Modern websites that fill the boat.
Built for Lake Michigan charter captains by a licensed captain. A modern site on your own domain, online booking with deposits, an AI assistant, missed-call texts and review follow-ups. You charter — we fill the boat.
USCG-licensed captain · Ludington, MI · Built for Great Lakes charters
The captain’s bind
You charter. You don’t have time to run a marketing department.
Most Lake Michigan charters lose bookings to the same three problems — and none of them are the fishing.
Calls roll to voicemail in season
You're on the water, not next to a desk phone. Captains who answer first book the trip — and you're losing those bookings to whoever picks up.
A DIY site that looks like 2014
Builders, Wix templates, Facebook pages — they load slow, look the same as every other charter, and quietly tell visitors you might not be running a real business.
Reviews scattered across five platforms
Google, Yelp, FishingBooker, TripAdvisor — your best ones live where nobody looks, and you have no system to ask happy clients to post a new one.
Three steps
From first call to first booking, in a few weeks.
Short engagement, predictable timeline. Built by one captain — no agency hand-offs, no project managers, no surprise invoices.
Discovery call
A free 15-minute call. Tell me your boat, your trips, and what you want booked. No deck shoes required.
Build & launch
I build your site, set up booking on your own Stripe account, and wire up the text-back and follow-ups. Most sites go live within a few weeks of getting your photos and trip details — and nothing goes public until you sign off.
Fill the boat
You charter. The site takes deposits, answers questions at 11pm, and pulls reviews onto Google so the next customer finds you first.
What you get
Everything a charter needs to fill the boat. Nothing you don’t.
Two plans, one platform. Every captain gets the site and the booking engine; First Mate adds the automations that work while you’re on the water. Built for Lake Michigan charters running real trips — not enterprise software.
Modern site on your own domain
Fast, mobile-first, search-friendly. yourcharter.com — not a Facebook page. Looks like 2026, not 2014.
Online booking with deposits
Customers pick a date and put down a deposit from their phone at 11pm. You confirm with one tap. The money lands in your own Stripe account — DockBoost never touches it and takes no cut.
Missed-call text-back
Customer calls while you’re trolling and you can’t pick up? They get a text back within a minute, so they don’t call the next captain on their list.
Your calendar, in your pocket
A phone-first dashboard: today’s trip, tap-to-call your customer, confirm or decline requests, block out days. No laptop required.
24/7 AI booking assistant
Answers pricing, what to bring, dock location and group-size questions while you’re on the water, and hands anything real straight to you. Up front about being an AI.
Pre-trip prep messages
24 hours before a trip your customer gets the dock address, what to bring, parking and the forecast. They show up prepared, on time, ready to fish.
Review follow-up
After every trip, a thank-you and a one-tap link to leave a Google review — the thing that decides who gets found first next season.
Google Business Profile, dialed in
We claim, tune and refresh your Google listing every quarter so you show up when someone searches “fishing charter Ludington.”
Built right
What you can count on, in the numbers that matter.
- USCG
- Licensed captain on every build
- 5+
- Lake Michigan ports served
- <24h
- Reply to every captain inquiry
- 1
- Builder, designer, and your direct line
Who builds this
Built by a captain. Not a startup.
I’m Will Ruboyianes. I hold a USCG Six-Pack license and run out of Ludington. I’m also an engineering student — the kind of person who fixes things instead of selling around them.
I built DockBoost because every captain I know has the same broken setup: a 2014 website, a phone that rings while they’re on the water, and 18 Google reviews after 20 years of running good trips.
I’m not a marketing agency. I’m a captain who knows code and knows what makes customers book. I build the site, set up the booking and the automations, and stay out of your way.
- USCG OUPV / Six-Pack licensed
- Running out of Ludington, MI
- Engineering background — code is just another trade
USCG OUPV-licensed captain · Ludington, MI · Taking on captains for the 2027 season now
Simple pricing
Two plans. One build fee. Never a commission.
One fee to build your site, one yearly plan to keep it working — hosting, booking, the automations, and a captain on call. Billed yearly because charter season ends in October. Monthly billing is available; ask on the call.
Dock Hand
A modern site that takes bookings. Everything a one-boat charter needs.
Build
$900one-time
Then
$900/year
about $75 a month
- Fast, mobile-first site on your own domain
- Online booking with deposits — customers request a date, you confirm with one tap from your phone
- Deposits paid straight into your own Stripe account
- Inquiry and booking alerts by email, and by text once carriers approve your number
- Missed-call text-back
- One design family, a curated color palette, your photos
- Hosting, same-day content edits, published support hours
First Mate
Most captainsThe automations that fill the boat while you are on the water.
Build
$1,800one-time
Then
$1,800/year
about $150 a month
- Everything in Dock Hand, plus
- Instant-confirm booking and calendar sync
- AI chatbot trained on your trips — answers pricing, what to bring and dock questions at 11pm
- Pre-trip prep and post-trip thank-you messages, with a one-tap Google review link
- Any design family, with a palette pulled from your own photos
- Google Business Profile tune-up every quarter
No commission, ever. Booking apps take up to 20% of every charter. Here, deposits go straight into your own Stripe account and DockBoost never touches your booking money.
Your domain, your photos, your content and your customers’ records are yours. If you ever leave, everything comes with you.
Common questions
Everything captains ask, before booking the call.
Your move, captain
Your boat fills itself from here.
Free 15-minute call. No pitch deck, no obligation. We talk about your boat, your trips, and what “fully booked” looks like for you next season.
Built by a captain, for captains. Ludington, MI.