Paulee Day, who assumed her position as CEO of West Marine about four months ago, has been boating since she was a kid growing up in New England and the Southeast United States. Whether it was fishing in Maine or cruising the waters around Largo, Fla., she has always had a connection to the water.
She attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where she earned undergraduate, master’s and law degrees before returning to Florida. Instead of practicing case law her entire career, Day instead chose to serve as chief legal counsel at corporations, starting with Eckerd Drugs and including a 15-year run as MarineMax’s first general counsel.
She began her work at the marine aftermarket retailer West Marine in 2022, and worked closely with her predecessor, Chuck Rubin, before being appointed CEO in 2025. (This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.)
Please tell us about your personal and boating
backgrounds.
Boating has been part of my entire life. Since I was a small child, born in the suburbs of Boston, I did a lot of boating with my family up in Maine. I learned to fish there and still love to fish. When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my parents moved to Largo, Fla. So we were close to the water and continued to boat throughout my entire childhood.
I went through high school in Clearwater and then went off to Vanderbilt University, where I got my undergrad degree, my MBA and then went on to law school. After law school, I returned to Florida. I now live in Largo. Two of my children are still in high school, so I commute to West Marine’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. I hope to make my home here in the next year or so.
Please tell us about your professional background.
I started out as a corporate attorney in a law firm for a few years but always had the dream of going in-house. Since I’d gotten my MBA before I went to law school, my vision was not to practice law, but to be more a part of a corporate team with an understanding of the law and how to complete transactions and run a business in compliance with the laws.
After a few years, I went in-house at Eckerd Drugs. Then, in 2003, I started talking to MarineMax, which was headquartered in Clearwater. They were looking for their first lawyer to start the legal department. They hired me to be general counsel, and I did that for 15 years.
After I left MarineMax, I was out of the industry for a few years but missed it tremendously because in 15 years, you build a lot of great relationships. So when West Marine was looking for a general counsel in 2022, I jumped at the opportunity. I had been a customer for many years, and always kind of followed the company. I also had local stores in Clearwater and St. Petersburg where I shopped.
You took over as West Marine CEO about four months ago. How is that going?
It’s going really well, and I am enjoying it tremendously. I have always said that our greatest asset at West Marine is our 2,500 crewmembers, which is what we call our associates. They’re very passionate boaters and anglers who love working at the company because they love taking care of our customers. And so, in this role, I get to work more directly with so many crewmembers across the company and just really keep them very focused on doing what’s right for the customer and putting customers first. I’m enjoying every second of it.
It’s been a very busy but exciting few months of leading this incredible crew and revitalizing our culture. West Marine was founded, as you know, many, many years ago, but it was founded truly as a marine, boat, aftermarket boat parts and accessory supplier. It had a focus on sailing in California as well, but really was founded as a core marine parts and accessory supplier.
I think, over time, some of that focus was blurred a bit, and the company had a very diversified assortment. We have made, working with my predecessor, a very concerted effort to become a highly focused aftermarket marine supplier once more. It’s always important to know what you’re good at. What we are good at is having that core marine product. We’ve made a real effort to focus on what we’re good at, which is being that reliable, trusted, marine supplier for our retail customers and our pro customers. That has been very exciting, to kind of get back to our roots of the great principles upon which West Marine was founded.
West Marine has had its ups and downs over the many years it’s been in operation. How is the business doing today?
Over its history, West Marine has had a lot of changes in ownership and leadership. And with that, of course, you have different philosophies. I think, again, that my goal and my role is to really get back to the greatness that made West Marine what it has been for all these decades. And so that core marine focus is really where we’re headed.
How many stores are currently on the books?
We have 201 stores, and we’re in over 30 states. We have websites offering products for pros and retail customers, and a pro app, which we launched last year for our pro customers so they can go right on their mobile device and use the app to get what they need quickly and easily.
Are you working on new locations, or do you feel pretty good about the number of stores and where they are located?
Over the last couple of years, we’ve closed some locations that weren’t necessarily our most profitable stores. And we’ll continue to look carefully at where we are located and make sure that we are situated where it is most convenient for our customers. Our brand pillars are stocking the right products, keeping them fairly priced and readily avilable where and when needed by our customers, along with providing the know-how of our experienced and dedicated crew members.
Additionally, we provide something unique in the industry. Given our retail footprint, we’re able to be that local neighborhood shop for so many retail customers and also the pro customers to stop in and get what they need. That’s why we want to make sure that we are located where it is most convenient for those retail and pro customers to stop in and get what they need near the water. That requires that we tweak some of our locations and where we are. We’ll continue to make sure that we have an optimized footprint for sure, because that helps us achieve our mission of keeping boaters out on the water.
You have a significant online business. In the age of artificial intelligence search, is it a challenge to get customers to your websites versus a competitor that may have a more optimized search strategy?
Replicating that in-store experience with our crewmembers online has been our biggest challenge, and we have used AI to bridge that gap. We recently launched Skipper, which is essentially the online replication of that knowledgeable crewmember. Skipper will answer all the questions a customer might have using AI, just like the way our crewmembers in-store will answer a customer’s questions in person.
We are finding that when Skipper is utilized as a resource, as that trusted first mate, that our customers are converting at roughly twice the rate of those who don’t ask Skipper for advice. I think that has been a really advantageous way to leverage AI to really help our customers and be able to interact with them in a way that replicates the in-store experience that is very unique to West Marine.
Is Skipper like an online version of the West Advisor sections that once appeared in your print catalog?
Skipper can provide all kinds of information. It can actually inform customers about what they need, how to install it, and then list other resources available before finally taking them to the product. The other thing that we have leveraged is our West Advisor articles. We have a tremendous amount of information online to help our customers find what they need for the do-it-yourself or the do-it-for-me product project. So those online resources, I think, are invaluable for our customers.
