October 20, 2024 • 49 mins
Michael Reardon from Reardon Yacht Consulting takes us on a captivating journey through the maritime industry, beginning with his unexpected shift from upstate New York to Fort Lauderdale, all sparked by a chance encounter with a yachting magazine. His tales from the 1980s as a yacht captain unfold into a narrative of growth and opportunity, underscored by the dynamics of working within family-run businesses like Broward Marine and the Ward family. Michael’s experiences paint a vivid picture of a career both rewarding and challenging, highlighting the importance of intentional participation in industry boards and the rich connections fostered along the way.
Our conversation deepens into the world of yacht industry advocacy, where Michael reveals the behind-the-scenes efforts to influence U.S. maritime regulations. Learn how strategic lobbying and collaboration with industry associations led to significant changes in yacht categorization standards, aligning them more closely with international norms. He shares the economic impact these regulatory shifts have on local economies, particularly in Florida, and the vital role industry organizations play in educating lawmakers about the yachting sector’s contributions. As the industry evolves, maintaining a positive public image becomes crucial for its ongoing prosperity.
The episode also uncovers the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the yachting world, including a surprising surge in demand and the intricate challenges of safety regulations. Michael discusses AI’s emerging role in yacht operations, presenting both its potential and its pitfalls. From managing fleets to harvesting data, the integration of technology is a double-edged sword, offering efficiency while raising concerns about safety-critical decisions. As we wrap up, Michael emphasizes the timeless importance of building robust customer relationships, drawing on his own experiences to underscore the power of honesty, communication, and a multi-generational business approach in achieving long-term success.
Wards Marine Electric
https://www.wardsmarine.com/
Wards Way YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@WardsWay75
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hebert (00:00):
Do you have any speaking things coming up?
Michael Reardon (00:04):
No.
Kristina Hebert (00:05):
I've sort of moderated a lot.
Michael Reardon (00:07):
I have, but I've intentionally.
You know with and you know thiswith with participating or
being on boards and stuff likethis.
My brother's ex father in lawhad the greatest words of wisdom
If you're going to be on aboard for anything, it needs to
(00:30):
be one of three things thatyou're happy to give, and that
could be time or money.
Usually it's going to be bothGet meaning there's a benefit to
being on it or don't do it.
Kristina Hebert (00:44):
Yeah, it's very true.
It is because they are verytime consuming and, as you know,
it's all of it with goodintention.
I don't think anybody'spurposely trying to take up
somebody's too much time.
But I even know what it's likeif you walk into one of those
rooms and you have talent andyou can make things happen.
These volunteer tradeassociations need that.
(01:06):
They need somebody to pick upthe ball and do it, because
there just isn't enough money togo around.
Michael Reardon (01:11):
A staff.
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (01:12):
They.
You know it's.
It's such a delicate balance.
And then you don't want to burnout members, you know.
Michael Reardon (01:17):
But we both have been there.
What, what position did youhave on my ASF?
Kristina Hebert (01:22):
I was president twice.
Yay, hey, man, that's got to bea banless sucker.
Michael Reardon (01:32):
It was the best experience we should talk about
some of these things.
Kristina Hebert (01:34):
It was.
I will tell you, it was one ofthe best experiences of my life.
I learned a lot and I metamazing people that I don't know
if I had just been in the fourwalls or just at a boat show,
that I would have ever had anopportunity, and we should get
that on camera, like here we are.
Michael Reardon (01:53):
Hold on to their vocabulary.
Kristina Hebert (01:54):
Yeah, oh, absolutely Okay.
So we're already recording.
Michael Reardon (02:01):
You're already recording.
Okay, and I just drooled.
Kristina Hebert (02:10):
Welcome to the Ward Wordsway Podcast.
And we're here today to go overlessons learned from amazing
(02:40):
business industry leaders, andI'm lucky enough today to have
Michael Reardon of Reardon YachtConsulting with us today, and
so welcome, welcome to theWard's Way podcast, season one.
Michael Reardon (02:48):
I love this studio.
Kristina Hebert (02:50):
You know, thank you we.
This was actually my firstoffice.
I tell people that a lot.
My mom and I were in here andthere used to be a wall and my
father and grandfather on theother side, so we repurposed it.
Talk about evolution, if youhad asked me 20 some odd years
ago.
First off, I don't thinkanybody knew what a podcast was,
but if so, I don't think Iwould love to hear how you got
(03:11):
into the industry, because Ifeel like we have just traveled
in the same circles.
You've been a part of ourcompany, a part of the Wards
(03:32):
family for so long, so tell mehow you got started in the
industry.
Michael Reardon (03:37):
Well, I'm going to do that in a second, but
it's also really cool to be herein the.
When you just said, um Ward'sfamily, uh, the fact that you
guys have been in South Floridaand in the marine industry so
long but truly are an awesomeexample of a family business
(04:00):
that has been now threegenerations.
That has been now threegenerations.
Kristina Hebert (04:03):
Yes.
Michael Reardon (04:04):
Three generations, and in the third
iteration there are two of you.
Kristina Hebert (04:10):
Yes, two of you .
Yes, my brother and I, and Ihave a nephew working there as
well, so we actually have thefourth generation working.
Michael Reardon (04:17):
That's awesome, yes, and the fact that when now
getting into my start, you knowearly 80s yacht captain grew up
in upstate New York Notanything like a maritime thing
to be considered and came toFort Lauderdale Wow.
Kristina Hebert (04:41):
This is heaven.
Why did you come to FortLauderdale?
Michael Reardon (04:44):
Vacation or no.
My dad had a 42 foot sailboatover in Fort Myers Cape Coral
area.
I was the charter boat captainand dead people, really old
people, lived over there and itwas really quiet and there was
nothing to do and I was thumbingthrough a yachting magazine and
saw these boats called Browards.
Kristina Hebert (05:07):
Oh, wow, I didn't see that.
Yeah.
Michael Reardon (05:09):
Came over here on a whim and interviewed with
Kit Dennison and got the job asall in the engineering
department to be a loftsman andstarted building boats and
probably at that time, which isvery early 80s, I heard of you
but I really but I was workingin a shipyard, sure, and you,
(05:29):
you know, broward Marine, youguys fix those, but there wasn't
a, there wasn't a dailyinteraction.
And then, but when I became acaptain, maybe I'm going to say
five years later, something likethat, no sooner than that, two
or three years later, fixingstuff yeah, you know, coming in
that, no sooner than that, twoor three years later, um, fixing
stuff.
You know, coming in here andagain seeing your grandpa and
(05:50):
your dad and, uh, you know, overthat experience of being a, so
going from boat building uh,naval architecture, uh, uh,
design, but really constructionof boats and then to being a
captain and then walking in thisspace and and you guys were, oh
(06:15):
, there was a.
You know it was a littlewarehouse and there are a bunch
of people working here, but itwas very family, it was very
easy to talk to people.
There was something when you,you know, when you look at the
essence of what a familybusiness boils down to if it's
run well, it has an easier feel.
(06:38):
And you guys always had that andit was really cool and you were
super helpful.
They were like hey, I need help.
I had no idea what an isolationtransformer was or how to avoid
getting shocked doing certainthings, and you guys helped me
with that.
On a 60-foot Chris Craft Roamer.
Kristina Hebert (06:55):
Which was huge.
Michael Reardon (06:57):
Medium size Medium Medium size.
Okay, First boat to learn howto drive was a scary challenge
but really interesting and fun.
And ran it more or less aloneand then moved up in size of
those boats back when 100 footBroward was a really big boat.
Now that would kind of be likethe 163 foot Trinities that are
(07:20):
out there.
That was a big boat and that'swhat I eventually ran Sure for
(07:50):
25 plus years through a seriesof working for people, being an
executive with Fraser Yachts asthey transitioned and were
purchased by Benetti at the timeand then left there, worked for
another company called HillRobinson for seven years,
started the office here and nowI've had my own business for
nine years and it'll be nineyears in March Wow, so yeah.
Kristina Hebert (08:06):
That is quite a journey, but explain yacht
management because I do thinkthat that is such a term that's
so broad based and broad stroked.
Michael Reardon (08:15):
So it really means two things.
We could be just friends thatget together and we've been on
boats all our lives and usuallyyounger people, and it's like,
hey, let's fix some boats andwash them and take care of them.
That's one way of doing outmanagement.
That's not what we do.
(08:43):
Um and and uh and regulatoryissues get involved.
It becomes more than somebody'ssecretary or some people that
grew up in yachting can handle,and so we're often a subcontract
of a family office for peoplethat understand what that is and
(09:07):
and we specialize in takingcare of yachts.
But we're we, instead of beinglike words, marine electric.
They're in the field fixingboats.
We have a team of 16 peoplebesides myself and we're mostly
in offices and visit the boatsin shipyards and in other
(09:28):
settings.
But we do all the finance.
So budgets, credit cards, allthat crazy stuff we handle.
We're sort of the home officefor the boats of ship parts,
help with technical issues, andthen there's a whole safety
program depending on the boatand if it's out for rent or
charter, um has to meetregulatory stuff and we're
(09:51):
certified to do all that and umand all of that is huge.
Kristina Hebert (09:57):
I think that, um, you're kind of washing over
them, but you're right, that isa huge difference between
somebody who provides yachtmaintenance, which would be
maybe in the, in the boat wash.
Obviously it can be at whateverdifferent levels, but I think
where your your success isbecause of your expertise,
because I think you trulyunderstand what it takes to have
(10:20):
a yacht run efficiently with acrew safety, safety always has
to be number one, which is whyyou also very much so pay
attention to electrical systems.
I definitely, and we appreciatethat, and I think that's one of
the things that's always been sohelpful back and forth, because
I know that you know you cancall us at whatever time for a
(10:41):
customer.
Michael Reardon (10:41):
that is wherever they are, I know.
Kristina Hebert (10:45):
But that's our job to be there to be helpful to
you, but that that's also howwe make our joint customer happy
and that boat has a safe voyage, and there is so much that you
are responsible for For us.
It's one system which is a veryimportant system, but there's
so much for you to beresponsible for, when it comes
to the flag state, all theregulatory and to segue into
(11:07):
that.
