"We believe day boats should be night boats too."

Boating is one of the best ways I know to create memories with friends and family, relieve stress, and enjoy God's amazing creation. And the best times to be on the water are sunrise and sunset. The wind calms down, the crowds head in, the light glows, and the water gets flat and quiet. It's always bothered me to be docking the boat or putting it back on the trailer right at those moments. Why not stay out on the water?

Most people miss these moments. They head in at sunset and head out after sunrise, because the best day boats don't work at night. There has never been an easy way to sleep on them. If you own a center console, you own a boat that's capable of far more than you're using it for, and the only thing holding you back is that there's nowhere to lie down and no shelter from the elements.

We started BoatCamp to change that. We don't think people should be limited by the boat they already have. You should be able to go farther and stay longer. Our first product, the Bow Bunk, does exactly that: your center console now sleeps two, with no drilling and no permanent changes to your boat.

Our mission is to help you extend the adventure. Here's what that means to us.

Make incredible memories. When I look back on my childhood, some of my favorite memories are the adventures my dad took my brother and me on. We'd camp in tents or in his van (before #vanlife was cool). When he was a kid, he traveled to every state except Hawaii with his dad, camping in my grandfather's van. Those trips shaped who I am. I want my kids to have that, and I want your kids to have it too.

Make more of the boat you already own. You've already made a big investment in your boat. We want to help you double or triple the time you spend on it. A day trip becomes a weekend. You can head out Friday after work, fish last light, wake up on the water, and already be at your fishing spot for first light.

Slow down and disconnect. This world is busy, distracting, and stressful. Getting away for a night on the water helps you reset, enjoy nature, and find a calm that's hard to come by on land. Nothing does that like waking up on the water.

Built to last, not built to a price. We could have made something cheaper. It would have meant compromising on comfort, quality, setup speed, or pack size, and we weren't willing to do that with something our own families would sleep in. The Bow Bunk is a real bed, a real shelter, and a marine-grade frame, and every part of it was chosen for how it holds up to salt, sun, and years of use. The shelter fabric is made from recycled fishing nets, which felt right for a product that lives on the water. The mattress is made from recycled materials too, and it's the kind you'd want at home. The hardware is stainless. We obsessed over the details you'll feel but never think about: how fast it sets up, how the doors open, how it sleeps at two in the morning after a long day. It costs more than a tent because it isn't one. It's a complete system. We'd rather build something you keep for years than something that gets you through one summer.

We're a small team, and you'll deal with us directly. I started BoatCamp after seventeen years in tech as a cofounder of TeamGantt, a project management software company, and fifteen years boating the Chesapeake Bay. We're keeping our first production run small so I can talk to every person who buys one. If you become a Founding Fleet member, you'll have my direct contact info. I want to work closely with the first people to use this product.

I've felt the pain of heading back to the dock on the most beautiful nights too many times. We hope you'll join us as we change how open boats are used. We're starting with center consoles, and we have plans for dual consoles, pontoons, and even cabin boats that need an extra place to sleep. This is just the beginning.

Nathan Gilmore
Founder, BoatCamp