2025 is here!
…and it is cold!
Highlights
Greetings from Brown's Boatyard!
We hope you’re all off to a happy start to the New Year. We are excited for 2025 and looking forward to Summer.
2024 was a complicated year for us, but we're using our experience as motivation to propel us through 2025 and beyond!
Here's a window into some of the things we're working on these days...
Rebuilding
No major storms to date! We are in the process of acquiring the necessary engineering plans and permits for raising the Main Shop and Hardware Store, the gas pumps, Travelift tracks and elevating/re-grading the driveway and yard. Raising the entire boatyard safely above sea level is obviously an enormous project, and in spite of it appearing as if nothing has changed, the wheels have been in motion. The permitting process for some of our changes can take a long time and we need to have approval on parts of the entire project before we can get started breaking ground—it’s a process, but it’s underway!
Other Improvements
As for boatyard business, we are working harder than ever to meet and exceed expectations! We have heard from many customers throughout the years about things they’d like to see improved and upgraded in the future. The future being now, we are tackling your requests: more inside storage, faster/more accurate launch times, better communication of charges and easier bill pay options.
We have designs and plans in the works for more inside storage. We added 9 new indoor spaces in 2024 and look to add 20 more in 2025.
We have purchased 5 new easy access yard trailers to move boats that do not have their own trailers. These are a vast improvement over our limited, older trailers from years past and will ensure we always have a trailer available when a boat needs to be launched or hauled. Additionally, many of you (or your friends) have purchased new and used trailers to speed up your own launch times, saving you money over time and making the overall haul and launch schedule faster for everyone else in the process! THANKS!
At times our bills have been said to look complicated with long lists of small items and confusing descriptions. We hear you! We are consolidating those long lists into flat per/foot and per/hour rates for many common projects that will dramatically simplify how the bill reads. Instead of listing every paint tray liner and piece of masking tape used on your project, you’ll see a single line item that covers everything. See the comparison of old and new bills at the bottom of this letter!
Paying - No one loves to pay, right? We’re at least going to make it easier. We’re now offering options to receive and pay your bill online. Never fear though, if you’re not interested in that interweb mumbo jumbo (a position Foy supports wholeheartedly) you can still receive a paper invoice–and hooray, as mentioned above, it will be simplified and easier to read than ever!
Boats are expensive.
We’ve all heard the phrases “BOAT: Break Out Another Thousand”, and “…a hole in water into which you pour money…” etc. While this stuff is comical, it is often sadly true. We have boats too, we get it. But we wondered: within the boating world, does Brown’s charge too much?
Answer: nope.
We did the research...
In the process of streamlining our billing, we wanted to see what other boatyards charge and how they charge it. If other yards had especially functional systems, we wanted to know how and why they work. WE LEARNED A LOT. We looked at dozens of categories of services and rates from 25+ boatyards across the coast of Maine and found that Brown’s offers some of the absolute lowest prices of any boatyard period. Actually, exclamation!
We published our most common service rates on our website (www.brownsboatyard.com/services) for anyone to check out. There's a copy at the bottom of this email as well. We believe in total transparency when it comes to the cost of boating. Again, we have boats. We get it. We’ve found it extremely helpful to see what other yards charge and we are proud to make our rates available online.
