As the CEO of Safe Harbor Marinas, Baxter Underwood oversees the largest network of marinas in the world. The properties cater to boaters with all sizes and shapes of craft, including megayachts. Due to some recent high-profile acquisitions like Lauderdale Marine Center, we spoke with Underwood, to learn more particularly about the plans for the properties, and how Safe Harbor Marinas is striving to up the ante on hospitality.
MegayachtNews.com: What attracted you to Lauderdale Marine Center?
Baxter Underwood: The first time I learned of it was 2005 or 2006. The owner ran it wonderfully, but in the era after he sold it to the Carlyle Group, it went to another level financially and with a new team to operate it—a higher level of excellence. It established a reputation of doing the right thing, service and amenities—hospitality and great boat service. We noticed that and were intrigued by that. We probably wouldn’t have moved on its acquisition if we hadn’t acquired Rybovich.
MegayachtNews.com: Since you acquired Rybovich a few months ago, some people might see it and Lauderdale Marine Center being the same. What does one offer that the other doesn’t?
Baxter Underwood: Space is a very important component to service. Lauderdale Marine Center’s 60 acres make it quite a large facility. The differences in their models are primarily the way things get done. In the marine industry, there’s no one size fits all. Captains and owners like to be in different places for different reasons. Similarly with the service required, you have captains, crews, owners, and even shipbuilders drawn to different types of service. Rybovich (below) has taken a consolidated approach to service. It manages start to finish in house. Lauderdale Marine Center takes a different approach—hundreds of contractors, excellent painters, excellent electricians, and more. For the captain or owner who wants to take that helm and control the different trades, Lauderdale Marine Center is the best at that. We wanted to offer both.
MegayachtNews.com: Do you plan infrastructure or expansion investments?
Baxter Underwood: A couple of years ago, we had already invested in a property on the New River with 31 slips—incredible timing. We’re in a great position to bring these sides of the New River together. I can’t say what we’ll do yet, because we’re still in the discovery phase. But the one thing that was clear is that these 31 slips offer more to customers.
MegayachtNews.com: Travel passes and membership clubs often unite properties as customer benefits. Do you have anything like these in the works for your East Coast holdings like Lauderdale Marine Center, Rybovich, and Newport Shipyard?
Baxter Underwood: The history of Safe Harbor Marinas has been doing that for boaters more generally. Those facilities cater to very large vessels. The evolution of the business has been investing in the amenities and providing better experiences at a lower cost. When we began investing, there was no network. It’s interesting to look at the Relais & Chateaux model, where the chateaux are all different, and the customers would all see each other as they moved around. It was a social experience. We see that same opportunity for boaters, to move through their journey and link up, to unlock more locations at a better cost of fuel and a better experience. (Editor’s note: Relais & Chateaux is an association of individually owned and operated luxury hotels and restaurants that recently began offering villas and private homes, too.)
MegayachtNews.com: Marinas have undergone dramatic image changes, from being considered glorified parking lots to destinations unto themselves. More companies understand especially that the crews can and should enjoy themselves, too.
Baxter Underwood: We focus on crews the same way we focus on the captains, the owners, or anyone else. They’re seeing new people and places. We have the opportunity to show them Palm Beach, or Fort Lauderdale, or Newport. If we can be that entry point in their experience, focus on making this especially better, we’ve taken the parking-lot analogy and made it more a hospitality analogy.
Safe Harbor Marinas shmarinas.com
Rhonda LaVergne-Hord
We are members of Safe Harbor Walden in Montgomery TX…we currently have 2 of the large Boston slip D31 and E15
We have been members since October of 2020
A new general manager was brought in and things are not the same ….
He is so full of excuses and bs…not qualified to run a Marina
We are having serious issues with him
Could someone please contact us regarding this matter.
Thank you
Kindest Regards
The Hords
Diane M. Byrne
We’ve passed your comments on to Safe Harbor Marinas’ operations team.