In addition, you've been veryinstrumental in working with
trade associations we have thatin common as well working on
some of that regulatoryinformation.
Talk to me about that a littlebit.
Michael Reardon (11:19):
Oh, a while ago , when I first started Reardon
Yacht Consulting, it just feltlike to participate and give
back as well as again haveexposure, was sort of
(11:42):
spearheading.
The task of looking at the USregulatory system around how
yachts are categorized and, inas simple a short form, the rest
of the world does it one way,sort of, and the United States
because of the way the maritimeindustry morphed from.
(12:04):
You know, however, many yearsago you know, better than me.
when were the railroads made?
In the 17 or 1800s, I imagine.
That morphed into rules andregulations for some reason
around, especially aroundprotecting mariners and stuff
like that Jones Act, some thingslike that.
(12:25):
But the threshold in US flagfor some reason was 300 gross
tons, which is about 130-footyacht, and there was an effort
to make it a more internationalstandard of 500 tons.
And so we, you know, through anindustry association, lobbied
(12:49):
Washington and the Coast Guardand through a series of more
whimsical events than anysuccessful lobbying, a yacht
owner that had more sway thanany lobbyist would finally got
it put in front of Congress andit passed.
And now and that was years ago,that's maybe three or four
(13:10):
years ago the implementation ofthat and what rules to follow
and the safety standards havebeen a bit of a not a slippery
slope, but a bit of a processthat the government's still
trying to iron out.
But we're there, you know we'vegot.
The bar was raised in asignificant way.
Kristina Hebert (13:29):
And I agree with you that you know just
understanding the way ourgovernment works and how the
machine is fed and how laws aremade, and the process of that.
Whatever we all learn in civicsand middle school and high
school, that whatever we alllearn in civics and middle
school and high school, all ofthat was true.
But then when you go to reallytry to affect that change or
(13:49):
make some sort of regulatorychange like myself, we learned a
lot in that process, but Ialways feel like there's a
benefit to that in that, alongthe way and all the people that
helped make that happen, we gotan opportunity to educate about
our industry and I will say thatI firmly believe that everybody
should have a lobbyist in anindustry, because if not,
(14:11):
there's only so much bandwidththat these legislators can pay
attention to.
And if you're not an industry ontheir radar, if you're not an
industry that talks to themabout the jobs we can create,
which our employees make morethan average, the industry that
we create for these long-termcareers, the vehicles that make
this happen yes, a lot of peoplewant to hate the rich people,
(14:31):
but every time those boats comein, the amount of jobs that are
created, the amount of economicimpact that starts working, and
let's get them flagged US sothat they can stay here and be a
part of our commerce andfamilies can be a part of them,
and they visit our marinas andthey buy their diesel fuel here
and they get their provisions.
That does so much more for theindustry as a whole than just
(14:52):
your yacht management company.
Michael Reardon (14:54):
It's about keeping the industry moving
forward, so I appreciate yourwork on that, that industry
association stuff and the stuff-.
Kristina Hebert (15:05):
We're allowed to say those names we
collectively?
Michael Reardon (15:07):
well, no, just the, um, the, the.
When I say stuff, I'm lackingthe right word.
Uh, I meant the associationswith those associations, though
I think, uh, the thing that wassuper educational for me both,
both of us, probably less foryou but to see the watershed of
(15:30):
the maybe negative stereotype ofa rich person and a yacht
pulling into Fort Lauderdale andwhat it means to the economy
here is really it's like man,this is an awesome watershed
industry and what an individualyacht pulling into town can mean
to a community, an industry andreally Florida's GDP, I can't
(15:57):
remember.
I know tourism, I think tourismis way ahead, but when you look
at all marine meaningeverything from a canoe to a
300-foot yacht, I think it's asecond or third.
Kristina Hebert (16:11):
I think we are second.
I agree.
Michael Reardon (16:13):
It's crazy, yes , yeah, and so to understand and
appreciate that, to know thatfamily business like Wards
Marine Electric or my business,that industry associations are
really critical for an industryto go from an unknown cottage
(16:34):
industry, which this started as100%, to being an industry where
someone in the Senate or inCongress in general, where you
meet and you explain and youshow the watershed and they're
like wow.
Kristina Hebert (16:50):
Right.
Michael Reardon (16:50):
I didn't know that, even people in Florida.
So, yeah, no, those areactually really cool things.
There's a personal learning andthen there's sort of a
corporate and an industryculture learning.
That's really good.
Kristina Hebert (17:05):
I agree, and I'm one of these believers, that
they so annually and I knowthat you've attended with me
they have the.
They call it the ABC, the.
Michael Reardon (17:14):
American.
Kristina Hebert (17:15):
Boating Congress and the NMMA National
Marine Manufacturers Associationhas hosted that for decades.
It used to be LegCon and it'sevolved.
But I'm a believer that thisonce-a-year convention should
actually happen quarterlybecause I feel like it's such a
wonderful time and you see,businesses from all over the
country come together.
(17:36):
Whether you're a powerboatmanufacturer, an engine
manufacturer, a yacht manager,an electric company, we're all
touching this amazing industryand we all need to educate our
legislators and they need to bethinking about us the unintended
consequences that happened toyachting over the years and
again.
Yachting should not be denoteda bad word.
(17:59):
Yachting is an amazing word.
Yachting, thank God for richpeople.
I say that all the time.
God bless them for wantingthese yachts because the amount
of jobs and all of that that itcreates.
But legislators need tounderstand Also my employees, I
would say more than 80 percentof them own homes.
Yeah they, they, they payproperty taxes.
Their children are going topublic schools and they are in
(18:20):
your district and and we'reproviding lifetime careers for
for people that you know.
I hope they stay with mycompany forever, but even still,
it's.
It's rare that people come intoour industry and then go.
Well, you know, I'm going to gointo, you know race car driving
or I'm going to go into, youknow police work.
It's usually once you're in themarine industry you get hooked
and you stay and and therethere's a lot of that to be
(18:43):
learned and I have found 100percent of the time when you sit
with a legislator and youreally can put forward what our
industry is, what the economicimpacts are on the jobs, I've
never had a legislator notsupportive Democrat, republican,
it does not matter your partyand I know for our business
we've been around 75 years youhave to dance with both and they
(19:05):
both need both parties need tounderstand the most important
industry in their district isthe marine industry.
And I think, as long as we stickwith that.
Michael Reardon (19:12):
So sorry for you, but it a good.
Kristina Hebert (19:13):
No, no, but it's true, we get on our
soapboxes.
But yeah, so your associationwork and I also know you've
given plenty of seminars, sotalk to me about that.
I know you've done it for youknow, on some best practices for
yacht management.
I know you've done it for theInternational Yacht Brokers
Association some education, sobest.
Michael Reardon (19:32):
So, so best besides, besides, you know, a
formal education in navalarchitecture and then building
boats.
Best educational thing eversort of imposed was Bob Saxon,
who I worked for many years ago,saying you need to go to
(19:53):
Toastmasters.
Kristina Hebert (19:54):
Okay.
Michael Reardon (19:55):
And I was like that sounds goofy Toastmasters,
people drinking or you know andit's a and it's a association of
people getting together andlearning public speaking.
And it was.
It was very helpful.
I grew up in a family of sevenkids, so you got to learn to
(20:16):
speak publicly, find your voice,get your food.
So never really had a problemas much as some people might
with stage fright, but knowinghow to put some thoughts
together and have a way tocommunicate was really helpful.
Together and have a way tocommunicate was really helpful.
And so and and again, as a,even though I only worked with
(20:47):
Bob two stints for fairly shortamount of time, he was just
known as someone who did a lotof public speaking.
I liked it, I gravitated thatway.
So then the opportunities tocome.
I think it started maybe withISS and International Super Yet
Society.
And being a 32nd presenter foran award and, if I recall, with
(21:08):
Bob, and that went well.
I will say you know just ingeneral that public speaking it
does terrify a lot of peopleunjustifiably.
In high school I was fortunateenough to stand up in front of
the entire school and saysomething, and it was a little
(21:28):
off color, I can't remember andeverybody laughed.
So I was like oh, this is cool,all right.
Yeah, so I think I can do thisfor a living, but um no, uh but
I do think it has.
Kristina Hebert (21:39):
I I can guarantee that it's probably
that it's helped you with yourcustomer base.
The ability to communicate, theability I know personally.
I know I know my dad would beable to confirm, but I know
we've been on numerous groupcalls where you have people in
four different time zones andnobody's happy that their boat's
not working.
(21:59):
But there's a way tocommunicate, there's a way to
analyze the situation.
Let's come up with a solutionand we're going to get it done.
And I would say that that's thereason your customers are very
loyal to you and utilize yourservices.
Michael Reardon (22:12):
Because of that and utilize your services
because of that.
Yeah, so the whole publicspeaking, being able to get up
in front of a crowd, make acogent message of some sort or
be entertaining whatever the jobmight be and then translate
that into how we do our work,and being able to read the
(22:33):
audience, whether it's anaudience of two or an audience
of hundreds and adapt.
So, yeah, those are reallyreally, really good, really good
things that were kind of partof the evolution of my journey
in this, in this industry.
Kristina Hebert (22:51):
So tagging off of your evolution word, that's
there.
So tagging off of yourevolution word, that's there
anything that you're worriedabout moving forward?
You know as, and it can beanything.
Maybe it's legislativeconsequences, maybe it's the
election, maybe it's whatever Isthere?
Is there anything coming up onthe horizon that you say, you
know, I'm worried about this, orI really think the industry
(23:13):
needs to be paying attention?
Hmm, that's a great question.
Michael Reardon (23:15):
Should have given it to you ahead of time.
Kristina Hebert (23:16):
But yeah, no, but just so I'm worried about
this, or I really think theindustry needs to be paying
attention.
Michael Reardon (23:18):
That's a great question.
Should have given it to youahead of time, but I thought
about it right now.
So, yeah, so here you know weall well, most people might know
this trajectory that, listen,the industry went from you know,
(23:53):
me starting my business in 2015from my home with two ladies
just helping out and, you know,cobbling that together to you
know, taking care of 27 boatsnow and again, a small business,
18 employees yeah, 18 employeesand um, and making that be
something that is uh, you knowit's a challenge to make money,
be profitable and take care ofpeople.
