I manage a dating website for people with boats

Niche dating sites get a lot of notoriety. Whether it’s Ashley Madison for its obvious moral issues and data leak, or FarmersOnly and its anti-city folk agenda, we seem to be fascinated by the strange ways that folks find their better half.

So it’s no wonder that SeaCaptainDate.com, the site that promise you will “Find Your First Mate,” has captured the hearts of thousands. Sea Captain Date is a site for old salts to find their fishwives. Or, you know, for people with a boat to get dates in people who want to date people with boats.

It quite the specific demographic. Not just like Farmers Only, which could just be considered rural dating. No. If you’re on Sea Captain Date, you better be on a boat ready for some adventures on the high seas or you’re a phony.

I spoke to SeaCaptainDate.com Webmaster Hoyt Bangs to learn more about the site.

What inspired Sea Captain Date?

It just sort of evolved. Bill Kay, the owner, sort of found a niche when he made a video back in 2010 and it just sort of took off from there. Now it’s more than just captains, it’s people who own boats too. Like any of these things, it just sounds like a joke. A lot of marine biologists on there and people who sell boats too. Basically anyone who owns a boat calls themselves a captain.

A lot of people make joke accounts on the site. Do you think that ruins the experience for people who genuinely use it?

Yeah, it can be a bit of a problem. A lot of people in the Philippines make accounts. We aren’t sure if they’re real, or trying to get out of the country. We’re a smaller site, so it’s hard to moderate some of of these accounts.

How much money does SeaCaptainDate make a year?

I’m not in charge of the accounts, but I believe just a few thousand.

I noticed that there’s an option for “group” or “couple” relationships on the site. Has that always been there? If not, when was it put in?

I believe that’s been there since the site started.

Even though you are a niche dating site, do you have any competitors?

There is a Boat Date and Fisherman Date, or something. I don’t know the exact name. We try to make ours a little more interesting. They don’t really have videos and stuff like we do.

What’s the best success story you’ve had on the site?

We’ve had some people say on the registry that they’ve gotten married, but I haven’t spoken to anyone directly to verify any of that.

I think there’s like 10,000 members on there now. About 80% are verified and we have to look through the other 2,000.

What’s in the future for SeaCaptainDate?

We’re trying to get to get a Tinder-like app released next year. We’re trying to get it released by Val Day next year. That’s when the most people sign up for SeaCaptain date. We’re trying to get more members at dock clubs and events as well and see how that works out.

SeaCaptainDate is one of the sweet oddities of the web that keeps us wanting more. Hopefully we’ll see more strange dating sites like this in the future.

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So what is the website like to use? I hate to make Hoyt’s job as a moderator harder, but I had to set up an account just to find out. I’m unfortunately landlocked, so I had to make a fake location. And I don’t want to be chased down by captains, so I also used a fake name and suggestive stock photo. (I’m so sorry, Hoyt. I will delete it later.)

The site is totally free, so it’s already ahead in my book of strange dating sites. Sites like FarmersOnly and the Atlasphere (the Ayn Rand dating site) require for the user to have a subscription in order to use certain functions on the site (such as messaging). I’d expect this from Ayn Rand, but where does FarmersOnly get off thinking I’ve got a fancy city credit card?

So after you make your account, you have the dashboard. It shows you the “hot list” – a scrolling feed of profiles that have added themselves to said “hot list.” I would assume that such a list would be of the most active or viewed profiles, but apparently, your hotness is completely voluntary here. But will that make you the catch of the day?

I added myself to the hot list, and unfortunately, did not get any messages. I misjudged my hotness, but that didn’t discourage me.

I started to search for my captain in my quaint, fake hometown. Unfortunately, I was met with the profiles of trolls who didn’t know what true sea love is.

If found legitimate profiles and gave them a wink, but to no avail. Playing coy does not get you a sea captain husband. It was time to be forward. I would have to make the first move and start up a chat. But who was online?

Nothing. I sent a few messages to worthy offline skippers, hoping they would respond to my siren’s cry. I woke up the next day with no responses.

There’s nothing wrong with SeaCaptainDate.com’s functionality, but due to the low number of users, it’s difficult to get any kind of a response. Not even creepy messages like you get on OkCupid. Nothing.

Hopefully Sea Captain Date can get their app up and running and get more of a following in the boating community, but for now, it’s the little dating site that needs a little more attention.