Shopping for a new rigid dinghy, had a very bad experience with another major dealer in CT and came across these guys. Made the trip from NY to RI on Friday and had an appointment set with Miles Brugmann to see the Walker Bay 360. We met, he was a mensch, showed us around and spent almost 2 hours with us. Provided me with a written proposal as well. I am not decided yet if I want to go with this Dinghy but I have only good things to say about my experience this far! read more

Maritime Solutions - Dinghy - Boat Dealers Near Me - Portsmouth, Rhode Island

It's easy to buy a boat from a Dealer. The trick comes with the after-sale service and Customer Care, which is non-existent with these guys. My wife and a I purchased a 12-foot Walker Bay Odyssey Super Tender (with Hypalon fabric upgrade) five years ago. Things went smoothly up until two years ago, when I noticed a delamination spot in the Hypalon fabric (which carried a 10-year warranty). One of the rear lift handles also started to delaminate from the port tube. My wife called MSI several times, without response. When she finally did get a hold of Miles (our sales person), he asked to have images of the de-lam sent to him, which I did same day. He said he's check with Walker Bay to see if the warranty would be honored. Never heard back. When I was finally able to talk with him again, he basically said that the issue was out of his hands, but that perhaps they could pick up the RIB and store it over the winter, with the objective of seeing if they could patch the delaminating spot, and re-attach the lift handle. I decided to also have them winterize the RIB and service the engine, since they would have the boat anyway. Over the winter my wife again made several attempts to contact them to get status, without success. She finally spoke to a person who said that the work had been done and that they could deliver in the Spring. I was notified yesterday by my marina that the RIB had been delivered, but to the marina next to mine. One of the managers at my marina walked over the pick up the boat, and notified me that the MSI person who delivered it had tied it up in a slip and left the engine running! They just walked away. This morning I went down to check the RIB out. And guess what? The boat looked like it had been left outside uncovered for the winter. It was dirty, under inflated, and neither of the patches had been fixed. I don't know at this point whether they serviced the engine, as requested, but I would guess they didn't. Don't bother with these guys. They're amateurs. Also, don't count on them (or Walker Bay, for that matter) to provide any level of professional service. If I could give them no stars, I would. Captain Jim Hooker USCG Master's License USA000486814 Mobile: 401.525.1518 read more

I've been bringing my boat here for service and annual maintenance for 3 years now. They are always easy to work with, and very good at what they do. They are also prompt, which with our short season is really important! My boat runs and looks great thanks to Maritime Solutions. read more

Careful of the bait and switch here. Called for a price on winterizing and shrink wrap. Upon pick up bill was almost $400 more for all kinds of extra maintenance done. We explicitly told them to do NOTHING else as our boat just had full service with factory under warranty. Denied having any of the information and even denied an office women working there that talked to both my husband and I regarding pricing. Clearly anyone doing work on our boat could see everything was new including all the oil. It's a new boat with extremely low hours. They took $100 off bill and did not stand by their original price. Stated "we have to keep the lights on" Best advice..GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING & SIGNED BEFORE ALLOWING ANY WORK TO BE DONE BY THEM. read more

Brought my inflatable in to have davit hitches glued on and they wanted to paint the bottom so I agreed to it. Picked up boat to have a bill of over six hundred dollars ! Then to top things off the paint was coming off on everything! Had to bring it back for them to tie it up for another week they weren't sure why the paint was coming off but said they would take of it. Pick up boat was better but not perfect but next day one of the chambers was loosing air as well as the keel chamber. Called them and they couldn't understand why , it was obvious they caused a problem taken the bad paint off, they said they would send someone out take a look at it. Called me and said they looked at it and it was hard as a rock. I go there one hour after that and there's wrinkles because it is soft soft. Back to calling them know they don't even take my call ! Beware of this place they do not run a good business! I have know turned it to a lawyer to proceed to take them to court for damaging my boat and loss of use. read more

I went here after having a horrific experience elsewhere. They did a great job with my boat motor and I will return for future service. I have a Honda outboard and I highly recommend this place read more

This business is exactly what boat dealers should NOT be. I purchased a boat with an engine warranty. Brought boat back within warranty period; water in lower unit, excessive valve train noise, cylinder out of spec. They claim it was all fixed, now within specs. Two days later, the prop fell off while offshore, stranding me and my family. They forgot to put cotter pin back on. Brought to another dealer to look at and found water still in lower unit, won't hold compression. They used improper sealant. Cylinder / valves are almost 2X over engine specs (.033 vs .018 spec), damage to cylinder / valves and not worth fixing, needs a new power head. Dick Cromwell at MSI said "Not my problem" and refuses to honor the written warranty. read more

In September 2012 we purchased a new Honda 2.3hp outboard from Maritime Solutions. We used the engine for one month and then stored it in the upright position in our basement. We began using the engine in the spring and all was good. We are generally happy with the engine. After about a month of use in the spring, the engine began to leak oil while stored in the correctly tilted position. When it's upright or running, there is no leak. We took the engine to Maritime Solutions. After having the engine for 4 days, they said the engine had too much oil in it and drained the excess oil and cleaned the engine and charged over $60 including a $15 material charge which they could not explain. From the date of purchase, I never added any oil as we only used the engine for a short time in the fall it did not need any service. If it had too much oil, which I doubt, then Maritime Solutions was responsible for that when they prepped the engine. We get the engine back and it still leaks when in the tilted position when not in use. Maritime Solutions will not take responsibility for the original charge to not fix the problem. I asked for a credit toward then next repair, but Susan (office manager I assume) refused. There was definitely dishonesty here based on the original diagnosis of the problem since there was NOT too much oil in the engine. The flat $15 unidentified material charge to supposedly remove the oil also seems dishonest. I also believe the tech who worked on the engine was either lazy or incompetent or perhaps both. There is basically nothing to this engine. read more

Just bought my second walker Bay tender from them, great boat, great service. Had a minor post delivery issue, Miles dealt with it immediately and had me on my way. Great follow on support and response times, I recommend them! read more

Brought my Honda 9.9 outboard to them because it was stumbling and dying every time it was used. Charged me $125 to clean the cooling water teletale (which was not the reported problem) and to tell me that it runs fine. The tech did spend another 20 minutes with me to try to get it to fail, but it wouldn't. Asked me to take video of it failing. I did so, sent it, and to their credit the tech called to discuss the issue. Asked me to bring it in so they could run it on the water to try to get it to fail, and I did so. However when I arrived I was told they were too busy to work on it and too full to hold on to it until they could. If I was a "winterization" customer then maybe they'd have made an accommodation, but as I was only a customer charged $125 for next to nothing--no way. Since I'm an hour away from this company I shot-gunned the repair by replacing the carburetor and spark plugs myself, and I now have a happy running engine. I was contemplating buying a fuel injected engine from them, but they've lost that business too. read more

I've been involved in the RI boating community for years and I know the owner and staff personally from having multiple winter services at Maritime Solutions. They are fair and honest and hard working people with a passion for boating. As a member of the RI Marine Trade Association I am compelled to write a positive review of MSI and Dick, the owner, so that people know the truth about a great local RI business! read more