(24:15):
And as the industry grew andCOVID hit and COVID just became
this horrible unknown wherepeople were dying in China and
Italy and we had a boat underconstruction there, totally
unrelated, had a captain die.
It was not, it was right beforeCOVID and horrible, unfortunate
(24:41):
circumstance of a guy havingcancer.
But so that happened and no oneknew what was going to happen.
But you know, yachting, boatingin general, yachting planes and
RVs just went berserk.
Who would know?
Who could figure?
I mean, in hindsight, you cankind of unwind that a little bit
(25:03):
.
Average boat is on three and ahalf years.
Guess how long it's been sinceCOVID Around that time, four
years now, so a lot of the boatsin my fleet are for sale.
The average time it takes tosell a boat over 80 feet
according to the InternationalYacht Brokers Association
(25:23):
publication, boats over 80 feetis like 425 days the boats are.
It's hard to sell a boat, sofor me.
Kristina Hebert (25:32):
And why is that ?
You think, is it because theinventory, yeah, finances?
Michael Reardon (25:35):
There's just too it because the inventory
yeah Finances, so I think justin there's just too many boats
out there, yeah.
I mean kind of like the housingmarket right now the prices are
still very high, there's a lotmore inventory, but people are
hesitating for whatever reasonElection, economy, even though
the economy, the stock market Idon't know if it did it
(25:58):
yesterday, but it's supposed toset a new record.
Right, People are well wars,you know, people are in general
nervous and so the sales cyclehas increased, increase.
(26:20):
But for me that, you know, sortof the very um existential
threat is too many boats forsale all of a sudden selling and
my business being hugelyaffected because because you
wouldn't manage them necessarilyafter the sale very likely,
especially because we're anindependent okay small company.
when they sell, especially ifthey go with a big you know
Burgess Frazier they have theirown in-house shop management.
(26:40):
There's, you know, we kind ofdon't have a hope.
So the likelihood of a boatselling and staying with us is
relatively small, even thoughwe've been lucky enough to have
that happen a few times.
So yeah, that's sort of thepersonal or the company concern.
(27:01):
And we're at this market timeand between regulatory stuff,
the regulatory stuff just keepsgrowing Once regulations are put
(27:24):
in place and regulations arenecessary and good to save
people's lives.
Kristina Hebert (27:29):
If they're done properly and not in a vacuum.
Michael Reardon (27:32):
It just grows and grows and grows.
That's become a lot of our.
I just glanced over it.
But you know we have a safetydepartment of two people that
are they're really busy all thetime and having to adjust to us
staying compliant and learningwhat's new and what else is
(27:57):
happening out there.
This horrible disaster of thesailboat Bayesian sinking
quickly.
You know it's like the ownerwas a bore.
We do drills all the time,right, we've never done a drill
where the owner dies.
We don't have anyone to call.
Kristina Hebert (28:13):
Right.
Michael Reardon (28:14):
And explain or try to work through what's going
on, so just figuring all thatstuff out.
Kristina Hebert (28:21):
And it seems interesting to me, you know to
go into that I felt the same waythat usually on the, I feel
like on all the safety drillsthat are done and you have what
the?
Is it 30 seconds or a minute toget into the Gumby suits and to
and to, to do all those things,but usually top priority is
obviously first the crew, butthen owner and and you know it's
(28:42):
it's interesting that therewere a lot of people that did
survive, but but yet kind of notthe yeah, that's a that there.
Michael Reardon (28:51):
There, that accident incident tragedy is
going to be picked apart a lot.
Kristina Hebert (28:58):
And it should be.
Michael Reardon (29:00):
And it should be.
I was really surprised readinga Wall Street Journal article
that the Italian government'sgoing after the captain and crew
.
And again, you know it's so,it's so not inappropriate, but
we just don't know what happened.
So to comment, but theobservation of almost all the
(29:22):
crew surviving and not guess,and and the captain ending up in
the water before you know, it'slike that's not the way it's
supposed to work, you know butthen again, who's recounting
that?
Kristina Hebert (29:35):
We don't really know, right, we don't, you know
, I can, I can tell you and youknow, yeah, and you know the,
the few things I I do.
Michael Reardon (29:43):
You know there wasn't a night watch that night,
for whatever reason, right,which is weird, um, to see and
and and sort of pre not but.
But you know, if there's awatchman and he sees the wind
going from 20 to 40 to 60 knots,he's going to do something and
get people up, instead of itbeing all of a sudden a
(30:06):
catastrophe.
Kristina Hebert (30:07):
But I do think that that's important for people
to get the proper information,because I know that, as an
industry, we have fought.
Because I know that, as anindustry, we have fought.
I know, for example, down hereback in the mid-early 2000s
(30:28):
2009-ish, we were dealing withthe manatee protection plan, and
this was something.
There were 13 counties in thestate that had to have this
extra plan, and it was really toprotect and preserve this
endangered species, and so wesomehow had this reputation of
being, you know, manatee killers.
That that's all that, you know,the recreational yachting
industry does.
We're just going to speed andwe're going to, we're not going
to pay duty and we're also justgoing to kill manatees, and none
(30:51):
of that at all was accurate byany stretch.
The reality is the majority ofthe manatee deaths were
occurring in the port bycommercial vessels that were
exempt from the manateeprotection plan.
Wow, and so, very similarly, asyou were stating earlier, there
are so many safety programs andsafety certifications that crew
(31:11):
have to endure for a boat to beclassed, flagged the flag
state's pretty important on that, and so it's not like you can
just have this rogue yacht, andespecially a yacht of that size,
just willy-nilly floatingaround with a crew that's like,
oh, we have no idea, but here'sa cocktail and here's that.
That is not how this industryruns.
(31:33):
That boat would never be ableto.
First of all, it's a sailingboat, so you have to have crew
that darn well knows exactlywhat they're doing and all of
them have a role.
And so I agree with you to makean assumption that it just had
to be the crew and the captain,but I feel like that's the go-to
anywhere that it must have beenthe crew, must have been the
yacht they're just all imaginingbelow deck and it must have
(31:56):
been a party going on and nobodywas paying attention.
And I have found in our industry, unfortunately which doesn't
happen all the time, but in mypurview there's fire, and so
somebody always assumes it waseither a shoddy work or there
was something that happened.
Well, sometimes it's, it's um,it's something so strange and
(32:19):
had nothing to do.
The crew couldn't haveprevented it.
In fact, the the fire systemdid go off and prevented the
boat from sinking.
That doesn't mean there wasn'ta fire.
There's fires in houses.
I just saw something on thenews of a dog jumping up and
trying to get something off thecounter and he turned on the
stove and the house burned down,you know, but those same things
(32:41):
can happen on a super yacht.
But the reality is, in ourindustry we have so much
training and so much going um toactually prevent that and um,
so it's so rare.
The amount of boats that areout there that are being
chartered are really amazinglysafe.
Yeah, but to hear some of that.
Michael Reardon (32:55):
It does make it like, oh you know, but it would
be good to find out whathappened Absolutely, and as an
industry, even though to callyachts a transport mechanism,
which they are in some degree,but they're more of a second or
third home.
Kristina Hebert (33:13):
They really are .
Michael Reardon (33:16):
In many instances.
Well, they're both.
So the safety part is reallyimportant and by and large, we
are very fortunate.
Compared to a plane.
Kristina Hebert (33:26):
You screw up on a plane, the consequences can
be huge and immediate On a boat,it's usually not what happened
with Bayesian and there arecounter maneuvers and there are
systems in place and it was so.
It will be interesting, but Ido think we should look into it
and find out.
Going back to what you weresaying earlier about the cycle
(33:47):
of boats, are most of the yachtsyou manage, are a lot of them
chartering while they're forsale?
Michael Reardon (33:54):
Are a lot of them chartering while they're
for sale.
So in the fleet of 27, we havemaybe two or three boats that
are like serious charter boats,and a serious charter boat gets
10 to 12 weeks of charter.
Also, charter kind of taperedoff.
In the last couple of yearsit's been a lot harder for those
(34:17):
boats to achieve those weeks ofcharter.
Kristina Hebert (34:22):
Did they fall off?
Not to interrupt you Did theyreally go down, or was it just a
bubble that had to eventuallykind of burst a little because-.
Michael Reardon (34:31):
Well, sorry, it's quite specific.
They were local boats thatchartered in the Bahamas and the
Bahamas between what we'vetalked about, in the flow of the
market, the ebb and flow of themarket, as well as the
Bahamians imposing another taxsort of you know, not perfect
(34:52):
storm, but shot themselves inthe foot unintentionally isn't
that cyclical, don't they dothat often?
Kristina Hebert (34:58):
yeah, it kind of epsom flows too so that that
was going on.
Michael Reardon (35:01):
Then there's, then there's probably, um, I'm
gonna guess, eight or ten moreboats that charter, don't
charter you know, and half thefleet that doesn't charter at
all.
I'd actually have to, and it'sa good thing we're trying to get
these sort of dashboardstatistics out and gather
(35:24):
information and start exploringand AI and harvest information,
and that's one I'd like to know.
Kristina Hebert (35:38):
It's a good question.
Well, I know, for us I feellike what we saw a lot this
summer for the boats that werelocal were either they are for
sale or they're just trying toget through the next charter
season.
Then they're going to be forsale.
They're not really sure whattheir schedule is, but either
way they still need the work.
But you can tell.
They're just not sure what thenext year looks like and these
(35:58):
crew like to plan out a one year, two year, three year of what
that looks like.
So it does kind of feed intowhat you're saying about a lot
of them being up for sale andthat taking a fair amount of
time.
Michael Reardon (36:09):
Yeah, Speaking of crew, how does, just because
you have such a huge customerbase?
You know, I have 27 boats andwe have to deal with lots and
lots of vendors, but keepingtrack of 27 boats is way
different than having a customerlist of hundreds, thousands.
(36:30):
Whatever you guys have, how doyou deal with keeping track of
captains?
