Frontenac Success Stories: Smart’s Marina

Jeff Green | Jul 08, 2010

Time is not easy to find on a summer morning at Smart's Marina. It is now, officially, the high season on Lake Mazinaw, but at first it did not seem to be that busy when I walked into Smart's Marina on Monday, July 5.

Steve Smart was standing next to a giant outboard motor in the small showroom, near the marina store, directing traffic as the staff were moving boats and serving customers at the store.

He ushered me into Pauline Smart's office. “We'll see if we can get some time to talk,” he said.

Steve Smart grew up spending summers at Mazinaw Lake, and in 1974 his parents bought the marina from the Lester family and re-named it Smart's Marina.

In the 1980s he was living in Peterborough, where he met his wife Pauline. Steve worked at a number of marinas and eventually at the Three Buoys houseboat business in Bobcaygeon on the Kawartha Lakes.

So when Steve and Pauline bought the marina from Steve's parents in 1990, it was the natural extension of their career paths.

While the number of marinas on local lakes has been diminishing, Smart's Marina has continued to thrive. “There is no such thing as a recession-proof business.” Steve said, “but we find that when boat sales drop back because money is tight, people spend more money on maintenance and repairs. Since we sell and repair boats and motors, we get some business either way.”

The marina also provides docking service for 70 water-access cottages, as well as boat storage service, etc.

But as Steve was explaining how the different parts of the business fit together, his eyes began to drift and he shifted in his chair. “Excuse me,” he finally said as he looked over to a young man standing at the door “I think I have to go. Someone is looking at a pontoon boat. I'll be back soon.”

Meanwhile, the phone rang and Pauline, who was sitting in front of a computer screen, snatched it up.

“I just got the message on email,” she said to the person on the other end of the line, “I'll get you that information in the next few minutes. Sorry for missing it. We've been busy.”

“The accountant,” she explained.

Just then, another employee came in the office.

“They want gas,” he said

“Give them just 20 litres, no more” Pauline said to the employee. “That'll get them to the upper lake.”

“Problems with gas?” I asked.

“There's been no fuel delivery since June 30,” Pauline explained. “Everybody wanted delivery before the HST came in, and the truckers had worked so many hours by then that they stopped delivering over the weekend. We have only a bit left. Great timing, isn't it?””

By now Steve was back.

His potential customer, who had come up to Smart's from Beaver Lake, near Tamworth, was still pondering whether to buy the $20,000 pontoon boat, but Steve wasn't pushing.

Boat sales are an important source of revenue for the marina, but they are tied in with service. That's how a small business can compete with the box-store type of selling that has had an impact on small marinas in recent years.

Steve explained some of the advantages he can offer.

“The trailer for that pontoon boat costs $4,000. If he buys the boat here we can deliver it to him, and in the fall we can come and get it and store it here. So he can save $4,000. And if he has any problem with it on a Saturday, we can help him out. Now if he buys a boat at Canadian Tire, what good would that do him on a Saturday?”

Smart's has a long-standing relationship with PrinceCraft boats and Mercury motors, which provides them with a range of boats and motors, and they have customers on all of the lakes in the region. Steve travels each year to the major cottage show in Toronto to keep in touch with customers and with the industry. “We've had a presence at that show, one way or another, since my father starting going to it in 1974,” Steve said.

It takes all the accumulated knowledge of over 30 years for a business that is located on a tiny spit of land between Highway 41 and Mazinaw Lake to be able to thrive in an economic climate that has changed so dramatically in recent years.

One example of that is boat technology. “Motors change as quickly as laptop computers, but one difference is that the motors are designed to they can be upgraded as new energy-efficient technology becomes available. With the four stroke engines that are available now, people can buy bigger boats that have less impact on the lake”, Steve said.

Both Steve and Pauline pointed out that the source of their business is one thing that has not changed - Mazinaw Lake itself.

“The health of the lake is the bedrock of this entire community. Because of the health of the lake Bon Echo draws 250,000 people each summer. The cottagers keep coming back. People come fishing. What would Cloyne be without Mazinaw Lake?” Steve said.

“We have a role to play in environmental education,” Pauline said. “Take that boater before to whom we sold 20 litres of gas. He wanted to fill a jerry can and carry it to his boat. We don't do that, because you can't pour gas into a tank with a jerry can without spilling some into the lake. We make them bring the boat around to the pumps. People need to know this kind of thing.”

Marinas are also at the forefront of the safe boating education and licensing system.

Smart's Marina compacts a lot of enterprise into a small location, and while there have been opportunities to pick up new property and divide up different parts of the business in recent years, they have resisted. Two years ago they put up a new building on the property instead.

It allows them to run the marina as it has always been run, as a family business.

Five years ago, Steve and Pauline summed up what their business is all about when they were promoting an event on National Marina Day in 2005. They wrote: “Local marinas do much more than just provide boating infrastructure. They provide a variety of services, such as friendly, helpful advice, education, assistance and instruction through their trained staff on a variety of issues including boating safety, boating regulations and environmentally safe products and practices. In short, marinas provide an unmatched combination of infrastructure, products, and services that help those seeking recreation on the water to maximize their precious leisure time safely and efficiently.”