Captain Marketplace Agreement
You run the boat; we run the marketplace. You stay an independent business — your trips, your vessel, your calls on the water. You let us verify your papers with the people who issued them and show that status publicly. If any document behind the badge lapses, the badge comes down instantly; if a lapse breaks what the law requires to carry passengers, your listings pause automatically and come back on their own when the paper is current. You keep the customer; we keep our fee. The legal text below is what actually governs.
1. Who we are, and what this is
This Captain Marketplace Agreement (the "Agreement") is between IronJetty LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("IronJetty," "we"), and the charter operator accepting it (the "Captain," "you"). It governs your listing of guided fishing trips through ironjetty.com, the IronJetty apps, the captain console, and the embeddable booking tools (together, the "Platform"). You accept it by clicking agree in the captain console, by creating or maintaining a listing, or by accepting a booking through the Platform — whichever happens first.
2. IronJetty is a marketplace, not a carrier
IronJetty provides listing, verification, scheduling, and booking technology. We are not a vessel owner, charter operator, common carrier, travel agent, or employer. The charter contract for every trip is between you and your passengers. We never direct the operation of your vessel, your route, your crew, or your decision to sail or cancel. Nothing in this Agreement creates an employment, agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship.
3. You are an independent operator
You operate your own business, hold your own credentials, set your own prices within the listing tools, choose your own schedule, and are solely responsible for your own taxes, crew, and expenses. You have no authority to bind IronJetty to any obligation.
4. Your credentials, and our right to verify them
You represent and warrant that every document you provide — USCG Merchant Mariner Credential, medical certificate where applicable, TPWD guide license, drug-and-alcohol testing program enrollment, insurance, federal permits, vessel documentation or state registration, and Certificate of Inspection where required — is authentic, current, and yours. You authorize IronJetty to verify each of them directly with the issuing authority or its records (including the National Maritime Center, TPWD, your insurance broker, your testing consortium, and federal vessel and permit registries), at listing and again at any time, and to retain records of those checks. You will notify us within 24 hours if any credential is suspended, revoked, cancelled, or materially changed, or if a reportable marine casualty occurs on a trip booked through the Platform.
5. The Standard: the badge and the operating gate
The "IronJetty Verified" badge is our editorial certification mark, displayed at our sole discretion. You agree to how it works:
- The badge is live. The moment any credential behind it lapses, expires, or fails re-verification, the badge is removed automatically and immediately. Its return follows re-verification.
- The law is the operating line. If a lapse means your trips can no longer lawfully carry passengers for hire — including a lapsed or invalid MMC, drug-program enrollment, TPWD guide license, required medical certificate, required Certificate of Inspection, vessel papers, or an MMC whose scope does not cover the operation (an OUPV credential on an inspected vessel carrying more than six passengers) — your affected listings are suspended automatically and immediately, and any not-yet-sailed bookings for them may be cancelled and refunded to the passenger. Listings are restored automatically once the credential is verified current.
- No liability for enforcement. IronJetty is not liable to you for lost bookings, revenue, or goodwill arising from badge removal or listing suspension carried out under this section, including suspensions later shown to rest on an issuing authority's error.
6. Listings, bookings, and honesty
Your listings must be accurate: real photos of your vessel, truthful capacity within your legal limit, species and trip categories matched to permits you actually hold, and prices you will honor. You will honor confirmed bookings, keep your availability current (directly or through calendar sync), and follow the cancellation and weather policies attached to your listings. Reviews on the Platform are the passenger's; you may respond but not buy, coerce, or fabricate them.
6A. Shared boats, open dates, offers, and guest ratings
These tools are optional and you control every one of them; nothing sells through them without your acceptance in the console. When you use them, you agree to the following.
- Shared seats. You may sell a booked private trip's empty seats only when the booking group consented at checkout, and you may open an empty date to seat-by-seat sales. Shared and open-boat seats must be priced below your private per-seat rate (the Platform enforces this). On shared trips, 40% of each shared fare is credited to the original group's balance and the remainder, less the platform fee, is paid to you. The trip you deliver to a joining party is the trip listed — same vessel, same duration, same standard.
