Small Marina & Boatyard Operations Handbook

Run the waterfront like a business, not a hobby.

A small marina sells berths, storage, labor, fuel, and a place people want to return to. This handbook covers all five revenue engines and the operating discipline that keeps them running through a full year.

Twenty-five chapters begin with the marina business model, site and layout, berthing contracts and the rate card, then move through the boatyard itself: haul-out, blocking, and storage, selling service labor, safety management, environmental compliance, staffing, and customer experience. Storm and emergency preparedness gets its own chapter, as does money, insurance, marketing, and the operating calendar that ties the year together.

The second half goes where most marina books stop: fuel berth operations and the fuel business in depth, liveaboards and difficult situations, one facility fully worked on paper, dredging and working with regulators, dry stack and rack storage, winter storage economics and shrink-wrap season, utilities and metering, events and waterfront partnerships, office technology, and finally growing, buying, or handing over the facility.

WHAT'S INSIDE

Twenty-five chapters covering every revenue engine and operating season
Seven labeled figures including what a marina actually sells, the haul-out sequence, five hazards and their controls, the storm plan, the case study's two engines, rack storage density, and the weekly office ritual
Chapter 10: storm and emergency preparedness
Chapter 17: one facility on paper, a working case study
Chapter 20: winter storage economics and shrink-wrap season
Chapter 25: growing, buying, and handing over
Appendix A: the marina startup and takeover checklist
Appendix B: forms index, the ten forms to build first
Appendix C: glossary
>WHO IT IS FOR

Owners and managers of small marinas, boatyards, and waterfront facilities, plus anyone considering buying one. The handbook assumes you know boats and teaches you the operation: contracts, safety systems, compliance, metrics, and the calendar that keeps a seasonal business solvent.

Build the ten forms, set the calendar, and run the year instead of reacting to it.