Serving Newport & Narragansett Bay
Yacht management in Newport,
without the second job.
Newport has some of the best sailing water in the world. Owning a boat here shouldn’t mean chasing yards, decoding invoices and hoping the launch date holds. One number reaches me, and I stay on the job until it’s done right.
Flooding through-hull to stabilized, with a plan
Hydraulic failure at sea to underway again
On-time launches. Your dates hold.
A missing serial number to the right part, confirmed
Why owners do this
You get the boat back, and your time.
Keeping a boat right on the Bay takes a rigger, a mechanic, an electronics tech, a canvas shop, a yard and a hauler, and you need a real relationship with every one of them before any of them puts your boat first in July. Building that network is a second career. I've already built it.
I answer.
One number, and it's me. I know your boat and I know the Bay, and you're not going to sit in a queue or wait a week for a callback.
I get it moving.
A decision, a tradesperson booked and a date on the calendar, even in the weeks when nobody around the Bay has room. Most of what a boat costs an owner is the weeks a job sits waiting for somebody to start it.
I don't give up.
Easy jobs take care of themselves. I'm here for the ones that don't. If the person I'd normally call can't solve it, finding somebody who can is my problem, not yours.
Most of what comes up, you never hear about.
It’s handled before it has to reach your inbox. You can see all of it whenever you want. Imports, refits and emergency haul-outs are on the work, and so is the small nagging thing you’ve been meaning to deal with since June.
What I handle
Everything between you and a boat that's ready.
One call, answered
No dispatcher, no queue, and you never have to explain your boat to a stranger.
On call when it goes wrong
Something lets go at the dock, you make one call, and I stay on it until it's fixed.
The right Bay trades, lined up
Riggers, mechanics, electronics, canvas and haul-out yards around Narragansett Bay. I line them up, brief them and hold them to the standard.
Ahead of the season
Small things caught on a quiet afternoon, not the week before a Block Island crossing.
Commissioning & haul-out
Spring launch and fall lay-up managed end to end, so your dates hold.
One honest point of contact
Straight pricing, no surprise line items. I work for you, not the yard.
Your boat's record
Every system aboard, written down and kept current.
Every component, written down. Systems, makes and models, part numbers, what was done and who did it. Not a shoebox of receipts, and not somebody's memory.
Updated from every invoice. Each vendor's itemized invoice goes into the record when the work is done, so nobody's piecing it together at haul-out.
Assessed, not only logged. Each system gets an honest read: what's sound, what's wearing out, what's on borrowed time.
It stays with the boat. Whenever you need it, it comes out as a spreadsheet of every system and a calendar of what's due. When you sell her, it's the proof she was looked after.
It isn’t my private notebook. You see what I see, the job, the work list and the vendor’s own invoice, in the portal you log into any time you want.
In their words
The owners who’d know.
Daniel met us at the marina on day one and took a thorough inventory of the boat and her systems — then got to know us as sailors. He handled routine upgrades and troubleshot complicated repairs faster than we expected. Having one responsive point of contact is a luxury like no other.
Joe & Kerrianne Ciccone
Charlestown, MA
Working with Martingale has made boat ownership easy. They're responsive, detail-oriented, and genuinely care about keeping things running smoothly. I spend less time worrying about maintenance and more time on the water.
Barbara Vietor
S/V Fidelia
After 25 years away, Martingale made my dream of cruising again come true. Daniel is an invaluable partner — his expertise brings a real level of safety and security to my itinerary. Prompt, efficient, and with a smile.
Phil Strother
S/V Rebel Fox
Common questions
Newport owners ask these first.
Why use Martingale instead of just calling a Newport yard myself?
Because almost no yard is great at everything. There are maybe two or three truly full-service yards in the country. The rest are excellent at some things and thin at others. Still good yards, but you don’t take a paint job to the Bay’s best rigging yard. You take it to the yard with the great paint shop, and bring in your own riggers if you need them. That makes every real project a logistics problem: the right shop for each part of the job, the right people brought in, the schedule held together. That is what Martingale does. Martingale advocates for the boat and for you, and doesn’t send you packing when things get hard.
How do you keep track of everything on my boat?
Every component aboard is written down: systems, makes and models, part numbers, what was done and who did it. It’s kept current as work happens, not rebuilt at haul-out, and each system gets an honest read on where it stands, so you know what’s sound, what’s wearing out and what’s on borrowed time. That record lives in the portal you log into, next to each vendor’s itemized invoice, so you can read it any time. And it stays with the boat. It can be handed over as a spreadsheet of every system and a calendar of what’s due, which matters when you sell.
Do you serve Newport and Narragansett Bay?
Yes. Newport, Jamestown and the wider Narragansett Bay are home water for Martingale, and the network is strongest there and around Boston. But the boats Martingale looks after are supported as they travel, and the network is growing all the time. The roster is kept small on purpose, so the attention per boat stays real.
Are you a Newport boatyard?
No. Martingale isn’t a boatyard and doesn’t do trade work. I’m your captain ashore. I line up the yards, riggers and mechanics your boat needs, keep detailed records, and give you one point of contact, with straight pricing and no surprise line items.
How much does this cost compared to a full-time captain?
A full-time captain runs roughly $80,000 to $120,000 a year all-in once you add payroll taxes, workers’ comp and benefits, and even a part-time captain is real money. Martingale gives you the same captain-level oversight for a flat retainer that’s a fraction of that, with nobody on your payroll.
I just bought a boat and keep it in Newport. Where do we start?
New owners are exactly who this is built for. It starts with me going through the boat in person, system by system. Then you get a work list, a season calendar and a complete vessel record, so you can enjoy the boat without becoming a full-time maintenance manager.
Daniel Martinez
Founder, your captain ashore
Tell me about your boat.
Send me the make, the marina and whatever’s been nagging at you. No commitment. We’ll have a straight conversation about whether I’m the right person to look after her.