How To Boating is an Instagram- and TikTok-based boat handling education business built by Captain Harley Hunt, a Fort Lauderdale-based captain who teaches new boat owners how to dock, hold position in wind and current, and run twin-engine boats safely through private, on-the-water instruction. On this How2Tuesday sit-down, Harley walks through the marine biology career and superyacht work that got him there, the wheel-centering trick he teaches every client, and why he thinks there should be a lot more boating instructors than there currently are.
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Captain Harley Hunt is a Fort Lauderdale-based captain who runs How To Boating, a business and social media account that teaches boat owners how to handle their own boats. He posts free instructional content on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and offers private, in-person boat handling instruction on a client's own boat.
Harley studied biology at Georgia College with the intention of becoming a marine biologist, working with Florida Fish and Wildlife's artificial reef program in grad school. He then moved to Key West, working his way up from dive master to captain on 40 and 50-foot dive boats, before moving to Fort Lauderdale to become the lead captain on a 120-foot yacht.
He does not start with the hardest part. He takes the boat off the dock, narrates every step out loud, then goes out into open water away from other boats to practice the fundamentals first, using a whiteboard and magnets to show the plan before ever approaching a slip.
Spin the wheel all the way to one side and count the rotations to the other side, then divide that number in half and turn back that many rotations. That centers the engines so a driver does not have to keep turning around to check where the props are pointed while docking.
Typically about four hours, since that is roughly the limit of a client's attention span and focus. He will come back the following week for additional sessions if a client wants to keep building skills.
No. Harley intentionally does not issue certifications. His goal is to personalize each session to the client's own boat and comfort level rather than run everyone through a fixed curriculum, so the client gains real confidence instead of a piece of paper.
Harley takes requests through direct messages on How To Boating's Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook accounts, and through howtoboating.com, where a short questionnaire starts the process of scheduling a session.
I found Harley through his Instagram, and I was surprised I had never come across it before, because he already has a big following and great engagement. I have thought for a long time that not enough people get real instruction when they step up to a bigger boat, and Harley is one of the only people I have found actually building a business around teaching it. That is close to what I have done my whole career as a guide, just teaching people on the water instead of teaching people how to fish, so I wanted to hear how he built it.
Harley went to Georgia College planning to become a marine biologist, and worked on Florida Fish and Wildlife's artificial reef program while in grad school, diving reefs and running boats for the state. From there he moved to Key West, working his way from dive master up to captain on 40 and 50-foot dive boats, then made the jump to Fort Lauderdale and a 120-foot yacht. He told me the biggest adjustment moving up in size was learning to plan three or four minutes ahead instead of ten seconds, since a boat that size cannot just be corrected in the moment.
Harley started the Instagram account in February and picked up his first 20,000 followers within a month, all while still working his yacht job. He ran both for about two months before deciding the math did not work: an hour a day on his own business after a twelve-hour shift versus fifteen hours a day if he made the leap. He is careful to credit the clients themselves too, saying the people who hire him tend to be humble enough to admit they need help, which is exactly the trait that makes the lessons stick.
Harley does not take a nervous new owner straight to a slip. He takes the boat off the dock while narrating every decision out loud, then heads to open water to practice fundamentals with no boats around to hit. Only after a client has a feel for the wheel and the wind does he introduce anything close to a real docking situation.
He starts by centering the wheel using a simple count-the-rotations trick, then drives up to a channel marker and lets the boat drift so a client can feel exactly how the wind pushes the bow versus the stern. Harley walks through the mechanics of it in detail on the show, and it is worth hearing him explain the difference between holding bow-into-the-wind and backing in stern-first in his own words.
Harley says he can count the other people doing what he does on one hand, and he thinks that is backwards given how many people are buying boats purely for the lifestyle rather than for fishing. He is upfront that he wants more competition in the space, because the need is so much bigger than what he alone can cover.
I always run guests through a quick hot-seat round of rapid-fire questions, and Harley's answers say a lot about him: chocolate over vanilla, calls over texts, both inshore and offshore, big center consoles as his favorite style of boat, and being overconfident as the most common beginner mistake he sees. He has not run aground yet, and the one thing he never leaves the dock without is a rain jacket, which came in handy after getting caught offshore in a storm with a client.
What stuck with me most about this conversation is how much Harley's teaching mirrors what I have done as a guide for twenty years: give away real value for free, build trust, and let people hire you once they see the results for themselves. A little instruction goes a long way before you put a new boat in a busy marina.
If you are stepping up in boat size or just want a refresher on docking and holding position, go find How To Boating on Instagram and check out howtoboating.com.
Captain Harley Hunt, How To Boating, Nautical Network, Georgia College, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Captain Harley Hunt is a Fort Lauderdale-based captain and the founder of How To Boating, a boat handling education business built on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Before launching How To Boating, he worked in marine biology with Florida Fish and Wildlife's artificial reef program, then worked his way from dive master to captain in Key West and lead captain on a 120-foot yacht in Fort Lauderdale.
Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 921, with guest Captain Harley Hunt of How To Boating. Lightly edited for clarity and readability; sponsor-read segments removed. This transcript covers the opening, middle, and closing portions of the conversation.
Tom Rowland: Speaking of boats, we have Captain Harley Hunt from howtoboating.com. He's also got How To Boating on Instagram — that's where I found him. TikTok and other social media accounts. What he's doing is teaching people how to boat. It sounds easy. It's not. And I wish a lot more people would get instruction when they get started, whether that's somebody upgrading to a boat that's a little too much boat right now, or somebody jumping into a 34-foot center console having never owned a boat. It's happening all the time now. Harley is creating quite a nice business teaching people how to boat.