Elizabeth Bland
Hi Rhonda,
I will warn you to be careful about complaining. We were kicked out (they say contract not renewed and you need to move your boat) for complaining. I’ve spoke all the way up to the COO, Katheryn Burchett with no luck. She just defends the management and made baseless accusations that even she acknowledged she had no facts or examples to back up. She went so far as to say that even if she had them my memory wouldn’t be ‘jarred’ and my perception would be different.
It is so bad at our marina that they have had to have meetings with the dock residents. However, everything we complain about falls on deaf ears. This is our 2nd Safe Harbor Marina in 4 years. We have friends at several others (Cape Harbor, Toledo Beach, Jefferson Beach & a few others) and all say that recently new leadership just doesn’t care. Our GM never walks the docks and many don’t even know what she looks like.
It’s really sad. The economy is doing great right now, so they can easily fill slips and have that exact attitude.
Michael T. Moore
Dear Diane,
Thank you for the interview with Baxter Underwood! My boat, VIXEN has been in the care of Pilots Point Marina (a Safe Harbour Marina) in Westbrook Connecticut and my contact there, Kip Wiley, has been superb. He took care of some bottom work and much needed work on the mast all as promised.
On Sunday I meet up with VIXEN on Naragansett Bay and will spend time at Newport Shipyard and Marina (a Safe Harbour Marina) mostly for social reasons having to do with the Charter Show.
Then I will return to South Florida. SeaKeepers keeps our Vessels and has all needed services provided by Lauderdale Marine Center (a Safe Harbour Marina).
In sum, we like Safe Harbour! Thank you for the insight on who is behind the brand!
Michael Moore
Diane M. Byrne
Glad to hear, you’re pleased with the customer service and care, Michael! Safe travels!
William Ogletree
Need your email address please Mr. Underwood
Doug dowdy
We have a boat 36 ft called you Florida that we have been coming to Marathon Marina for since 2015 at least once or twice a year and staying for a week once we stayed for a month it was a fabulous Marina the last time we went was November of 2021 we stayed for 10 days it was really gone downhill we couldn’t even go to the pool because there was so much bird poop all around it and in the water I was afraid to get in the water everything seemed dirty like it needed a serious steam cleaning and the prices went way up and everything was way down so we’re planning another trip in August to the keys in our boat to stay for 2 weeks and I’m looking at marinas in key largo because I don’t think I’m ever coming back to Marathon Marina please change my mind
Christopher Cole
The Safe Harbor yard at 500 Beach Rd., Greenport, NY, did an unbelievably horrendous job on the bottom of my boat and effectively ruined what could be my last summer of sailing. They did not use the paint that I gave them and charged me for applying two coats of a hard “racing” finish that is far rougher that the non-skid on my deck. It is like 40 grit sandpaper. They launched the boat that way, so it cannot be burnished. I am a stage 4 cancer patient who sold my successful ocean racer and bought a smaller boat that I thought would be easier to handle and then to sell when the time came. The yard told me that it was illegal for me to do my own bottom, and I was in no condition to do it, anyway. I assumed they knew what they were doing. But they apparently applied a hard, burnish-able paint on a hot dry day with a roller and without tipping it with a brush — and of course without burnishing it. Then they launched it that way. I did not realize how bad a job they did until the day before my first race of the season a few weeks ago — late in the season because I had been recovering from intensive radiation and chemo treatments. I went to clean the bottom and immediately realized it would be a waste of time. The slime at least made the bottom a little slicker than the non-skid surface they had put on my hull. The next day we raced anyway but had no great expectations. We were slower than everyone from the start, despite being scratch boat, but made a great move on the first leg and put most of our class nearly a mile behind by the first mark. From there it was a long reach to the last mark. But it was a 5 hour race. A tenth of a knot is half a mile in that time. A 1/4 knot is 1.25 miles. By the time we began our last leg, our class had caught us and before long had all passed us. We withdrew and withdrew from other races for which we had registered. Thus ends what could be my last season. Thanks, Safe Harbor. You are the worst yard imaginable.