- Dock Sale deals. You may post a reduced price for a specific date. A posted deal is a listed price: bookings made at it are honored in full, and you may end an unbooked deal at any time.
- Offers. Price offers are off or on at your choice (console → Offers & Deals); a date you flag yourself takes offers regardless. You may flag a date as open to whole-boat offers and set a floor. An offer you accept is binding on you once the guest's deposit lands: you will run that trip at that price. Declining requires no reason. Accepted-but-unpaid offers expire on their own.
- Approving guests. You decide who joins a shared boat and whose offer you take. You may not decide on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, Texas, or local law, and you will not use the Platform's tools to do so. Behavior on prior trips, party size, and price are yours to weigh.
- Rating guests. After a trip you may rate a party's conduct aboard — punctuality, following crew instructions, respect for the vessel, legal keeps — and whether you would take them again. Ratings must be honest and about conduct only. A rating that is retaliatory, fabricated, or based on anything other than behavior on the water is a breach; IronJetty may remove it, and repeat or egregious misuse is grounds for suspension under Section 14. Guest ratings are confidential to verified captains and must not be shared outside the Platform.
7. Fees and payment
IronJetty charges a platform fee on bookings made through the Platform: 5% for life for Founding Captains, and otherwise the rate published in the captain console when the booking is made. Payments are processed through Stripe Connect under Stripe's own terms; payouts, deposits, refunds, and weather-cancellation refunds flow per the policies shown at booking. You are responsible for chargebacks attributable to your non-performance. Taking a Platform-originated booking off-platform to avoid the fee is a breach of this Agreement.
8. Safety and operations are yours
You are solely responsible for the safe operation of your vessel and the safety of your passengers and crew, for compliance with all applicable law — USCG, TPWD, NOAA/NMFS fishery rules, bag and size limits, and local rules of the water — and for every judgment call on the water, including whether to sail. Weather, tide, and bite information on the Platform is informational only and is not navigational advice; you may not rely on it in place of official sources and your own seamanship.
9. Insurance
You will keep in force a commercial charter liability policy appropriate to your operation, covering passengers carried for hire, from a licensed insurer, and will name or notify IronJetty as the policy allows so we can verify it remains in force. Lapse of insurance removes the badge as described in Section 5.
10. Indemnification
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless IronJetty LLC and its members, officers, and agents from any claim, loss, injury, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your trips, your vessel, your crew, your breach of this Agreement, your violation of law, or the inaccuracy of any credential or representation you provided — except to the extent caused by IronJetty's own gross negligence or willful misconduct.
11. Disclaimers and limits
The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent Texas law allows, IronJetty disclaims implied warranties and is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits. Our total liability to you under this Agreement is capped at the platform fees you paid to IronJetty in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim.
12. Your content
You keep ownership of the photos and text you provide, and grant IronJetty a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use them to display, market, and operate your listings on and off the Platform while you list with us. You warrant you have the rights to what you upload.
13. Data
We collect and retain credential records, verification results, calendar-sync data, and booking records to operate the marketplace and the Standard. Credential documents and identifiers are handled confidentially, disclosed only for verification with the issuing authority, as summarized publicly (status and dates — never document numbers), or as law requires.
14. Term, suspension, and ending it
Either of us may end this Agreement at any time; you by removing your listings and telling us, we by notice to you. IronJetty may suspend or remove listings, the badge, or console access immediately for breach, safety concerns, fraud, or legal-compliance lapses per Section 5. Confirmed trips already booked at termination are honored or refunded per their booking terms. Sections 10, 11, and 15 survive termination.
15. Governing law, changes, and the rest
This Agreement is governed by Texas law; exclusive venue is the state and federal courts sitting in Galveston County, Texas. We may update this Agreement by posting a new version with a new version number and notifying you in the captain console; material changes require your fresh acceptance before further bookings. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest stands. This is the entire agreement between us about the marketplace and replaces prior understandings. You may not assign it without our consent; we may assign it to a successor of the business.
16. Questions
Write to captains@ironjetty.com. Version history is noted at the top of this page; your acceptance (version and timestamp) is recorded in your captain account.