New TowBoatUS Service on Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee, to Help Fisherman In Need
TowBoatUS helps anglers get home safely
OLD HICKORY LAKE, Tenn. May 9, 2012 — Anglers on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville, Tenn., have a new and low-cost way to get help if they run aground, run out of fuel or have a mechanical breakdown. Capt. Shane O’Neal, who runs TowBoatUS ports in five other locations in Tennessee and Alabama, has opened TowBoatUS Old Hickory.
“We saw the need for it,” O’Neal
said, explaining that after he opened TowBoatUS Percy Priest Lake,
a landlocked body of water just a few miles away, he started getting
calls to help boaters on Old Hickory. “It’s just a 10-minute
drive, but we had to get the boat out of the water and trailer it
over.” That wasn’t efficient, so he worked with BoatUS
to create a new towing port right on Old Hickory Lake.
His boat, a 21-foot Zodiac inflatable RIB with Yamaha 150-horsepower
outboard is based is based in Hermitage, Tenn. It has a black PVC
hull with words TowBoatUS painted in bright red. It can get anywhere
on the lake within 30 minutes and can tow boats of almost any size.
The largest, so far, was a 115-foot houseboat.
Much like an auto club for boaters, TowBoatUS offers on-the-water
towing plans for freshwater anglers for just $58 a year
which includes BoatUS
ANGLER membership. “It gives our members a good
feeling to know there is someone to help 24 hours a day, seven days
a week,” O’Neal said. Without a towing plan, boaters face
costs that average $600 per incident nationally.
O’Neal, a former firefighter and lifelong boater, became familiar
with TowBoatUS through personal need. “I bought a 30-foot Sea
Ray, my first big boat, five years ago and I went looking around for
towing services in case I needed one.” He found TowBoatUS online,
and when he discovered the company had no towing ports in his area,
he decided he’d better do something about it. He opened his
first port on Chickamauga Lake, Tenn., in 2008. Since then O’Neal’s
towing business has been one of the fastest growing in the BoatUS
towing fleet. In addition to Old Hickory, Percy Priest and Chickamauga
Lakes, O’Neal’s operations include Watts Barr and Nickajack
Lakes in Tennessee and locations on Guntersville Lake in Alabama.
A new port, his first on salt water, will open in Lafitte, La., in
the near future.
O’Neal and all of his boat captains are USCG-licensed mariners,
and all seven locations have response vessels fully rigged for towing
and salvage work. They carry extra fuel and engine fluids, pumps,
dive gear and battery “jump packs.”
Recreational boaters can call any of O’Neal’s locations
24 hours a day at 423-326-9768, through the BoatUS toll-free dispatch
service at 800-391-4869, or by hailing on VHF Channel 16. To see the
location on a map, go to www.BoatUS.com/oldhickorylake.
For more information about the many benefits of a
BoatUS ANGLER Membership visit www.BoatUSAngler.com
