Master Captain Dennis Kimerer
| Location : Bradenton, Florida | Years of Experience : 20+ |
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Master Captain Dennis Kimerer holds a 25 Ton Master Captain Self Propelled Certification. He is an educator at heart having taught at the collegiate level, but his passion is in boater education and safety. Having experienced many different situations over 30 plus years on the water, he is ready to pass that wisdom on to you. Dennis is proud to have had the pleasure of driving all three of the boats at Walt Disney World that are part of the transportation system at the Magic Kingdom. Believe it or not, he says the single screw launches are much harder to drive than the 120’ ferry boats that held 600 passengers. In Dennis' own words : "When was the last time you could say you were on a boat with a Captain whose own boat was struck by lightning and lived to talk about it? Well, let me be that person. I grew up in Michigan and had the privilege of spending many a summer on one of many inland lakes as well as the Great Lakes. Many summers were spent on Lake Erie traveling from the western shore to Put-In-Bay or Cedar Point as well Unfortunately, one beautiful June Sunday afternoon turned ugly when a summer storm came up while on Lake Erie. With a total of 10 of us on board a beautiful Silverton 34 aft cabin we took a direct lightning strike that put us dead in the water, but very much alive. A couple of days after the incident I was shown where the strike excited the boat at the water line only 1.5 inches from the port fuel tank which held 125 gallons of gasoline. Needless to say, a couple of years later I sold the boat and took a few years away from the water. In roughly 2007 I purchased a Century 18.5 ft bay boat and spent many a day with my family on the Indian River and associated waterways on the East Coast of Florida. We fished offshore from Cape Canaveral as well as the famed Mosquito Lagoon near Titusville. From there I shifted my boating and family fun to the Gulf Coast of Florida moving permanently to the Palmetto/Ellenton area with direct access to the Gulf via the Manatee River. For about three years I ran both a 1985 32’ Silverton convertible and a 2001 Key West 23’ center console. Currently, I own and operate the Key West and in 2022 I took the plunge and earned my Merchant Mariners license and upgrades where I currently hold a 25T Master with towing endorsement and am in the process of upgrading to 50T. " |
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CaptainDennisK@SaferBoater.org