Marina Holdings: All about the environment
With two locations in Maine — Yarmouth Boat Yard (YBY) in Yarmouth and Moose Landing Marina (MLM) in Naples — Marina Holdings made a strong statement when it made its debut on Boating Industry’s 2018 Top 100 list.
Yarmouth Boat Yard was purchased by Marina Holdings owner Steven Arnold in January 2004 and hasn’t slowed down since. The location boasts almost 24,000 square-feet on- and off-site between its sales and service, heated indoor service and storage, and fiberglass and paint buildings.
Yarmouth Boat Yard is also home to a full-service marina with over 100 slips and can accommodate boats up to 46 feet in length. Slip space at Yarmouth Boat Yard is currently 100 percent full, paired with a sizeable waitlist when space opens up.
Moose Landing Marina was added to the Marina Holdings portfolio in February 2013. The location features a 15-acre property with more than 1,000 feet of water frontage, making in the largest on-water facility in the lakes region. Moose Landing Marina features a full-service marina with over 200 deep-water slips, with the ability to handle boats up to 55 feet in length.
On top of its already long list of features, Moose Landing Marina also boasts a fleet of more than 64 rental boats, to further increase customers’ opportunities to get out on the water.
The marina currently features a 1,300-square-foot service and parts office, an 800-square-foot sales building and outdoor rack storage for up to 330 boats. However, Moose Landing only continues to grow.
“To accommodate this growth we have built over 60,000 square-feet of indoor heated, indoor storage, cruiser storage and a new service building, as well as buying 10 acres of land in two parcels for future growth,” Arnold said. “One of those parcels is 40 yards across the street and will be a new showroom and indoor heated storage facility.”
Prior to having the new storage buildings, MLM was meeting customer boat storage needs by renting space in Bridgton, which is approximately 15 minutes away from the marina.
“This required MLM crew to expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and fuel to transport the 175-plus vessels each season to and from the off-site storage location. With the new buildings, MLM will save roughly 300 gallons per year in transport fuel and 350 man-hours,” Arnold said.
Aside from providing its customers with exemplary service, Arnold and the team at Marina Holdings puts a large emphasis on running as environmentally friendly as possible.
At Yarmouth Boat Yard, they recently installed a waste oil furnace in order to be able to recycle waste oil from boats to heat the location’s buildings through the winter months.
At Moose Landing Marina, the company added weather-resistant netting to its boatel, resulting in a win-win for the environment and cost savings for the company.
“The boatel is a partially-enclosed structure that offers a more protective storage solution than standard outdoor racks. However, because the sides of the boatel are open to the elements, shrink-wrapping was still required on each vessel. With the installation of the new netting, the boats are more protected from the elements, eliminating the need for individual shrink wrapping,” Arnold said. “This upgrade provided a reduction in 1,200-linear-feet, or 24,000-square-feet of polymer plastic material this year alone. It reduces the landfill waste that is generated by the shrink-wrap and it takes out the material shrink-wrap expense and labor hours to shrink-wrap a boat.”
In addition to the netting, a considerable amount of site work was done to the land at MLM to reduce water run-off to the lakes.
“It is estimated that these improvements will decrease detrimental site runoff by 20 percent,” Arnold said. “This helps help the integrity of Brandy Pond and aids in protecting plants, fish and wildlife.”
On top of creating “greener” facilities, Arnold strives to create the best possible work environment for Marina Holdings’ employees.
“I believe we have the best place to work, but I am always trying to improve every employee’s environment,” Arnold said. “For me, I want the employee to feel like the owner has their best interest at heart.”
The efforts across the board of Arnold and the Marina Holdings crew landed them a 14 percent increase in revenue for 2017 and its first Top 100 accolades, with promise to continue pushing the company forward.