Who's in charge?
Crew turnover or captainturnover?
Kristina Hebert (36:39):
You know, I would say that I wish and I
think, like you, that I reallywish we could harvest and have
this database, that every timethis person, I think number one
you go back to old school, youkeep the relationship going.
And if you have thatrelationship and you've
established yourself as areliable tool and somebody that
that captain can rely on, cancall on, can work with the yacht
(37:02):
management team, then they'lllet you know when they move and
they'll say but you know, it'smore interesting to find that
first engineer or first officerthat now has become a captain
somewhere and then you go.
boy, I remember you when youwere a lot younger and now oh
yeah, okay, well, but I do thinkit's keeping those
(37:22):
relationships going and I and Ithink it still is that there's
nothing better than that, thatconversation or that, how are
you doing?
Or you know, as many times aswe can, we can have that, but I
wish we had that data too.
We've dabbled in the.
Maybe we should have a wardsfleet, you know, because I will
tell you it would be so helpfuland we actually do it on a lot
(37:43):
of boats with you where we knowwhat that electrical system is.
We were there when they wentthrough the refit.
We've been there post-charterseason to do kind of some
upgrades.
It's worse when you haven't seenthe boat in three years and
then you know it's been livingdown Island for a while and
you're like, hmm, um, we'regoing to, oh, you have your
five-year survey coming up.
(38:05):
We have some work to do, um,and we're going to work on that.
But I I wish we could, you know, fill that gap, you know, with
some of the knowledge, and Ithink our industry is moving
that way.
I think, as companies.
I think boats are more and moreopen.
I think in the past they didn'treally want to share data.
We still like to be verymysterious where we're going to
be, we're not sure where ouryard period is going to be.
(38:26):
We don't want to.
And now I think the boats arekind of going all right, listen,
we've got a busy charter seasoncoming up in 2025, let's say,
and we need to have all thisstuff done, and so they're
willing to share that data.
They're willing to be helpful.
I think there's a little bitmore openness to that.
Michael Reardon (38:44):
How do you think AI is going to help boards
Marine Electric.
Kristina Hebert (38:47):
You know, to be honest, I'm behind that.
I really am behind the AI.
I'm kind of sitting back to see.
You know, there's the one handthat says I'm a big believer If
you can make it work for you.
I've learned that doing thispodcast there's certain AI
programs that are going to behelpful on that.
And then I would say that I'mabsolutely kind of a naysayer
sitting in the corner, notagainst it, but just want to
(39:07):
watch and see what it does alittle bit before we we jump on
a bandwagon.
I don't do my iPhone updatesautomatically, I wait.
I like to let other people workout the bugs and then let's see
.
I think I'm cautiouslyoptimistic.
I think there's no doubt thatwe're gonna need to embrace it
and there's no doubt that thereare gonna be huge benefits.
I would not wanna see anybodyfeeding electrical advice via AI
(39:31):
, because I can only imaginethat that could be manipulated
and be incorrect.
Michael Reardon (39:37):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (39:37):
And I feel like electricity and just working in
an electrical plant is you justneed to be very safe.
Michael Reardon (39:45):
There's just no guessing.
Kristina Hebert (39:47):
Yeah, but AI is here, you know, and it's going
to be here, and I think we needto embrace it.
Michael Reardon (39:51):
Yeah, yeah is here, you know, and it's going
to be here and I think we needto embrace it.
Yeah, yeah, we're trying to uh,what, what?
I hope the what.
I'm kind of on a similar path,um, but sort of ready to embrace
it, maybe sooner than you, butI I am a little skeptical of um
(40:11):
of it being the end-all, thewhere-all, end-all of what
people think or what they areguessing.
But, that being said, you know,with 27 boats, we pay roughly
250 to 300 crew per month.
They're all you know.
They've all got data, a lot ofit confidential, but there's
(40:36):
data on turnover, having youknow if this was, instead of you
know, and I talking, if thiswas a yacht owner meeting and
even a prospecting thing to havean owner say, hey, you know, I
own this 160 foot boat, whatshould I be paying my captain?
I have no problem having thatconversation.
(40:56):
But being able to pull out myphone and actually say, well, in
our fleet of 27 yachts, thereare about 10 yachts in that size
range and here's the average ofwhat the captains are paid and
whether they have rotation ornot and stuff, and that data is
there, we have it.
(41:16):
It's harvesting it, collectingit, collating it, having it easy
to see.
That's what we're working on.
Kristina Hebert (41:25):
So the AI side would help you.
Michael Reardon (41:28):
I really want AI just to harvest data.
Kristina Hebert (41:30):
Okay, and that makes sense I agree yeah, that
seems and that makes sense.
Michael Reardon (41:33):
I agree yeah, that seems like a good use we
have different portals that thatinformation resides, and we
have an application we use forall the safety, crew and vessel
stuff.
Then we have a separate we usedto be in QuickBooks, but we
have a separate program calledVolley.
That is all the financial stuff.
(41:54):
Those two don't talk to eachother, so and I want data.
Another obvious question that apotential client would ask is
how much does this boat cost tooperate?
And in one way it's like howlong is a piece of string?
Sure and in one way it's likehow long is a piece of string?
But in another way, fixed costsof crew and dockage and
(42:18):
insurance and fuel pretty easyand again, having nine years and
the number of boats that we'vehad in the fleet.
There's a lot of data therethat is sort of just sitting
there waiting to be used.
Kristina Hebert (42:34):
No, but I agree with you and maybe it's your
next venture is to develop thisAI harvester, because I think
there's a lot of companies outthere in a very similar spot of
you and I that have a lot ofdata.
We just don't really knowexactly what to do with it.
Michael Reardon (42:52):
Or how to use it or to see it in a way that is
helpful and adaptable.
You know, to go from the 160footer to a 70 foot sport fish,
it's like, no, that's a verydifferent dynamic About a money,
amount of crew, all that stuff.
Kristina Hebert (43:13):
And different philosophy of usage, and I think
that that's one of those thingsthat people, you know, a yacht
owner is not a yacht owner andnot a yacht owner Some of them
are.
You know it's a businessventure that they bought with
someone.
It's their family, it'sgrandparents and grandkids, it's
going to be their own personalfamily getaway, and others it's
(43:35):
going to be in every show andthis is the boat that they're
using to get to their next boat.
But all of those have a verydifferent philosophy of
operation and how they're usingit.
And it's interesting from anelectrical you would say
philosophy of operation.
But I will tell you, gettinginto power management and the
way it's controlled, we actuallyhave gotten to learn and we
(43:58):
have data on that, on how youknow.
We used to get it via a loadanalysis.
How often are you going to runyour washer and dryers?
How often is your galley goingto be run?
How often are your chillersgoing to be on?
Well, that would tell me who'sgoing to be on the boat and what
kind of entertaining you'redoing and how many crew you're
going to have.
But now, because you can modifythe power management at very,
(44:19):
very small integrals and andmake power decisions you know
we're working with a companythat's building a boat 940 kw
generators that you can makethose choices 40 kw at a time,
10 kw at a time.
However, you want to be able todo.
That really gets you intowhat's important how is this
boat going to be used, and Iwill tell you when you finally
(44:39):
get with an owner on that.
It tells you a lot on how theyplan to use the boat and I think
we could probably harvest yourcrew knowledge and my power
management systems and we canfigure out how this boat's going
to be used.
Exactly.
But that is interesting as, aswe move forward and, um, I'm
optimistic, you know, but I dobelieve that you know, we were
(45:01):
able to operate.
We talk about this.
We were able to operate beforeour iphones, remember, when it
was just fax machines andvoicemails yeah and you'd walk
in the office at nine o'clockthe next day and whatever
thermographic paper was on thefloor underneath because it
curled up and fell is your firstorder of business and then your
voicemail, and we were all verysuccessful businesses.
(45:23):
We managed to turn ourselvesinto 24 hour.
What is it?
The tyranny of convenience, butI think AI is the same.
At the end of the day, if youwant to keep your relationships,
you have to work at them, andthat's kind of the point also of
this podcast.
Michael Reardon (45:41):
Yeah, and I really resonate with what you
said, though, about the waydifferent yacht owners
experience yachting and usetheir yachts.
Different yacht ownersexperience yachting and and use
their yachts.
Um, we also, in therelationship with them, see
their and I'm going to sayquirks, but not in a not in a
(46:02):
negative way.
It's just when you are a ubersuccessful guy that you know
manufactured some widget andbecame a millionaire or
billionaire over it.
You have a way of approachingbusiness and life that's
different from the next personwith that same net worth or
(46:26):
skill set or whatever.
But yeah, in the finances theyall you know.
But yeah, in the finances, theyall you know.
Kind of each owner.
Some owners are super budgetconscientious.
Some could care less.
I had an owner one time we gotstarted and he came to me and he
said, michael, can I trust you?
(46:48):
Well, I hope so.
Yes, kind of taking care ofyour asset here.
Kind of he's like, well, I'mnever looking at the financials,
please take care of it.
I was like, well, that probablywasn't the best thing to say
and it's flattering to hear it,but it, it, it's the
responsibility, of course, in inyacht management you kind of
(47:11):
alluded to it earlier by far themost important things are
safety and then the financesnext.
But really knowing what theclient wants and what their
needs are and how they like tobe communicated to, which means
everything from financials tophone calls to texting, which
(47:34):
means everything from financialsto phone calls to texting to.
You know, we have a guy.
We're trying to get some workdone right now.
We keep scheduling meetings,whether it's teams or conference
calls, and he just doesn't showup and it's like well, that's
communicating something too.
Kristina Hebert (47:48):
Yeah exactly.
Michael Reardon (47:49):
So, yeah, and it's hard to get stuff done when
we can't get final word orapprovals and stuff like that.
So, yeah, I think we and if youthink about it just the way
you've grown up in your familybusiness there is a way, there
is a culture that you have inthe company.
(48:12):
There's probably a culture theway you look at finances.
There's a culture the way youin the company.
There's probably a culture theway you look at finances.
There's a culture the way youdeal with customers and stuff.
That all become the DNA of whoWards Marine Electric is and all
those things combined, and it'strue for our clients too.
