Zak Smith
President of RT 113 Boat Sales & Service and a Yamaha Master Technician. Second generation of the family that started it. Tournament billfisherman the rest of the year.
Who he is
Zak Smith is the president of RT 113 Boat Sales & Service, a family-owned boat dealership at 52 Cemetery Road in Selbyville, Delaware. He is a Yamaha Master Technician — the top of Yamaha's certification ladder — and he has run the business day to day since 2016, the second generation of the family that founded it in 2003.
Under him the shop sells four premium brands — Cobia, Pathfinder, Pursuit and Cobalt — and services every one of them in its own building. It is now the largest family-owned boat dealership on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Away from the building he is a tournament billfisherman, secretary of the Delaware Marine Trades Association, and one of the dealers Cobia and Pathfinder take new product to.
How he got here
- He asked for it at sixteen. Glen and Karen Smith founded RT 113 in 2003 with ten Triumph boats on a piece of roadside property. Their son asked to take the business on. The condition was that he learn every part of it from the ground up — sweeping floors, bottom paint, then technician training.
- Yamaha Master Technician. He earned the top certification Yamaha awards a technician. It is the reason the shop could commit to servicing what it sells instead of sending the work out, and it still decides which brands it will take on.
- 2016 — took over operations. The second generation running a business the first one started thirteen years earlier. Cobia and Pathfinder came aboard the same season.
- 2017 — premium only. His call: sell only boats the shop can service and support for the life of the hull. Every brand decision since has been made against that test.
- 2020 — he put the handover on camera. When the shop could not walk a customer aboard in person, he filmed a walkthrough for every boat it sold, switch by switch. The channel that started there is still running.
- 2022 — Pursuit, and a certified service floor. Pursuit joined the lineup, and the service department qualified for Yamaha's Service PRO programme in its first year.
- 2023 — Cobalt, and Rookie Dealer of the Year. The first full Pursuit year brought Pursuit's Rookie Dealer of the Year. Cobalt filled in the weekends that are not about fishing.
- 2025 — Club Pursuit. Pursuit recognised him personally for passing $3 million in Pursuit sales, in the same season the dealership became a Pursuit Flagship Dealer.
On the water
He is a billfisherman first. The boats came after.
He fishes the mid-Atlantic billfish circuit out of Ocean City, Maryland and Atlantic City, New Jersey, and travels to fish the rest of the year — Central America, East Africa, and rivers most anglers never see. He has weighed fish at the two biggest tournaments on this coast under his own name.
The record
| Year | Tournament | Result | Boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | El Salvador Billfish Tournament | 1st, marlin division · 4th billfish | Intensity |
| 2024 | El Salvador Billfish Tournament, 30th | 3rd, billfish division | Intensity |
| 2022 | Quest for the Ring, Atlantic City | 1st wahoo · 3rd white marlin · 3rd release boat | Roll Groove |
| 2021 | White Marlin Open, 48th | 2nd tuna — 102 lb, angler Zak Smith · 2nd release | Blood Money |
| 2021 | Ocean City Marlin Club, Labor Day | 1st, release points · daily on day one | Blood Money |
| 2021 | The MidAtlantic | 2nd on time, Ocean City release points · 3rd white marlin points · 3rd overall | Blood Money |
| 2021 | JJ Fish Week, Atlantic City | 2nd overall | Blood Money |
| 2020 | The MidAtlantic | 91 lb white marlin, angler Zak Smith | Blood Money |
The White Marlin Open publishes its own page for him: the 2021 angler record lists every fish of that week, the 102 lb tuna on 6 August included.
Days worth remembering
- 24 white marlin released in a day out of Ocean City, August 2025, aboard Sea Hag. His words: “best white marlin fishing I have seen in a while.”
- 20 sailfish released in a day off Lamu, Kenya, October 2025, aboard Sirai Sea.
- Tiger fish on the fly on the Rufiji River, Tanzania, October 2025 — hippos and crocodiles in the water, elephants on the bank. Filmed with Bill Pino of Squidnation for Coastal Fisherman's Destination Fish series.
- Nine whites and a blue in a day aboard Blood Money, 2021.
Where he has fished
He travels to billfish. Central America — El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Mexico — Isla Mujeres, Magdalena Bay and Cabo. Africa — Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania. It is the same fishery in different water, and it is where he learned most of what he now tells customers about how a boat should be laid out.
