I was only 20 years old when I started in this industry. I answered a classified ad for a sales clerk position at a well-respected, full-service ship’s store on the Annapolis, Md., waterfront. I was essentially homeless at the time — living with a good friend’s parents — and I really needed a job.
By that point in life, I was done with waiting tables, bartending and managing restaurants, which I’d done since I got a work permit at age 15. The bonus was that this new position offered me the opportunity to immerse myself in the boating and sailing world, which I’d recently fallen in love with.
I essentially begged for the job. I spent two interviews touting my hospitality industry experience as a plus, and they took a chance and hired me. I ended up working there a total of 11 years — nearly a third of my working career.
That job opened the doors to working at a local marine publishing company and, eventually, to editing and contributing to boating content across a range of platforms, print and digital. My own story is proof that if you work hard in this industry, the sky really is the limit. I mention this because for the breaking barriers theme of this issue, we chose to focus on the next generation of marine industry participants either entering the workforce or having been wildly successful in working their way up the ladder.
You can read about outstanding young service techs like 19-year-old Delaney Huffman in our “Young Guns” story by contributor Kim Kavin on Page 32. Additionally, senior editor David Conway provides a profile of Propspeed CEO Marcus Hamilton, who at 35 is one of the youngest leaders in such a position in the entire industry. That coverage starts on Page 6.
Switching gears, one of the biggest concerns in the marine industry in recent months has been the on-again, off-again tariffs imposed by the United States, including tariffs on countries that are important trading partners, such as Mexico, Canada and China. Industry companies have had to scramble to keep up with the constant changes and manage their supply chains accordingly.
We spoke with leaders like Eric Braitmayer, president and CEO of Imtra, who relies on imported components and finished goods to supply OEM and aftermarket customers. We also interviewed boatbuilders like Christophe Lavigne at Highfield Boats, who is contending with stacked import duties as high as 197.5% on the hulls, tubes and other components needed to produce rigid-hull inflatables. Marine dealerships like Nautical Ventures, run by CEO Roger Moore, are also feeling the pinch. Boats he imports from Poland could far exceed their value if proposed tariffs on the European Union, paused as of this writing, take effect. Our tariff roundup and reporting begins on Page 34.
Tariffs are not the only price increases that industry pros are dealing with, especially those who work at dealerships and yacht brokerages that overwhelmingly rely on online listing services to get boats in front of prospective buyers. Sites like YachtWorld and Boat Trader, many sources have told Soundings Trade Only, are also where sellers expect to see their boats listed.
Since March, when we reported on proposed and imposed price hikes from those sites, which are owned by Boats Group and further by private equity firm Permira, we’ve been contacted by more than a dozen yacht brokers, dealers, marketers and others about those price hikes. Many people have told us that current rates are not sustainable.
Our follow-up reporting on the subject started as soon as the ink dried on the March issue. During the following two months, contributor Kim Kavin spent countless hours producing the story you’ll find on Page 26, which includes some of the most in-depth, thorough and vetted reporting this magazine has produced in the past 15 years. It involved late nights, some heated conversations (a healthy thing in the editorial process) and plenty of weekend work as we toiled to get it all right and make sure we included as many sides of the story as possible.
I am proud of the team members who helped put this issue together, and I’m particularly proud of that story. I’ve spent 25 years writing and editing award-winning stories, and Kavin’s 30-year career includes having won the Donald Robinson Prize for Investigative Journalism. We hear the industry talking — loudly — about this topic, and we realize every word we publish will be scrutinized. We look forward to continuing our coverage as the story evolves.
Yes, we’re all a bit grayer now than when we started our work in the marine industry, but for so many of us, the thrill of contributing something meaningful in the boating world never gets old.
