Majority of Industry Remains Family Owned; Slips Most Popular Profit Center

Editor’s Note: In October 2018, Marina Dock Age released its annual marina and boatyard industry survey, and our first collection of statistical trends appeared in the December 2018 Trends issue. This collection of trends, with statistics dating back to 2012, looks at ownership, what type of government entity, private owner or corporate management firm owned facilities each year. The second set of graphs analyzes on-site profit centers at marinas, showing the percentage of facilities that offer each type of service.

Fig. 1A shows the number of survey respondents from 2012 to 2018 that owned government facilities. The majority of government owned facilities are municipally owned. A significant number are also owned by harbor/port districts and county governments.

Fig. 1B shows the number of facilities owned by private operators, corporate management firms and other ownership models, such yacht clubs and dockominiums. The majority of facilities are family owned. A significant number are also privately owned by individuals or multiple partners.

On-site Profit Centers

Fig. 2A, B and C show the trends in on-site profit centers, only services manned on-site by the ownership. The most popular profit centers include leased and transient slips, pumpout, fuel, ship store, dry storage and haul-out/winterization/services. See Fig. 2A.

About half of facilities offer boat repair/maintenance services and launch ramps. See Fig. 2B. The number of facilities offering each profit center remained fairly steady from 2013 to 2018. The least common services showed the most variation, namely with new boat sales/brokerage, water toy rental and boat club offerings. See Fig. 2C. More facilities offered used boat sales and boat rentals rather than boat sales and boat clubs.

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