Hinckley Yachts’ Picnic Boats have earned loyal fans and buyers, including superyacht owner who use them as chase boats. Seven years ago, the Maine-based builder launched a program to provide service to its own fleet. Now, the concierge-style Hinckley YachtCare is handling superyacht tenders regardless of origin, due to what the company sees as historically lacking consistency.
“The real challenge in boat ownership isn’t the boat, it’s everything around it,” says Gavin McClintock (below), Hinckley’s CEO. YachtCare emerged in 2019 to eliminate headaches for customers, plus to elevate the customer experience. Through 24/7 availability and a dedicated service manager, owners benefit from arrangements starting with captained pickup. (They also can request tows from up to 10 miles offshore in season.) Depending on where the closest facility is, the boat heads to one of 10 Hinckley-owned yards between Maine and Florida. There, craftspeople handle the agreed-upon work, from troubleshooting systems to cleaning and detailing the boat. A Hinckley captain handles re-delivery, too.
Broadening the scope to tenders from any builder reflects both a natural evolution of YachtCare and a market gap. “We’ve been having great experiences with our Hinckley owners,” McClintock says, one of whom is a megayacht owner who just bought two Hinckley 45s (below), a model revealed at the Palm Beach show last month. A “serial Hinckley buyer,” as McClintock describes him, he’s loyal in part because of the YachtCare concierge touch. Also, according to McClintock, only about one-third of its service-network customers are actually Hinckley owners. “We’ve come to realize that we have the capability and the experience now to expand that to other builds,” he says.
The opportunity lies in the fragmented nature of tender maintenance. “Even the best OEMs don’t have the same service network that we have,” McClintock states. Additionally, while multiple trades are present at some superyacht-service yards, “you have to manage them, and you have a different vendor for different activities on the boat at different times,” he continues. “We take that off the hands of a captain or anyone else having to handle it.”
Underlying the project-management model is a deliberate shift in thinking. “There’s an untapped desire for a greater hospitality, carefree concierge experience,” McClintock notes. While it’s not hospitality the same as a hotel,” he adds, “it is hospitality in how you interact and communicate and be anticipatory about the needs Those key customer touchpoints are what we’re working on constantly improving.” He draws a parallel to the evolution of marinas, where scale companies built infrastructure yet left space for premium, experience-driven brands to differentiate themselves.
Hinckley aims to differentiate in a remarkably similar way. For example, last year it acquired the Bay Bridge Marina in the Chesapeake, “a trophy-quality marina,” McClintock says. Hinkley relocated its area service center to sit adjacent to it, and it’s currently adding significantly more indoor storage at the marina. Plus, a hotel should open this summer, adjacent to another hotel with a restaurant and a spa. This, McClintock asserts, is emblematic of Hinckley’s approach. “It has all these amenities as a stopover as you’re cruising north to south,” he points out. “Each one of our locations has its own personality. …It’s incredible real estate that just hasn’t been invested into, and that’s really our strategy, to build out the string of pearls and to make each location reach its full potential.”
Above all, Hinckley YachtCare wants to be a well-rounded solution. “It needs to be frictionless,” McClintock explains. “For people that can afford a superyacht and are using boats as a tender or chase boat, it’s not about the cost. It’s about it not taking their time. We’re trying to improve that experience and create a frictionless experience.”
Hinckley Yachts hinckleyyachts.com
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