Agree and trying to see howthey mesh is sometimes the trick
(48:34):
.
Kristina Hebert (48:35):
Yeah.
So lessons learned.
We need to keep cultivating ourrelationships.
We need to communicate wellwith our customers and keep
trying to figure out the bestway to understand their needs
and help them have the bestmoney and go to Toastmasters.
And go to Toastmasters.
That's right, okay.
Michael Reardon (49:22):
Well, thank you for your time today.
I appreciate it and I'mdefinitely do.
You have a toast business thathas flourished, that is
multi-generational, which isreally a challenge, and you guys
just having the culture ofbeing go-to people, being
knowledgeable, being honest,it's really good and I enjoyed
being here.
Kristina Hebert (49:34):
Well, thank you .
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Michael Reardon (49:37):
My pleasure.
Kristina Hebert (49:37):
Yeah.
Do you have any speaking things coming up?
Michael Reardon (00:04):
No.
Kristina Hebert (00:05):
I've sort of moderated a lot.
Michael Reardon (00:07):
I have, but I've intentionally.
You know with and you know thiswith with participating or
being on boards and stuff likethis.
My brother's ex father in lawhad the greatest words of wisdom
If you're going to be on aboard for anything, it needs to
(00:30):
be one of three things thatyou're happy to give, and that
could be time or money.
Usually it's going to be bothGet meaning there's a benefit to
being on it or don't do it.
Kristina Hebert (00:44):
Yeah, it's very true.
It is because they are verytime consuming and, as you know,
it's all of it with goodintention.
I don't think anybody'spurposely trying to take up
somebody's too much time.
But I even know what it's likeif you walk into one of those
rooms and you have talent andyou can make things happen.
These volunteer tradeassociations need that.
(01:06):
They need somebody to pick upthe ball and do it, because
there just isn't enough money togo around.
Michael Reardon (01:11):
A staff.
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (01:12):
They.
You know it's.
It's such a delicate balance.
And then you don't want to burnout members, you know.
Michael Reardon (01:17):
But we both have been there.
What, what position did youhave on my ASF?
Kristina Hebert (01:22):
I was president twice.
Yay, hey, man, that's got to bea banless sucker.
Michael Reardon (01:32):
It was the best experience we should talk about
some of these things.
Kristina Hebert (01:34):
It was.
I will tell you, it was one ofthe best experiences of my life.
I learned a lot and I metamazing people that I don't know
if I had just been in the fourwalls or just at a boat show,
that I would have ever had anopportunity, and we should get
that on camera, like here we are.
Michael Reardon (01:53):
Hold on to their vocabulary.
Kristina Hebert (01:54):
Yeah, oh, absolutely Okay.
So we're already recording.
Michael Reardon (02:01):
You're already recording.
Okay, and I just drooled.
Kristina Hebert (02:10):
Welcome to the Ward Wordsway Podcast.
And we're here today to go overlessons learned from amazing
(02:40):
business industry leaders, andI'm lucky enough today to have
Michael Reardon of Reardon YachtConsulting with us today, and
so welcome, welcome to theWard's Way podcast, season one.
Michael Reardon (02:48):
I love this studio.
Kristina Hebert (02:50):
You know, thank you we.
This was actually my firstoffice.
I tell people that a lot.
My mom and I were in here andthere used to be a wall and my
father and grandfather on theother side, so we repurposed it.
Talk about evolution, if youhad asked me 20 some odd years
ago.
First off, I don't thinkanybody knew what a podcast was,
but if so, I don't think Iwould love to hear how you got
(03:11):
into the industry, because Ifeel like we have just traveled
in the same circles.
You've been a part of ourcompany, a part of the Wards
(03:32):
family for so long, so tell mehow you got started in the
industry.
Michael Reardon (03:37):
Well, I'm going to do that in a second, but
it's also really cool to be herein the.
When you just said, um Ward'sfamily, uh, the fact that you
guys have been in South Floridaand in the marine industry so
long but truly are an awesomeexample of a family business
(04:00):
that has been now threegenerations.
That has been now threegenerations.
Kristina Hebert (04:03):
Yes.
Michael Reardon (04:04):
Three generations, and in the third
iteration there are two of you.
Kristina Hebert (04:10):
Yes, two of you .
Yes, my brother and I, and Ihave a nephew working there as
well, so we actually have thefourth generation working.
Michael Reardon (04:17):
That's awesome, yes, and the fact that when now
getting into my start, you knowearly 80s yacht captain grew up
in upstate New York Notanything like a maritime thing
to be considered and came toFort Lauderdale Wow.
Kristina Hebert (04:41):
This is heaven.
Why did you come to FortLauderdale?
Michael Reardon (04:44):
Vacation or no.
My dad had a 42 foot sailboatover in Fort Myers Cape Coral
area.
I was the charter boat captainand dead people, really old
people, lived over there and itwas really quiet and there was
nothing to do and I was thumbingthrough a yachting magazine and
saw these boats called Browards.
Kristina Hebert (05:07):
Oh, wow, I didn't see that.
Yeah.
Michael Reardon (05:09):
Came over here on a whim and interviewed with
Kit Dennison and got the job asall in the engineering
department to be a loftsman andstarted building boats and
probably at that time, which isvery early 80s, I heard of you
but I really but I was workingin a shipyard, sure, and you,
(05:29):
you know, broward Marine, youguys fix those, but there wasn't
a, there wasn't a dailyinteraction.
And then, but when I became acaptain, maybe I'm going to say
five years later, something likethat, no sooner than that, two
or three years later, fixingstuff yeah, you know, coming in
that, no sooner than that, twoor three years later, um, fixing
stuff.
You know, coming in here andagain seeing your grandpa and
(05:50):
your dad and, uh, you know, overthat experience of being a, so
going from boat building uh,naval architecture, uh, uh,
design, but really constructionof boats and then to being a
captain and then walking in thisspace and and you guys were, oh
(06:15):
, there was a.
You know it was a littlewarehouse and there are a bunch
of people working here, but itwas very family, it was very
easy to talk to people.
There was something when you,you know, when you look at the
essence of what a familybusiness boils down to if it's
run well, it has an easier feel.
(06:38):
And you guys always had that andit was really cool and you were
super helpful.
They were like hey, I need help.
I had no idea what an isolationtransformer was or how to avoid
getting shocked doing certainthings, and you guys helped me
with that.
On a 60-foot Chris Craft Roamer.
Kristina Hebert (06:55):
Which was huge.
Michael Reardon (06:57):
Medium size Medium Medium size.
Okay, First boat to learn howto drive was a scary challenge
but really interesting and fun.
And ran it more or less aloneand then moved up in size of
those boats back when 100 footBroward was a really big boat.
Now that would kind of be likethe 163 foot Trinities that are
(07:20):
out there.
That was a big boat and that'swhat I eventually ran Sure for
(07:50):
25 plus years through a seriesof working for people, being an
executive with Fraser Yachts asthey transitioned and were
purchased by Benetti at the timeand then left there, worked for
another company called HillRobinson for seven years,
started the office here and nowI've had my own business for
nine years and it'll be nineyears in March Wow, so yeah.
Kristina Hebert (08:06):
That is quite a journey, but explain yacht
management because I do thinkthat that is such a term that's
so broad based and broad stroked.
Michael Reardon (08:15):
So it really means two things.
We could be just friends thatget together and we've been on
boats all our lives and usuallyyounger people, and it's like,
hey, let's fix some boats andwash them and take care of them.
That's one way of doing outmanagement.
That's not what we do.
(08:43):
Um and and uh and regulatoryissues get involved.
It becomes more than somebody'ssecretary or some people that
grew up in yachting can handle,and so we're often a subcontract
of a family office for peoplethat understand what that is and
(09:07):
and we specialize in takingcare of yachts.
But we're we, instead of beinglike words, marine electric.
They're in the field fixingboats.
We have a team of 16 peoplebesides myself and we're mostly
in offices and visit the boatsin shipyards and in other
(09:28):
settings.
But we do all the finance.
So budgets, credit cards, allthat crazy stuff we handle.
We're sort of the home officefor the boats of ship parts,
help with technical issues, andthen there's a whole safety
program depending on the boatand if it's out for rent or
charter, um has to meetregulatory stuff and we're
(09:51):
certified to do all that and umand all of that is huge.
Kristina Hebert (09:57):
I think that, um, you're kind of washing over
them, but you're right, that isa huge difference between
somebody who provides yachtmaintenance, which would be
maybe in the, in the boat wash.
Obviously it can be at whateverdifferent levels, but I think
where your your success isbecause of your expertise,
because I think you trulyunderstand what it takes to have
(10:20):
a yacht run efficiently with acrew safety, safety always has
to be number one, which is whyyou also very much so pay
attention to electrical systems.
I definitely, and we appreciatethat, and I think that's one of
the things that's always been sohelpful back and forth, because
I know that you know you cancall us at whatever time for a
(10:41):
customer.
Michael Reardon (10:41):
that is wherever they are, I know.
Kristina Hebert (10:45):
But that's our job to be there to be helpful to
you, but that that's also howwe make our joint customer happy
and that boat has a safe voyage, and there is so much that you
are responsible for For us.
It's one system which is a veryimportant system, but there's
so much for you to beresponsible for, when it comes
to the flag state, all theregulatory and to segue into
(11:07):
that.
In addition, you've been veryinstrumental in working with
trade associations we have thatin common as well working on
some of that regulatoryinformation.
Talk to me about that a littlebit.
Michael Reardon (11:19):
Oh, a while ago , when I first started Reardon
Yacht Consulting, it just feltlike to participate and give
back as well as again haveexposure, was sort of
(11:42):
spearheading.
The task of looking at the USregulatory system around how
yachts are categorized and, inas simple a short form, the rest
of the world does it one way,sort of, and the United States
because of the way the maritimeindustry morphed from.
(12:04):
You know, however, many yearsago you know, better than me.
when were the railroads made?
In the 17 or 1800s, I imagine.
That morphed into rules andregulations for some reason
around, especially aroundprotecting mariners and stuff
like that Jones Act, some thingslike that.