The crew
He fishes with the Blood Money crew, and aboard Intensity, Roll Groove, Sea Hag and Sirai Sea depending on where the fish are. He also spearfishes.
In the sport and the trade
The parts that are not about selling boats.
- Secretary, Delaware Marine Trades Association. An officer of the trade body for Delaware's marine businesses, named on the association's own board page.
- Dealer council, Cobia and Pathfinder. He sits on Maverick Boat Group's dealer council, working with the builder on new product — the dealers who see what customers actually ask for, feeding it back into what gets built.
- Tournament board, Tuna & Tiaras. He helps run the Ocean City tournament, which raises money for Women Supporting Women. RT 113 also hosts its $5,000 Outboard Motor Bonus Jackpot — any outboard-powered boat in the heaviest-tuna Calcutta is automatically in for it — and puts a boat on the water as a catch boat.
- He built the scoring app for Marlins for Mason. The release tournament runs out of the Ocean City Marlin Club and Sunset Marina for the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, in the name of Mason Prather. Its 2025 running gave the foundation $682,550, the largest donation it has ever received. The scoring the boats report on is his.
- Sponsorships. RT 113 backs the Ocean City Tuna Tournament, the Huk Big Fish Classic and Tuna & Tiaras.
- Speaking. He has presented at the Primary Search Fisheries seminar in 2023, 2024 and 2025. RT 113 has been the seminar’s presenting sponsor since it began.
- On film. Coastal Fisherman's 2026 Destination Fish series, with Bill Pino of Squidnation, followed him to Tanzania for tiger fish on the fly.
What he does day to day
He is on the floor, not behind it. He holds the Yamaha Master Technician certification the service department is built around, he films the walkthroughs the dealership publishes on its own channel, and he reads every review the shop gets and answers them himself.
The dealership he runs holds Yamaha Marine Service Pro Elite status, has taken Cobia's number one customer satisfaction score for the brand twice, was Cobia's number one dealer in the North Region in 2021 and 2022, and has been a Pursuit Flagship Dealer in 2025 and 2026.
In the press
- Soundings Trade Only — “Boats Group Price Hikes Fuel Industrywide, Global Response” Kim Kavin, 30 May 2025. The trade paper went to him, by name, for the industry's reaction.
- Cape Gazette — “Rt. 113 Boat Sales celebrates 20 years with million dollar sale” Chris Flood, 18 May 2023. How the handover happened, told by his parents.
- WSFS Bank — “Celebrating Small Businesses: Route 113 Boat Sales” 1 May 2020. The year he took the boat handover onto YouTube.
- The Saltwater Euphoria Podcast, episode 80 With Captain Ricky Wheeler. Boat tech, sales, white marlin out of Ocean City and spearfishing.
Find him
- Instagram — @_that_boat_guy_ His own account.
- LinkedIn — Zachary Smith President, RT 113 Boat Sales.
- YouTube — RT 113 Boat Sales by Zak Smith The walkthroughs and the how-to films.
- Instagram — @rt113boatsales The dealership's account.
- About RT 113 Boat Sales The whole story, from ten Triumphs in 2003.
Where his name is on the record
Pages other people publish, which is the part that does not depend on us saying so.
- White Marlin Open — his angler record The tournament's own page, fish by fish, under his name.
- Delaware Marine Trades Association — the board Listed as secretary, with the dealership beside his name.
- Soundings Trade Only Quoted by name as president of the shop.
Common questions
Who owns RT 113 Boat Sales?
RT 113 Boat Sales & Service is family owned. Glen and Karen Smith founded it in 2003. Their son Zak Smith is the president and has run the business day to day since 2016.
Is Zak Smith a Yamaha Master Technician?
Yes. He holds Yamaha's Master Technician certification, the top of Yamaha's ladder for an outboard technician. It is why the dealership services every brand it sells in its own building rather than sending work out.
Does Zak Smith fish?
He is a tournament billfisherman. He has weighed fish under his own name at the White Marlin Open — a 102 lb tuna for second place in 2021 — and at The MidAtlantic, and he has taken first in the marlin division at the El Salvador Billfish Tournament. He fishes out of Ocean City, Maryland, and travels to fish Central America and East Africa.
What brands does his dealership sell?
Cobia, Pathfinder, Pursuit and Cobalt, all on Yamaha power, from 52 Cemetery Road in Selbyville, Delaware.
Where can I follow Zak Smith?
His own account is @_that_boat_guy_ on Instagram. The dealership's walkthrough films are on YouTube.