About the Owners

Continuing to Realize a
Lifetime of Yachting Dreams

Marquis Charters' owners are a lifelong boating family with yachting experience that ranges back to the "BC" years ('before Catherine').  After learning on little Sunfish Sailboats on the New Jersey shore as a child, Dave graduated college and graduated his boating to the lakes of Arizona on a 21ft SeaRay Seville II.  For two brand new college grads in their first 'real' jobs, it was Dave and Patty's first "yacht".  They weren't married yet and it would be more than a decade before their daughter would arrive on scene, but they already had the dream of owning a proper yacht, "some day."   

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They perused yacht listings often to ogle over truly grand vessels and imagine that one day, one of them would be theirs. After chartering for a couple of decades in the Virgin Islands, and owning a motor yacht there, they found their Wisconsin-built 65 Marquis in Sausalito.  They bought the company that owned her, renamed her "Ciamar" with a full-on Poseidon ceremony, and formed Marquis Charters.
 

When asked about the name, they always explain that it derives from the Venetian Latin for "to invoke," and also plays off the Latin word for sea (mare). But that's just a cover story.  For the real story you need to come aboard and ask.

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After nearly two years' worth of upgrades and waiting for Covid restrictions to relax, Ciamar departed for Alaska in April 2022.  She picked up and a 10 boat flotilla and played mother-ship for the group led by the wonderful folks at the Waggoner Guide.  Ciamar spent the entire season in Alaska on their owners' 'working sabbatical' (enabled by Ciamar's Starlink dish).  After visiting so many spectacular places like the Misty Fjords and Glacier Bay, Ciamar had to turn south after Skagway and started her meandering return to San Francisco.

(You can read their Alaska trip blog here.)
 

Ciamar returned to the San Francisco Bay in October 2022 to a warm welcome in her new home on Alameda. 

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Come aboard and feel what its like to live the Marquis Life.