Background
About
A marina and a yard the family owns, and the question of who keeps them in order.
The berths and the yard are the family's asset, and the business runs off both.
Kettlewell Marine is a marina and a boatyard on the south coast: berths in the water, a hoist and the sheds on the hard, and a chandlery that keeps the yard honest. My father bought the place when the yard was mostly mud and a few moorings, and I have spent my working life on the water end of it — the pontoons, the hammerheads, and the winters nobody wants to remember.
The berths and the yard are the family's asset and the business runs off both, which is the part I have never separated properly. My wife does the books and would like to know what she is looking at if something happened to me, and I cannot answer that as clearly as she deserves. Nothing is for sale and nobody is being brought in. I am thinking about the shape of it, and I would rather ask somebody who has watched this done than find out the hard way.
How it got here
From a mud berth to a working yard
My father bought a yard that was mostly mud, a few moorings and a shed with a leaking roof.
The pontoons went in and the marina started paying for itself rather than the other way round.
A hoist on the hard meant the yard could lift its own boats instead of borrowing somebody else's.
The chandlery opened so an owner could get a shackle without driving an hour for it.
The berths, the yard and the sheds are the family's, and the question of who keeps them in order is on the table.
The question I keep asking
Who keeps the yard in order next, and what does that actually take?
If you have been through it, or are going through it, write. Nothing to prepare, no obligation.
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