(12:25):
But the threshold in US flagfor some reason was 300 gross
tons, which is about 130-footyacht, and there was an effort
to make it a more internationalstandard of 500 tons.
And so we, you know, through anindustry association, lobbied
(12:49):
Washington and the Coast Guardand through a series of more
whimsical events than anysuccessful lobbying, a yacht
owner that had more sway thanany lobbyist would finally got
it put in front of Congress andit passed.
And now and that was years ago,that's maybe three or four
(13:10):
years ago the implementation ofthat and what rules to follow
and the safety standards havebeen a bit of a not a slippery
slope, but a bit of a processthat the government's still
trying to iron out.
But we're there, you know we'vegot.
The bar was raised in asignificant way.
Kristina Hebert (13:29):
And I agree with you that you know just
understanding the way ourgovernment works and how the
machine is fed and how laws aremade, and the process of that.
Whatever we all learn in civicsand middle school and high
school, that whatever we alllearn in civics and middle
school and high school, all ofthat was true.
But then when you go to reallytry to affect that change or
(13:49):
make some sort of regulatorychange like myself, we learned a
lot in that process, but Ialways feel like there's a
benefit to that in that, alongthe way and all the people that
helped make that happen, we gotan opportunity to educate about
our industry and I will say thatI firmly believe that everybody
should have a lobbyist in anindustry, because if not,
(14:11):
there's only so much bandwidththat these legislators can pay
attention to.
And if you're not an industry ontheir radar, if you're not an
industry that talks to themabout the jobs we can create,
which our employees make morethan average, the industry that
we create for these long-termcareers, the vehicles that make
this happen yes, a lot of peoplewant to hate the rich people,
(14:31):
but every time those boats comein, the amount of jobs that are
created, the amount of economicimpact that starts working, and
let's get them flagged US sothat they can stay here and be a
part of our commerce andfamilies can be a part of them,
and they visit our marinas andthey buy their diesel fuel here
and they get their provisions.
That does so much more for theindustry as a whole than just
(14:52):
your yacht management company.
Michael Reardon (14:54):
It's about keeping the industry moving
forward, so I appreciate yourwork on that, that industry
association stuff and the stuff-.
Kristina Hebert (15:05):
We're allowed to say those names we
collectively?
Michael Reardon (15:07):
well, no, just the, um, the, the.
When I say stuff, I'm lackingthe right word.
Uh, I meant the associationswith those associations, though
I think, uh, the thing that wassuper educational for me both,
both of us, probably less foryou but to see the watershed of
(15:30):
the maybe negative stereotype ofa rich person and a yacht
pulling into Fort Lauderdale andwhat it means to the economy
here is really it's like man,this is an awesome watershed
industry and what an individualyacht pulling into town can mean
to a community, an industry andreally Florida's GDP, I can't
(15:57):
remember.
I know tourism, I think tourismis way ahead, but when you look
at all marine meaningeverything from a canoe to a
300-foot yacht, I think it's asecond or third.
Kristina Hebert (16:11):
I think we are second.
I agree.
Michael Reardon (16:13):
It's crazy, yes , yeah, and so to understand and
appreciate that, to know thatfamily business like Wards
Marine Electric or my business,that industry associations are
really critical for an industryto go from an unknown cottage
(16:34):
industry, which this started as100%, to being an industry where
someone in the Senate or inCongress in general, where you
meet and you explain and youshow the watershed and they're
like wow.
Kristina Hebert (16:50):
Right.
Michael Reardon (16:50):
I didn't know that, even people in Florida.
So, yeah, no, those areactually really cool things.
There's a personal learning andthen there's sort of a
corporate and an industryculture learning.
That's really good.
Kristina Hebert (17:05):
I agree, and I'm one of these believers, that
they so annually and I knowthat you've attended with me
they have the.
They call it the ABC, the.
Michael Reardon (17:14):
American.
Kristina Hebert (17:15):
Boating Congress and the NMMA National
Marine Manufacturers Associationhas hosted that for decades.
It used to be LegCon and it'sevolved.
But I'm a believer that thisonce-a-year convention should
actually happen quarterlybecause I feel like it's such a
wonderful time and you see,businesses from all over the
country come together.
(17:36):
Whether you're a powerboatmanufacturer, an engine
manufacturer, a yacht manager,an electric company, we're all
touching this amazing industryand we all need to educate our
legislators and they need to bethinking about us the unintended
consequences that happened toyachting over the years and
again.
Yachting should not be denoteda bad word.
(17:59):
Yachting is an amazing word.
Yachting, thank God for richpeople.
I say that all the time.
God bless them for wantingthese yachts because the amount
of jobs and all of that that itcreates.
But legislators need tounderstand Also my employees, I
would say more than 80 percentof them own homes.
Yeah they, they, they payproperty taxes.
Their children are going topublic schools and they are in
(18:20):
your district and and we'reproviding lifetime careers for
for people that you know.
I hope they stay with mycompany forever, but even still,
it's.
It's rare that people come intoour industry and then go.
Well, you know, I'm going to gointo, you know race car driving
or I'm going to go into, youknow police work.
It's usually once you're in themarine industry you get hooked
and you stay and and therethere's a lot of that to be
(18:43):
learned and I have found 100percent of the time when you sit
with a legislator and youreally can put forward what our
industry is, what the economicimpacts are on the jobs, I've
never had a legislator notsupportive Democrat, republican,
it does not matter your partyand I know for our business
we've been around 75 years youhave to dance with both and they
(19:05):
both need both parties need tounderstand the most important
industry in their district isthe marine industry.
And I think, as long as we stickwith that.
Michael Reardon (19:12):
So sorry for you, but it a good.
Kristina Hebert (19:13):
No, no, but it's true, we get on our
soapboxes.
But yeah, so your associationwork and I also know you've
given plenty of seminars, sotalk to me about that.
I know you've done it for youknow, on some best practices for
yacht management.
I know you've done it for theInternational Yacht Brokers
Association some education, sobest.
Michael Reardon (19:32):
So, so best besides, besides, you know, a
formal education in navalarchitecture and then building
boats.
Best educational thing eversort of imposed was Bob Saxon,
who I worked for many years ago,saying you need to go to
(19:53):
Toastmasters.
Kristina Hebert (19:54):
Okay.
Michael Reardon (19:55):
And I was like that sounds goofy Toastmasters,
people drinking or you know andit's a and it's a association of
people getting together andlearning public speaking.
And it was.
It was very helpful.
I grew up in a family of sevenkids, so you got to learn to
(20:16):
speak publicly, find your voice,get your food.
So never really had a problemas much as some people might
with stage fright, but knowinghow to put some thoughts
together and have a way tocommunicate was really helpful.
Together and have a way tocommunicate was really helpful.
And so and and again, as a,even though I only worked with
(20:47):
Bob two stints for fairly shortamount of time, he was just
known as someone who did a lotof public speaking.
I liked it, I gravitated thatway.
So then the opportunities tocome.
I think it started maybe withISS and International Super Yet
Society.
And being a 32nd presenter foran award and, if I recall, with
(21:08):
Bob, and that went well.
I will say you know just ingeneral that public speaking it
does terrify a lot of peopleunjustifiably.
In high school I was fortunateenough to stand up in front of
the entire school and saysomething, and it was a little
(21:28):
off color, I can't remember andeverybody laughed.
So I was like oh, this is cool,all right.
Yeah, so I think I can do thisfor a living, but um no, uh but
I do think it has.
Kristina Hebert (21:39):
I I can guarantee that it's probably
that it's helped you with yourcustomer base.
The ability to communicate, theability I know personally.
I know I know my dad would beable to confirm, but I know
we've been on numerous groupcalls where you have people in
four different time zones andnobody's happy that their boat's
not working.
(21:59):
But there's a way tocommunicate, there's a way to
analyze the situation.
Let's come up with a solutionand we're going to get it done.
And I would say that that's thereason your customers are very
loyal to you and utilize yourservices.
Michael Reardon (22:12):
Because of that and utilize your services
because of that.
Yeah, so the whole publicspeaking, being able to get up
in front of a crowd, make acogent message of some sort or
be entertaining whatever the jobmight be and then translate
that into how we do our work,and being able to read the
(22:33):
audience, whether it's anaudience of two or an audience
of hundreds and adapt.
So, yeah, those are reallyreally, really good, really good
things that were kind of partof the evolution of my journey
in this, in this industry.
Kristina Hebert (22:51):
So tagging off of your evolution word, that's
there.
So tagging off of yourevolution word, that's there
anything that you're worriedabout moving forward?
You know as, and it can beanything.
Maybe it's legislativeconsequences, maybe it's the
election, maybe it's whatever Isthere?
Is there anything coming up onthe horizon that you say, you
know, I'm worried about this, orI really think the industry
(23:13):
needs to be paying attention?
Hmm, that's a great question.
Michael Reardon (23:15):
Should have given it to you ahead of time.
Kristina Hebert (23:16):
But yeah, no, but just so I'm worried about
this, or I really think theindustry needs to be paying
attention.
Michael Reardon (23:18):
That's a great question.
Should have given it to youahead of time, but I thought
about it right now.
So, yeah, so here you know weall well, most people might know
this trajectory that, listen,the industry went from you know,
(23:53):
me starting my business in 2015from my home with two ladies
just helping out and, you know,cobbling that together to you
know, taking care of 27 boatsnow and again, a small business,
18 employees yeah, 18 employeesand um, and making that be
something that is uh, you knowit's a challenge to make money,
be profitable and take care ofpeople.
(24:15):
And as the industry grew andCOVID hit and COVID just became
this horrible unknown wherepeople were dying in China and
Italy and we had a boat underconstruction there, totally
unrelated, had a captain die.
It was not, it was right beforeCOVID and horrible, unfortunate
(24:41):
circumstance of a guy havingcancer.
But so that happened and no oneknew what was going to happen.
But you know, yachting, boatingin general, yachting planes and
RVs just went berserk.
Who would know?
Who could figure?
I mean, in hindsight, you cankind of unwind that a little bit
(25:03):
.
Average boat is on three and ahalf years.
Guess how long it's been sinceCOVID Around that time, four
years now, so a lot of the boatsin my fleet are for sale.