Captain Harley Hunt: I'm Captain Harley Hunt from How To Boating, and this is the Tom Rowland Podcast. I started this account in February, and it's grown so much since then, because I try to provide as much value as possible. There's not enough consistent information out there on social media, so I try to fill that void. The whole goal is just to help people out on the water.
Tom Rowland: Tell me about your background. How did you learn what you know about boating?
Captain Harley Hunt: I went to school in Georgia with the intention of getting a biology degree to work in marine biology — it's a Division Two school called Georgia College, about 8,000 people, and I played baseball there. I got my bachelor's and master's in biology with the intention of working on the water as a marine biologist. While I was in grad school, I worked with Florida Fish and Wildlife in the artificial reef program, diving on reefs and running their boats. I got out of the marine biology side because it was mostly paperwork behind the scenes, so I moved to Key West and started as a dive master, working my way up to captain on 40 and 50-foot dive boats. After Key West, I moved up to Fort Lauderdale and worked for a company on a 120-foot yacht, moving up the ranks to lead captain, managing crew and staff and teaching throughout.
Tom Rowland: What were the biggest challenges stepping up that much, from a 40 to a 120?
Captain Harley Hunt: You have to see further into the future. Maybe on a 40-foot boat you're thinking ten seconds ahead when you're docking. On those big boats, you can't just wing it — you have to see three or four minutes ahead to set yourself up for success.
Tom Rowland: Where did you see the opportunity for How To Boating as it is today?
Captain Harley Hunt: The more people I've met, whether teaching or just meeting random people, there's a lot of information general people lack. I've had so much experience on the water on different types of boats and in different conditions, so I try to fill that void on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. If you Google something, it's not very easy to digest — nobody wants to read five paragraphs about one little subject. So I make everything very visual, because I'm a visual learner myself.
Tom Rowland: Did you make the jump all at once, or start it before you quit your job?
Captain Harley Hunt: I started it in February and it went really well right away. I kept my other job until April, so that was about two months of working both. I figured if I could only put one or two hours a day into my own thing while working twelve-hour days, I'd be fifteen times further ahead if I flipped that and put fifteen hours a day into my own stuff instead. So I made the jump, and it's been awesome. I've met so many good people, and the people I work with tend to be humble enough to say "I need help," which is exactly why I love working with them.
Tom Rowland: How do you teach someone brand new to docking? Are you doing that at the marina, or out in open water first?
Captain Harley Hunt: We don't start with the hardest thing, because that's just so intimidating. The first thing we do is I'll take it off the dock myself and tell the client everything I'm doing and thinking. Then we go out into open water and just sit there. I bring a whiteboard and magnets to show what we're going to do to get to the docking stage. One of the first things we do is find the range of the wheel and center it — spin it all the way to the left, count the rotations to the right, then divide that number in half and turn back that many rotations, so the engines are centered without having to look every time.
Captain Harley Hunt: The second thing is getting a feel for the boat. We'll drive up to a channel marker somewhere with low traffic, hold position bow into the wind, and just let it drift so I can show how the wind reacts on the boat — how ten knots of wind versus fifteen versus seven changes how fast the bow falls off. Then we do the same thing stern into the wind, which moves slower, so if you need to back in and hold position at a fuel dock, you point the engines at the marker and just back up straight to it.
Tom Rowland: I did something similar with a young guide who worked for me — had him tie up and untie the boat in my canal a hundred times before he ever got near a busy marina, because my worst nightmare was him hitting somebody else's boat at the fuel dock.
Captain Harley Hunt: Exactly. Not enough people think about practicing that much before going to a busy marina. Everybody assumes if they can drive a car, they can drive a boat.
Tom Rowland: Are you selling courses, or actually going out with people?
Captain Harley Hunt: It's only me being there physically. I try to provide as much free value as possible through social media, and if someone wants private instruction, I'll do that. I don't give a certification at the end, because the goal is to personalize it to the client — if they already know navigation markers, we skip that and go straight to docking. Sessions are usually about four hours, since that's about the limit of someone's attention span, and I'll come back the following week for more if they want it. I've recently partnered with Nautical Network, so the content is going to get a lot better, and we're working toward an actual course down the road, similar to the Florida boater safety card.
Tom Rowland: Chocolate or vanilla?
Captain Harley Hunt: Chocolate. Call, not text. Both inshore and offshore. Big center consoles are my favorite style of boat. I have not run aground yet — not yet, anyway. Energy drink over coffee or tea. The biggest boat I've captained is the 120-footer. Mexican food over Cuban. The most common beginner mistake is being overconfident. Talladega Nights makes me laugh. And the one thing I never go on a boat without is a rain jacket — I actually posted about that recently after getting caught offshore in a storm with a client and being the only one who had one.
Tom Rowland: Harley and I are going to do a couple of How2Tuesdays together too, so stick around for those. If you're moving up into a bigger boat and need instruction, somebody like Harley — or somebody else doing the same thing — is a great choice so you're not learning the hard way on top of a dock.
Captain Harley Hunt: I'm here for everybody. Typically I'll get DMs on How To Boating on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, or you can fill out a short questionnaire at howtoboating.com and I'll call to schedule something, usually within the next week. Just trying to help as many people as possible and keep everybody safe on the water.
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