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Many tourists and nautical enthusiasts in the Great Lakes region are familiar with Mackinac Island and its Grand Hotel, Door County, Wisconsin’s bed-and-breakfasts, and the thrills of sailing around the Apostle Islands. But MacRay Harbor, located on the northwest shore of Lake St. Clair in eastern Michigan, has gained a reputation as the ultimate family resort and marina facility, one that is dedicated to serving the boater and the boater’s family. The marina’s state-of- the-art services and amenities, plus a proactive customer-management relationship, make MacRay Harbor our 2004 “Marina of the Year.”
MacRay Harbor is just a 45-minute drive from downtown Detroit. It has 624 slips, of which 79 are enclosed, heated slips within one- and two-bedroom condominium units—a unique idea for the Midwest. MacRay also features an impressive banquet and conference center, a bistro-style dining facility, and three swimming pools. The open-air docks, which include 379 seasonal rental slips, are 4-ft. wide floating structures, and each dock has pumpout service. Dock features include adjustable dock cleats secured to channels, allowing easy tie-up adjustments, and dual 30- and 50-amp power pedestals that are equipped with cable television and telephone. Just this past summer, MacRay upgraded its customer service offerings by installing WiFi Internet service. The original owners, Bill McMachen and C.N. Ray—who purchased the property in 1987 and opened the facility in 1989—were devoted to boating,” says MacRay’s current vice president, Steve Remias. “C.N. was the founder of Sea Ray Boats, while Bill’s family was Sea Ray’s first dealer and had been retailing boats for over 60 years. They had a firm idea of what a state-of-the-art marina would entail, and even as the marina was being designed, they toured the country looking for what boaters consider ‘must-haves’ in terms of marina amenities. We have always tried to be on the cutting edge, and be an all-inclusive resort. Boaters shouldn’t have to leave the harbor to have an enjoyable boating experience.” The buildup
In 1992, Ray and McMachen sold MacRay to Ray Nicholson, a local businessman, who expanded and improved MacRay’s amenities. In the 1990s, MacRay Harbor added a laundry center, an additional bathhouse, a fitness center, and a children’s play area. The management team expanded as well. Remias came on board and served a short stint as controller, and then was elevated to vice president in 1994. Bill Chamberlain, a Certified Marina Manager (CMM) who worked at a large Mississippi River marina in Lake City, Minnesota, became director of marina operations. “Ray Nicholson came in with new energy and an aggressive capital improvement agenda in 1992,” Remias says. “Ray’s determination allowed MacRay to become the resort which exceeded what even McMachen and Ray envisioned. McMachen continues his involvement as a MacRay shareholder.” Another major change at MacRay Harbor occurred in 2001, when the building that houses the banquet center and bistro was reconfigured to put more focus onto the banquet business. More than $1 million was put into the renovation project, and the result was a more intimate bistro restaurant and a significantly larger public banquet center. The banquet facility is an attractive, in-demand venue for wedding receptions, power squadron parties, charity functions, and other social events for members/customers. Weddings are one of the most popular events that take place in MacRay’s banquet center. Many newlyweds from the Detroit metro area come here because of the tremendous view of the marina and Anchor Bay. Remias says that although the marina offers no overnight accommodations for wedding guests, it will recommend some off-site hotels and inns—but that’s not always necessary. “We offer a unique option for some of our wedding guests. They can arrive by boat, park in one of MacRay’s 41 transient/overnight slips, enjoy the wedding ceremony and reception, and then spend the night on their boat,” Remias notes. Not only does the banquet center showcase MacRay’s state-of-the-art accommodations to a variety of guests, but it also serves as a daily reminder to many permanent residents of the marina’s forward thinking. The 79 combined condo/enclosed slip units are located within three buildings on MacRay’s property. Although the owners can’t take their boats out of the wells during the winter, the use of radiant heat prevents the water within the slip from freezing, which means an off-season layup is not necessary. The first one of these buildings was completed in 1990, with 23 units; another has 20; the third, which is being completed, has 36, and will be marketed soon. “ The convenience isn’t just the proximity to the living unit,” says Remias, “but the fact that there’s no need to winterize these boats. It’s also nice for those people to have climate-controlled access to their boat in the winter.” Family values
“We’re always looking for ways to serve the young people and kids,” Remias notes. “That’s one of the reasons we added the WiFi capabilities. Not only does our business clientele use it, but the teenage market also uses it frequently, whether they’re on their parents’ boats, or using a laptop at poolside.” Amenities aren’t the only ways that MacRay caters to its diverse array of customers. A casual morning get-together in April provides a new member orientation for newcomers to the facility. The meeting educates new members on available services, explains the marina’s rules and regulations, and gives people a chance to meet the management team and other new members. Throughout the summer season, the marina hosts a number of parties and special events, many of which are geared to the young or to the benefit of their boating parents. For example, to mark the start of a long holiday weekend, such as Memorial Day or the 4th of July, MacRay will have a Friday night barbecue. Despite the good times that can be had by all ages, invariably, some of the younger guests’ enthusiasm for the parties wanes before that of their parents’ and so the marina provides complimentary babysitting. “Although kids are certainly invited to a wide variety of our summer events, we have a Kid’s Day event every summer,” Remias explains. “We’ll have game booths with prizes, an arcade, and a moonwalk for jumping. We want them to feel at home.” This year, the marina held its National Marina Day celebration and the annual Kid’s Day event concurrently. After a continental breakfast in the morning, the U.S. Coast Guard demonstrated a simulated helicopter search and rescue, while the power squadrons offered free safety inspections. The Macomb County Sheriff’s Department also came out and simulated a dive rescue. “We plan on expanding National Marina Day activities next year,” Remias says. “We want to involve local officials. The more we can offer the boater, and spread this message through different channels, like elected officials, the better our industry is going to be.” To sum up, the general atmosphere at MacRay is not only warm and welcoming, but also professional and organized. Remias says that, above all, the presentation is “clean.” The dock and pool attendants are uniformed, with distinct labeling that identifies them as marina personnel. There is also a 24-hour in-house security patrol. Customer feedback