The average time it takes tosell a boat over 80 feet
according to the InternationalYacht Brokers Association
(25:23):
publication, boats over 80 feetis like 425 days the boats are.
It's hard to sell a boat, sofor me.
Kristina Hebert (25:32):
And why is that ?
You think, is it because theinventory, yeah, finances?
Michael Reardon (25:35):
There's just too it because the inventory
yeah Finances, so I think justin there's just too many boats
out there, yeah.
I mean kind of like the housingmarket right now the prices are
still very high, there's a lotmore inventory, but people are
hesitating for whatever reasonElection, economy, even though
the economy, the stock market Idon't know if it did it
(25:58):
yesterday, but it's supposed toset a new record.
Right, People are well wars,you know, people are in general
nervous and so the sales cyclehas increased, increase.
(26:20):
But for me that, you know, sortof the very um existential
threat is too many boats forsale all of a sudden selling and
my business being hugelyaffected because because you
wouldn't manage them necessarilyafter the sale very likely,
especially because we're anindependent okay small company.
when they sell, especially ifthey go with a big you know
Burgess Frazier they have theirown in-house shop management.
(26:40):
There's, you know, we kind ofdon't have a hope.
So the likelihood of a boatselling and staying with us is
relatively small, even thoughwe've been lucky enough to have
that happen a few times.
So yeah, that's sort of thepersonal or the company concern.
(27:01):
And we're at this market timeand between regulatory stuff,
the regulatory stuff just keepsgrowing Once regulations are put
(27:24):
in place and regulations arenecessary and good to save
people's lives.
Kristina Hebert (27:29):
If they're done properly and not in a vacuum.
Michael Reardon (27:32):
It just grows and grows and grows.
That's become a lot of our.
I just glanced over it.
But you know we have a safetydepartment of two people that
are they're really busy all thetime and having to adjust to us
staying compliant and learningwhat's new and what else is
(27:57):
happening out there.
This horrible disaster of thesailboat Bayesian sinking
quickly.
You know it's like the ownerwas a bore.
We do drills all the time,right, we've never done a drill
where the owner dies.
We don't have anyone to call.
Kristina Hebert (28:13):
Right.
Michael Reardon (28:14):
And explain or try to work through what's going
on, so just figuring all thatstuff out.
Kristina Hebert (28:21):
And it seems interesting to me, you know to
go into that I felt the same waythat usually on the, I feel
like on all the safety drillsthat are done and you have what
the?
Is it 30 seconds or a minute toget into the Gumby suits and to
and to, to do all those things,but usually top priority is
obviously first the crew, butthen owner and and you know it's
(28:42):
it's interesting that therewere a lot of people that did
survive, but but yet kind of notthe yeah, that's a that there.
Michael Reardon (28:51):
There, that accident incident tragedy is
going to be picked apart a lot.
Kristina Hebert (28:58):
And it should be.
Michael Reardon (29:00):
And it should be.
I was really surprised readinga Wall Street Journal article
that the Italian government'sgoing after the captain and crew
.
And again, you know it's so,it's so not inappropriate, but
we just don't know what happened.
So to comment, but theobservation of almost all the
(29:22):
crew surviving and not guess,and and the captain ending up in
the water before you know, it'slike that's not the way it's
supposed to work, you know butthen again, who's recounting
that?
Kristina Hebert (29:35):
We don't really know, right, we don't, you know
, I can, I can tell you and youknow, yeah, and you know the,
the few things I I do.
Michael Reardon (29:43):
You know there wasn't a night watch that night,
for whatever reason, right,which is weird, um, to see and
and and sort of pre not but.
But you know, if there's awatchman and he sees the wind
going from 20 to 40 to 60 knots,he's going to do something and
get people up, instead of itbeing all of a sudden a
(30:06):
catastrophe.
Kristina Hebert (30:07):
But I do think that that's important for people
to get the proper information,because I know that, as an
industry, we have fought.
Because I know that, as anindustry, we have fought.
I know, for example, down hereback in the mid-early 2000s
(30:28):
2009-ish, we were dealing withthe manatee protection plan, and
this was something.
There were 13 counties in thestate that had to have this
extra plan, and it was really toprotect and preserve this
endangered species, and so wesomehow had this reputation of
being, you know, manatee killers.
That that's all that, you know,the recreational yachting
industry does.
We're just going to speed andwe're going to, we're not going
to pay duty and we're also justgoing to kill manatees, and none
(30:51):
of that at all was accurate byany stretch.
The reality is the majority ofthe manatee deaths were
occurring in the port bycommercial vessels that were
exempt from the manateeprotection plan.
Wow, and so, very similarly, asyou were stating earlier, there
are so many safety programs andsafety certifications that crew
(31:11):
have to endure for a boat to beclassed, flagged the flag
state's pretty important on that, and so it's not like you can
just have this rogue yacht, andespecially a yacht of that size,
just willy-nilly floatingaround with a crew that's like,
oh, we have no idea, but here'sa cocktail and here's that.
That is not how this industryruns.
(31:33):
That boat would never be ableto.
First of all, it's a sailingboat, so you have to have crew
that darn well knows exactlywhat they're doing and all of
them have a role.
And so I agree with you to makean assumption that it just had
to be the crew and the captain,but I feel like that's the go-to
anywhere that it must have beenthe crew, must have been the
yacht they're just all imaginingbelow deck and it must have
(31:56):
been a party going on and nobodywas paying attention.
And I have found in our industry, unfortunately which doesn't
happen all the time, but in mypurview there's fire, and so
somebody always assumes it waseither a shoddy work or there
was something that happened.
Well, sometimes it's, it's um,it's something so strange and
(32:19):
had nothing to do.
The crew couldn't haveprevented it.
In fact, the the fire systemdid go off and prevented the
boat from sinking.
That doesn't mean there wasn'ta fire.
There's fires in houses.
I just saw something on thenews of a dog jumping up and
trying to get something off thecounter and he turned on the
stove and the house burned down,you know, but those same things
(32:41):
can happen on a super yacht.
But the reality is, in ourindustry we have so much
training and so much going um toactually prevent that and um,
so it's so rare.
The amount of boats that areout there that are being
chartered are really amazinglysafe.
Yeah, but to hear some of that.
Michael Reardon (32:55):
It does make it like, oh you know, but it would
be good to find out whathappened Absolutely, and as an
industry, even though to callyachts a transport mechanism,
which they are in some degree,but they're more of a second or
third home.
Kristina Hebert (33:13):
They really are .
Michael Reardon (33:16):
In many instances.
Well, they're both.
So the safety part is reallyimportant and by and large, we
are very fortunate.
Compared to a plane.
Kristina Hebert (33:26):
You screw up on a plane, the consequences can
be huge and immediate On a boat,it's usually not what happened
with Bayesian and there arecounter maneuvers and there are
systems in place and it was so.
It will be interesting, but Ido think we should look into it
and find out.
Going back to what you weresaying earlier about the cycle
(33:47):
of boats, are most of the yachtsyou manage, are a lot of them
chartering while they're forsale?
Michael Reardon (33:54):
Are a lot of them chartering while they're
for sale.
So in the fleet of 27, we havemaybe two or three boats that
are like serious charter boats,and a serious charter boat gets
10 to 12 weeks of charter.
Also, charter kind of taperedoff.
In the last couple of yearsit's been a lot harder for those
(34:17):
boats to achieve those weeks ofcharter.
Kristina Hebert (34:22):
Did they fall off?
Not to interrupt you Did theyreally go down, or was it just a
bubble that had to eventuallykind of burst a little because-.
Michael Reardon (34:31):
Well, sorry, it's quite specific.
They were local boats thatchartered in the Bahamas and the
Bahamas between what we'vetalked about, in the flow of the
market, the ebb and flow of themarket, as well as the
Bahamians imposing another taxsort of you know, not perfect
(34:52):
storm, but shot themselves inthe foot unintentionally isn't
that cyclical, don't they dothat often?
Kristina Hebert (34:58):
yeah, it kind of epsom flows too so that that
was going on.
Michael Reardon (35:01):
Then there's, then there's probably, um, I'm
gonna guess, eight or ten moreboats that charter, don't
charter you know, and half thefleet that doesn't charter at
all.
I'd actually have to, and it'sa good thing we're trying to get
these sort of dashboardstatistics out and gather
(35:24):
information and start exploringand AI and harvest information,
and that's one I'd like to know.
Kristina Hebert (35:38):
It's a good question.
Well, I know, for us I feellike what we saw a lot this
summer for the boats that werelocal were either they are for
sale or they're just trying toget through the next charter
season.
Then they're going to be forsale.
They're not really sure whattheir schedule is, but either
way they still need the work.
But you can tell.
They're just not sure what thenext year looks like and these
(35:58):
crew like to plan out a one year, two year, three year of what
that looks like.
So it does kind of feed intowhat you're saying about a lot
of them being up for sale andthat taking a fair amount of
time.
Michael Reardon (36:09):
Yeah, Speaking of crew, how does, just because
you have such a huge customerbase?
You know, I have 27 boats andwe have to deal with lots and
lots of vendors, but keepingtrack of 27 boats is way
different than having a customerlist of hundreds, thousands.
(36:30):
Whatever you guys have, how doyou deal with keeping track of
captains?
Who's in charge?
Crew turnover or captainturnover?
Kristina Hebert (36:39):
You know, I would say that I wish and I
think, like you, that I reallywish we could harvest and have
this database, that every timethis person, I think number one
you go back to old school, youkeep the relationship going.
And if you have thatrelationship and you've
established yourself as areliable tool and somebody that
that captain can rely on, cancall on, can work with the yacht
(37:02):
management team, then they'lllet you know when they move and
they'll say but you know, it'smore interesting to find that
first engineer or first officerthat now has become a captain
somewhere and then you go.
boy, I remember you when youwere a lot younger and now oh
yeah, okay, well, but I do thinkit's keeping those
(37:22):
relationships going and I and Ithink it still is that there's
nothing better than that, thatconversation or that, how are
you doing?
Or you know, as many times aswe can, we can have that, but I
wish we had that data too.
