Over the years we’ve made a determined effort to provide both our local members and our yachting visitors with a wide range of facilities for their enjoyment and convenience while their boats are in our boat yard.
We’ve added more bathrooms, showers, storage rooms and lockers, a “roti hut” for quick meals, a restaurant, a well-stocked grocery store, a marine hardware store and a fuel facility that sells gasoline, diesel, oils and accessories. We’ve extended and improved our dinghy dock and our yacht docks; we’ve introduced our very own Convenience Card, a really easy way to pay bills at the various outlets on our compound without using cash. We’ve increased our security systems adding several more guards with radios and electric carts for quick movement, increased visibility and overall effectiveness. We now have dozens of security cameras strategically placed around our compound all of which download video into a powerful recording computer that is housed in a fully operational security room. We offer WiFi all around our compound and as a back-up we have an air conditioned internet room with several cubicles as well as a computer and printer. For visitors who wish to get off their boats, we have six air conditioned apartments, complete with kitchenettes, all with balconies that overlook the water. Our office is happy to assist with faxes, scans and telephone calls to anywhere in the world. We rent cell phones and are happy to arrange car rentals, flights, taxis and tours.
Our office building is located in the middle of our compound and is the nerve center of our operation. On the first floor is our reception where amongst other things, bookings are made, mail is posted/collected, faxes are sent/received, records are kept and invoices are paid. Next to our reception is our contracts department where all matters related to work on boats are dealt with. Adjoined the reception are our CEO’s office and our accounts department.
On the ground floor of our office building is the laundramat which is equipped with several token operated washers and dryers. Next to the laundramat are the showers and toilets. The showers have token operated hot water.
Clean, conveniently located toilets and showers are essential in a boatyard. in tangible recognition of this we’ve upgraded and added new toilet and shower facilities, and we’ve placed the new ones strategically so that no one in our yacht yard has to walk far to get to a toilet or shower. Toilets and showers are cleaned twice per day.
Located on the waterfront with a view of the bay, the ambiance in the restaurant is relaxed with a tropical flavor. Sails Restaurant is well known for its delicious fish dishes and bar-b-ques that are out of this world.
There are two sections in the restaurant, one that is air conditioned and is great for cooling off during the heat of the day and a separate outside section that is lovely in the cool of the evenings.
The bar serves a host of interesting drinks and prices are very reasonable.
Operated by Gary and Grace, the Roti Hut is located on the eastern side of the boatyard. Roti is a delicious Indian food, relatively inexpensive and sure to fill you up quickly. The Roti Hut is very informal and relaxed with long tables and benches. Perfect for a quick lunch…… every day! On evenings the Roti Hut is available for Bar-B-Ques and social functions.
Dockside Foodmart is the name of our fully stocked store with a full range of grocery supplies, including vegetables, canned foods, fresh and frozen meats, biscuits, bread, chocolates, fresh sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, hot dogs, cold beer, wine, toiletries, a selection of boutique clothing and a host of other items. This is a well laid out, spacious, air conditioned facility located on the waterfront with its own dock making it easy to load groceries into dinghies. In Trinidad, prices for groceries are generally by far the lowest in the Caribbean and our prices at Dockside Foodmart are carefully monitored to ensure that we are as competitive as the largest foodstore chains in Port of Spain. A discount of 5% is given to guests who use our convenience card at Dockside Foodmart.
Our Boaters Shop, conveniently located centrally in our compound, provides our customers with the best quality repair materials at the best possible prices. We stock fiberglass, resins, sand papers, paints, epoxies, fillers, rollers, paint brushes, stainless screws and bolts, tools, anti-foulings, etc. We also import items on Special Order, often at prices which are equal to or better that those available from large retail outlets in the States. A discount of 5% is automatically given on items purchased at the Boaters Shop when using our convenience card.
We have three docks, all designed for stern-to docking, with piles approximately 45 feet off the docks on to which boats can tie, port and starboard. All our docks are supplied with 110 and 220 volt electricity as well as water which is free.
We have taken great pains to design and provide six comfortably furnished apartments for the use of guests, all conveniently located on our property.
Our apartments are very popular for the first few nights when guests return to their boats left on the hard and are also very useful when boats on the hard are being prepared for storage or are being worked upon. We offer special low rates to customers who are doing extensive repairs to the interior of their boats and therefore cannot live aboard for a long period of time.
All apartments are air conditioned and have a veranda, kitchenette and bathroom with hot and cold water. A lovely treat when you’re fed up with your V berth!
Crews are welcome to stay aboard their boats during their stay with us and to make life more comfortable we rent and install air conditioners using pre-fabricated cowls that fit over hatches. We also rent fans, dehumidifiers and vacuum cleaners.
Although we provide wifi throughout the boatyard, it can be a somewhat annoying when the internet connection is not good so we recently built an air conditioned Internet Room for our guests. There are 8 hard wired cubicles in the Internet Room as well as wifi, and the room is equipped with a computer and a printer. This internet service is normally very reliable and it is very popular so only persons registered with us are permitted to use the room.
What would you do without your dinghy?! It is of course very important to provide a good dinghy dock for visiting cruisers and we do this abundantly. Our dinghy dock is safe and convenient. All visitors are welcome to use our dinghy dock but we ask that they register at our office upon arrival.
Good security is probably the most important component of a cruiser’s wellbeing while in the boatyard and with this in mind we have gone to considerable lengths to ensure proper security of person and property.
Our electronic front gates are operated by two security guards and all persons and cars entering our property are continuously monitored by cameras that record video on a high capacity computer. We have a designated security office that houses the high capacity computer as well as several computer monitoring screens, radio transmitters and indeed the heart of our electronic surveillance system. Our boat yard is continuously monitored by more than thirty strategically placed cameras that send video to the central computer which stores the recordings for future viewing if required.
Our security department is furnished with electric vehicles that enable security officers to move around our compound quickly and quietly, and the officers communicate with each other via our private band HF radios. Our security record is outstanding….. we have not had a theft from a yacht in our boatyard in well over six years!
One of our more interesting concepts is our “Convenience Card”. Introduced several years ago, all visitors are welcome to have one of these cards during their stay with us. Similar in operation to a credit card, our Convenience Card is used to conveniently pay for goods obtained on our compound. When the convenience card is swiped at any of our sales outlets the amount is charged directly on the main account of the user and can be paid at any time within one month from the date of purchase. Payment after a month will attract interest. With our Convenience Card, there is no need to carry cash and best of all, using our Convenience Card automatically gives the user a discount of 5% on almost everything purchased at our two retail outlets: Dockside Foodmart and The Boaters Shop.