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May 10, 2011 Portlandbiz

New captain launches boat charter business

Photo/Rebecca Goldfine Michele Plourde of Portland has started a new sea chartering company, She Worthy Charters

When she turned 39, Michele Plourde began making preparations a life change she planned for age 40. First, she quit her career working in operations software. Then she sold her house and bought a 38-foot Egg Harbor boat.

"I've wanted to do this for more than 20 years," Plourde said recently, sitting on the deck at Joe's Boathouse at the Spring Point Marina in South Portland. In a blue T-shirt and baseball cap, she fits in with the other boaters and captains drinking iced tea. "Instead of following this dream, I went the traditional route of having a corporate job. But last year I decided to take the risk."

Over the past year, Plourde says she invested everything she had into her new business, She Worthy Charters, buying fishing equipment and dry suits and renovating her boat. She opened for business April 1 and turned 40 the next day.

The Portland native has always had a strong connection to the sea and fishing, a passion she shared with her father. "It's just so calming," she says. "Even when I was sitting at my desk at my corporate job, and I'd be having a terrible day, I'd go out on the water and in five minutes would be feeling better."

She Worthy Charters promises a "safe and unintimidating chartered excursion ideal for relaxing and entertainment," according to its website. Plourde says being a woman might help encourage other women to book her boat for fishing expeditions, an activity that still conjures images of rugged men pitted against big fish.

"I thought it might be intimidating for someone to go out on a charter with a group of men," Plourde says. Plus, she acknowledges being a woman in a traditionally male industry attracts attention. "It gives me more exposure," she says.

Beyond her gender, Plourde says she is also differentiating her business in a crowded market by offering memorial ash-scattering services, as well as whale watches, sunset cruises, wedding cruises and the like. Relative to other states, Maine has a high rate of cremation, a fact that hasn't escaped Plourde. Plus, she says, "Here in Maine, how many people have a connection to the sea?"

Although she's booked five charters so far (three harbor cruises and two transports to an island wedding), she hasn't yet had any bites on the ash-scattering service. She hopes, though, it will eventually form the bulk of her business. Her boat has capacity for six passengers, plus her and her mate.

By the end of year one, she's aiming to book 15 charters a month. It takes a few years for a charter service to build up a customer base, Plourde explains. But she lives on her boat, bringing her expenses down. And she's finally doing what she's always meant to do.

"It's always a fear, leaving a steady income and insurance and taking a risk," she says. "But I'm so excited to be on the water every day and doing what I want and making myself happy. It's so much more important than money."

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