We've dabbled in the.
Maybe we should have a wardsfleet, you know, because I will
tell you it would be so helpfuland we actually do it on a lot
(37:43):
of boats with you where we knowwhat that electrical system is.
We were there when they wentthrough the refit.
We've been there post-charterseason to do kind of some
upgrades.
It's worse when you haven't seenthe boat in three years and
then you know it's been livingdown Island for a while and
you're like, hmm, um, we'regoing to, oh, you have your
five-year survey coming up.
(38:05):
We have some work to do, um,and we're going to work on that.
But I I wish we could, you know, fill that gap, you know, with
some of the knowledge, and Ithink our industry is moving
that way.
I think, as companies.
I think boats are more and moreopen.
I think in the past they didn'treally want to share data.
We still like to be verymysterious where we're going to
be, we're not sure where ouryard period is going to be.
(38:26):
We don't want to.
And now I think the boats arekind of going all right, listen,
we've got a busy charter seasoncoming up in 2025, let's say,
and we need to have all thisstuff done, and so they're
willing to share that data.
They're willing to be helpful.
I think there's a little bitmore openness to that.
Michael Reardon (38:44):
How do you think AI is going to help boards
Marine Electric.
Kristina Hebert (38:47):
You know, to be honest, I'm behind that.
I really am behind the AI.
I'm kind of sitting back to see.
You know, there's the one handthat says I'm a big believer If
you can make it work for you.
I've learned that doing thispodcast there's certain AI
programs that are going to behelpful on that.
And then I would say that I'mabsolutely kind of a naysayer
sitting in the corner, notagainst it, but just want to
(39:07):
watch and see what it does alittle bit before we we jump on
a bandwagon.
I don't do my iPhone updatesautomatically, I wait.
I like to let other people workout the bugs and then let's see
.
I think I'm cautiouslyoptimistic.
I think there's no doubt thatwe're gonna need to embrace it
and there's no doubt that thereare gonna be huge benefits.
I would not wanna see anybodyfeeding electrical advice via AI
(39:31):
, because I can only imaginethat that could be manipulated
and be incorrect.
Michael Reardon (39:37):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (39:37):
And I feel like electricity and just working in
an electrical plant is you justneed to be very safe.
Michael Reardon (39:45):
There's just no guessing.
Kristina Hebert (39:47):
Yeah, but AI is here, you know, and it's going
to be here, and I think we needto embrace it.
Michael Reardon (39:51):
Yeah, yeah is here, you know, and it's going
to be here and I think we needto embrace it.
Yeah, yeah, we're trying to uh,what, what?
I hope the what.
I'm kind of on a similar path,um, but sort of ready to embrace
it, maybe sooner than you, butI I am a little skeptical of um
(40:11):
of it being the end-all, thewhere-all, end-all of what
people think or what they areguessing.
But, that being said, you know,with 27 boats, we pay roughly
250 to 300 crew per month.
They're all you know.
They've all got data, a lot ofit confidential, but there's
(40:36):
data on turnover, having youknow if this was, instead of you
know, and I talking, if thiswas a yacht owner meeting and
even a prospecting thing to havean owner say, hey, you know, I
own this 160 foot boat, whatshould I be paying my captain?
I have no problem having thatconversation.
(40:56):
But being able to pull out myphone and actually say, well, in
our fleet of 27 yachts, thereare about 10 yachts in that size
range and here's the average ofwhat the captains are paid and
whether they have rotation ornot and stuff, and that data is
there, we have it.
(41:16):
It's harvesting it, collectingit, collating it, having it easy
to see.
That's what we're working on.
Kristina Hebert (41:25):
So the AI side would help you.
Michael Reardon (41:28):
I really want AI just to harvest data.
Kristina Hebert (41:30):
Okay, and that makes sense I agree yeah, that
seems and that makes sense.
Michael Reardon (41:33):
I agree yeah, that seems like a good use we
have different portals that thatinformation resides, and we
have an application we use forall the safety, crew and vessel
stuff.
Then we have a separate we usedto be in QuickBooks, but we
have a separate program calledVolley.
That is all the financial stuff.
(41:54):
Those two don't talk to eachother, so and I want data.
Another obvious question that apotential client would ask is
how much does this boat cost tooperate?
And in one way it's like howlong is a piece of string?
Sure and in one way it's likehow long is a piece of string?
But in another way, fixed costsof crew and dockage and
(42:18):
insurance and fuel pretty easyand again, having nine years and
the number of boats that we'vehad in the fleet.
There's a lot of data therethat is sort of just sitting
there waiting to be used.
Kristina Hebert (42:34):
No, but I agree with you and maybe it's your
next venture is to develop thisAI harvester, because I think
there's a lot of companies outthere in a very similar spot of
you and I that have a lot ofdata.
We just don't really knowexactly what to do with it.
Michael Reardon (42:52):
Or how to use it or to see it in a way that is
helpful and adaptable.
You know, to go from the 160footer to a 70 foot sport fish,
it's like, no, that's a verydifferent dynamic About a money,
amount of crew, all that stuff.
Kristina Hebert (43:13):
And different philosophy of usage, and I think
that that's one of those thingsthat people, you know, a yacht
owner is not a yacht owner andnot a yacht owner Some of them
are.
You know it's a businessventure that they bought with
someone.
It's their family, it'sgrandparents and grandkids, it's
going to be their own personalfamily getaway, and others it's
(43:35):
going to be in every show andthis is the boat that they're
using to get to their next boat.
But all of those have a verydifferent philosophy of
operation and how they're usingit.
And it's interesting from anelectrical you would say
philosophy of operation.
But I will tell you, gettinginto power management and the
way it's controlled, we actuallyhave gotten to learn and we
(43:58):
have data on that, on how youknow.
We used to get it via a loadanalysis.
How often are you going to runyour washer and dryers?
How often is your galley goingto be run?
How often are your chillersgoing to be on?
Well, that would tell me who'sgoing to be on the boat and what
kind of entertaining you'redoing and how many crew you're
going to have.
But now, because you can modifythe power management at very,
(44:19):
very small integrals and andmake power decisions you know
we're working with a companythat's building a boat 940 kw
generators that you can makethose choices 40 kw at a time,
10 kw at a time.
However, you want to be able todo.
That really gets you intowhat's important how is this
boat going to be used, and Iwill tell you when you finally
(44:39):
get with an owner on that.
It tells you a lot on how theyplan to use the boat and I think
we could probably harvest yourcrew knowledge and my power
management systems and we canfigure out how this boat's going
to be used.
Exactly.
But that is interesting as, aswe move forward and, um, I'm
optimistic, you know, but I dobelieve that you know, we were
(45:01):
able to operate.
We talk about this.
We were able to operate beforeour iphones, remember, when it
was just fax machines andvoicemails yeah and you'd walk
in the office at nine o'clockthe next day and whatever
thermographic paper was on thefloor underneath because it
curled up and fell is your firstorder of business and then your
voicemail, and we were all verysuccessful businesses.
(45:23):
We managed to turn ourselvesinto 24 hour.
What is it?
The tyranny of convenience, butI think AI is the same.
At the end of the day, if youwant to keep your relationships,
you have to work at them, andthat's kind of the point also of
this podcast.
Michael Reardon (45:41):
Yeah, and I really resonate with what you
said, though, about the waydifferent yacht owners
experience yachting and usetheir yachts.
Different yacht ownersexperience yachting and and use
their yachts.
Um, we also, in therelationship with them, see
their and I'm going to sayquirks, but not in a not in a
(46:02):
negative way.
It's just when you are a ubersuccessful guy that you know
manufactured some widget andbecame a millionaire or
billionaire over it.
You have a way of approachingbusiness and life that's
different from the next personwith that same net worth or
(46:26):
skill set or whatever.
But yeah, in the finances theyall you know.
But yeah, in the finances, theyall you know.
Kind of each owner.
Some owners are super budgetconscientious.
Some could care less.
I had an owner one time we gotstarted and he came to me and he
said, michael, can I trust you?
(46:48):
Well, I hope so.
Yes, kind of taking care ofyour asset here.
Kind of he's like, well, I'mnever looking at the financials,
please take care of it.
I was like, well, that probablywasn't the best thing to say
and it's flattering to hear it,but it, it, it's the
responsibility, of course, in inyacht management you kind of
(47:11):
alluded to it earlier by far themost important things are
safety and then the financesnext.
But really knowing what theclient wants and what their
needs are and how they like tobe communicated to, which means
everything from financials tophone calls to texting, which
(47:34):
means everything from financialsto phone calls to texting to.
You know, we have a guy.
We're trying to get some workdone right now.
We keep scheduling meetings,whether it's teams or conference
calls, and he just doesn't showup and it's like well, that's
communicating something too.
Kristina Hebert (47:48):
Yeah exactly.
Michael Reardon (47:49):
So, yeah, and it's hard to get stuff done when
we can't get final word orapprovals and stuff like that.
So, yeah, I think we and if youthink about it just the way
you've grown up in your familybusiness there is a way, there
is a culture that you have inthe company.
(48:12):
There's probably a culture theway you look at finances.
There's a culture the way youin the company.
There's probably a culture theway you look at finances.
There's a culture the way youdeal with customers and stuff.
That all become the DNA of whoWards Marine Electric is and all
those things combined, and it'strue for our clients too.
Agree and trying to see howthey mesh is sometimes the trick
(48:34):
.
Kristina Hebert (48:35):
Yeah.
So lessons learned.
We need to keep cultivating ourrelationships.
We need to communicate wellwith our customers and keep
trying to figure out the bestway to understand their needs
and help them have the bestmoney and go to Toastmasters.
And go to Toastmasters.
That's right, okay.
Michael Reardon (49:22):
Well, thank you for your time today.
I appreciate it and I'mdefinitely do.
You have a toast business thathas flourished, that is
multi-generational, which isreally a challenge, and you guys
just having the culture ofbeing go-to people, being
knowledgeable, being honest,it's really good and I enjoyed
being here.
Kristina Hebert (49:34):
Well, thank you .
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Michael Reardon (49:37):
My pleasure.
Kristina Hebert (49:37):
Yeah.
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