Remias says adding the WiFi system this past summer was a result of feedback received from survey participants. “Another suggestion that we received was to install a service hotline on our phone system,” Remias says. “If you call MacRay’s main line and access extension 519, you will be connected to the service hotline. After stating your name, address/slip, and the problem to be addressed, a staff member gets paged. Knowing there’s a ‘519’ call, a staffer will access the message center and determine if the call is an emergency requiring immediate attention, as opposed to comments like, ‘the cable TV is a little fuzzy.’ The latter situation gets entered into the maintenance log, and is addressed in due course.” A few years ago, MacRay Harbor asked members to serve on a committee to assist its management in addressing customer needs. The Member Advisory Committee (MAC) currently has 12 members and meets several times a year to review marina services and appearance. Remias says MacRay treats the MAC like a board of directors, and they take their job seriously. “Committee members gather ideas and suggestions from other members and share them at the meetings,” Remias says. “The committee has been instrumental in the development of the WiFi access, the reconstruction of our web site as more user-friendly, and the modification of MacRay Harbor rules and regulations. Dock and condominium owners also are represented by three very active boards of directors, who meet with MacRay management on a monthly basis.” Target market Although MacRay Harbor prides itself on service, it does not have a service department for mechanical, fiberglass, and other boat repair needs. However, numerous marine service contractors are available once MacRay personnel haul and shore the boat. Using state-of-the-art hoist equipment, including a 70-ton marine travel lift, along with a 30-ton hydraulic yard trailer, the yard staff at MacRay handles more than 500 boats annually. And MacRay’s marina staff works closely with marine service contractors to ensure that all environmental guidelines are adhered to during servicing. Dustless sanders, containment booms, tarps, and drop cloths are “standard operating procedure” before a contractor can even begin to service a boat on MacRay’s grounds. The ship’s store is more about provisions and sundries than mechanical or rigging products. It offers beverages and foods, such as deli sandwiches, and sells a few maintenance items, such as bilge filters, oil absorbent booms, and engine drip pads, which help the marina’s objective of cleanliness and minimizing pollution. Problem resolution
“The ‘good news’ was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Coast Guard were complimentary regarding our emergency cleanup procedures,” Remias says. “We had the reclamation people come in and remove the film from the water, as well as the contaminated earth. We then replaced the dispensers and put in state-of-the-art emergency and backup systems. This process, in turn, lead us to replace our fuel lines, add computerized monitoring systems, and place the fuel tanks 400 feet away from the docks.” The fueling system upgrades cost the marina nearly $250,000, and came on the heels of an even more ambitious dredging project—both fiscally and logistically. During the 1990s, receding water levels adversely affected boat movement in and out of harbors. With the marina’s water level down as much as a few feet, the entrance/ingress channels to Anchor Bay were becoming dangerously shallow. The decision was made to begin spot dredging in 1999. “The final dredging project was a major event that took place in 2001, and it involved dredging these channels one mile into Anchor Bay,” Remias says. “We received the permitting to remove nearly 25,000 yards of dredging spoils. Then, the challenge was to dispose of these spoils. To do this, we cannibalized 32 boat wells, hydraulically forced the spoils into special dredge ‘bags.’ We then sealed off the canal that had been the abandoned wells, compacted the bags, and put a parking lot on top. The parking lot became a necessary element in our added emphasis on the banquet facility.” Community care The state of Michigan, however, had no statewide Clean Marina Program at this time. In response, the Michigan Boating Industries Association (MBIA), which Remias was secretary-treasurer and chaired its environmental committee in 2004, established a partnership between the MBIA and MDEQ to launch a voluntary initiative for the state’s marinas. “Van Snider, president of MBIA, Jeff Spencer, project coordinator, environmental science and services division, MDEQ, and Michigan Sea Grant’s Chuck Pistis, and Remias formed a technical committee charged with the design and implementation of a Clean Marina Program,” Remias explains. “We began meeting two years ago, reviewed what other states did, and eventually designed and published a clean marine handbook and began initial meetings with some 40 marinas statewide who have pledged to participate. We are excited with the program’s progress and look forward to awarding state clean marina status to several marinas in 2005.” Keeping the vicinity clean and using best management practices can help a marina’s reputation for stewardship, but it is just one part of MacRay’s civic responsibilities. The marina hosts a number of civic activities, including local fire department rescue dive exercises, Coast Guard auxiliary functions, and local disaster training exercises. In addition, Roger Petri, Director of Operations for the Banquet Center, serves on several boards of directors, including Care House, a local shelter for abused women and children. “We do a lot of activities and fundraisers with Care House,” Remias says. “Our involvement with them enabled us to receive the National Restaurant Associ-ation’s Restaurant Neighbor Award in 2003. We were equally pleased to have received the 2003 Detroit News reader poll Marina of the Year Award.” The marina is also involved in Macomb County Foster Care, Special Olympics, and local veterans groups. Conclusion |
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MacRay Harbor has earned the
reputation of being a top-notch family
resort and marina on the Great Lakes