West Marine last year opened a pro store in Chicago. How is that going?
It has gone incredibly well. The location is actually in Calumet City, which is on the outskirts of Chicago. It replaced our downtown Chicago store, and it’s the only West Marine store of its kind. What we did is we put a greater breadth and depth of inventory that pros really want to purchase. We added between 3,000 and 5,000 additional SKUs that pros seek out and want on a regular basis. Then we added a greater depth of assortment.
You can buy case-pack quantities of products. You can buy a dozen, or only a few — those kinds of things. We have found with that location that when pros can get the variety of the assortment that they want, we become an invaluable resource for them. So the store has exceeded our expectations greatly.
Any plans on building more stores like it?
We have not launched and additional pro-focused models. What we’ve done is blend the pro idea into remodeling our stores into pro-led remodels. What that means is moving core product toward the front of the store and organizing products so they’re easier to find. That way, the pro customer can come in, get what they need, get plenty of it, and go back to work. And of course, our knowledgeable crewmembers are there to help them.
Another thing we do to help pros is if a retail customer is doing a DIY project, they can get help if they need it. We have a Find-A-Pro feature on our website where they can be connected with a West Marine pro customer who can help them.
I think the most important area of focus that we have is that we are always customer-focused. We’re not solely focused on the pro and we’re not completely focused on the retail customer. We are customer-focused, and whatever the customer needs and however we can get that product to them quickly so that we fulfill our mission of getting them back out on the water, that is what we want to do. We will do more of these remodeled locations where we’re adding products that our pros want and the volumes they want, and those stores also serve the retail customer very well. That’ll be kind of the wave of the future for our locations.
The store near my home in Annapolis, Md., always has a ton of pro guys parked in the lot.
Well, it’s interesting that you say that because that is a recently remodeled location — so it is exactly what you’re describing. It serves that pro customer, that marine service professional, and they can come in and get everything they need, and it also serves the retail customer. That is the remodel working perfectly, what you’re seeing there in Annapolis. That’s the case for the remodel locations right there.
How are current macroeconomic factors like inflation, tariffs and other headwinds affecting the business?
I think tariffs and inflation are concerning for everybody. They’re challenges for all companies and certainly retailers. A lot of our product is domestically sourced, so it doesn’t affect everything we carry. Some of our product, however, is subject to tariffs. We continue to make sure that we are aligned with vendor partners who are mindful of our mission. And it really should be a shared mission, which is keeping people boating.
For the sake of our industry, it’s critically important that we keep prices fair because it is a discretionary sport. It’s discretionary recreation. At the end of the day, it’s not something that just because there’s a tariff or inflation that you can automatically pass those costs on to the customer.
We work with our vendor partners to make sure that we are buying the right product and then can fairly price it for our customer because we want to help get that customer out on the water, or we want to get the pro with all the product they need to get that customer out on the water. To do that, it requires a truly collaborative effort with our vendors. And by deepening those partnerships and collaborations, I believe that we can work together to benefit our entire industry.
That’s basically how we have really dealt with this issue: collaborating more effectively, making sure that we have the best suppliers of our products, from whom we can buy it fairly, and then we can turn around and sell it fairly.
West Marine seems to be partnering with a wider variety of industry vendors. Your partnerships with Suzuki and Honda come to mind.
We are delighted with the relationships we have with OEM providers, including Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha and Mercury. And that doesn’t just mean outboards, but also for the parts and accessories, maintenance kits and more that are needed by both pro and retail customers.
By enabling customers to get these OEM products and then do a project themselves — maybe a simple maintenance project or something of the sort — and then get back out on the water, we’re helping the industry keep people in boating by making it less stressful and more convenient.
What kind of work is West Marine doing to give back to the boating industry, as a way to do good?
We are focused on safety because a good boating experience is a safe boating experience, first and foremost. Much of our product is safety-focused. And one of our recent relationships is with the American Boat & Yacht Council, which is considered the premier body that sets standards for safety in the marine business.
Our agreement with ABYC is the first of its kind. It enables us to build product to ABYC standards, and then to show our customers that those products are built to those standards — the highest standards of safety.
For example, in just a few weeks, we’ll be launching our first West Marine-branded lithium-iron-phosphate battery that is ABYC-certified, which means it is built to make sure it complies with ABYC standards. When the customer sees that ABYC logo on that package, they’re going to know that it’s the safest product offered in the market. It’s almost like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It tells the customer: This is the safest product you can get.
We work with other agencies as well, including the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, drowning prevention programs, the National Safe Boating Council and the like. We support them in many different ways to make sure that boaters can be safe on the water. It’s something that we really value and will continue to lean into from a product and a community-engagement perspective.
How long has West Marine been operating in one form or another?
We just celebrated 50 years, because West Marine was founded in a garage as a mail order business by Randy Repass many years ago. The first retail location was opened 50 years ago.
For a company that is a focused marine supplier to have that kind of a lasting legacy is simply extraordinary in our industry. And when we think about those anniversaries, what I’m really focused on is honoring that legacy because the company was founded on amazing principles of taking care of the customer and being that reliable provider of solutions. And we are returning to that legacy and honoring it with our focus on core marine.
We have several crewmembers who have been with us for 40 years, 35 years, 30 years. It’s extraordinary the amount of tenure in our crew. Those crewmembers are absolutely loving that we are returning to the legacy that made this company so great for so many years. The message is always that the customer comes first. And that’s what we’re really focused on as we celebrate these milestone anniversaries and look to the future. It’s all about taking care of the customer.
This story first appeared in the April 2026 issue of Soundings Trade Only.
