys and remote Bahamian Island Cays. He calmly and clearly tells me how troubleshoot and resolve the issues, from an engine that wouldn't stop running to a water maker that stopped working every time I got under way. Steve's intimate knowledge of these systems and his clear, uncomplicated manner of communication fill a gap that would otherwise be missing in my cruising plan. My SDMC Captains' Club membership is better that Pepsid or Nexium for cruising heartburn"

John Kernan, Grand Banks 47

"If you haven't signed up for Steve D'Antonio's annual support program, the Captains' Club, you should consider it. I have called him many times with weird technical problems on the boat and he either solves them on the phone or gets the equipment maker to call me. He even got a stabilizer manufacturer's national tech support guy to work with me over the phone on a Friday night when our port stabilizer froze in the Bahamas. Steve is like our guardian angel."

John K.
Charter Captains' Club Member