Boat yards and marine services of the Abaco Islands
By Alice Bain - The Abaconian - 1 July 2002

The business of hauling and repairing boats is a tradition here on Abaco, and five boat yards offer these services in Green Turtle Cay, Man-O-War Cay, Hope Town and Marsh Harbour.

Abaco Yacht Services at the Green Turtle Cay Shipyard was founded in 1978. They can haul boats up to 50 tons or about 55 feet long and have enough dry storage space for 150 boats. Some residents store their boats every year for hurricane season.

Crystal Roberts of Abaco Yacht Services commented, "We're usually full by August-people who want to store their boats here during hurricane season should book by January of that year. We haul sailboats and powerboats, but we've got mostly sailboats in storage. We've got a smaller lift for boats up to 25 feet and also a forklift." Abaco Yacht Services also sells and services Yamaha engines.

Abaco Yacht Services is a full service yard. They clean and paint boat bottoms, polish hulls, and sell "Seahawk Island 44" bottom paint in three or four different colors. The yard stored 170 boats during Hurricane Floyd. Of these, 14 sailboats tipped over and one catamaran was flipped. All but one of the boats were reparable and were sailed home for further repairs under their own power. The yard has had no problems with any of the more minor hurricanes that have hit Abaco, including Hurricane Michelle in November of 2001.

Edwin's Boat Yard in Man-O-War Cay is a direct offshoot of the Man-O-War Cay boat building tradition. Edwin Albury started his business in 1960, building small wooden dinghies for use with outboard engines. He, Keith Albury and Darvin Sands built boats of varying sizes during the 1960s and were joined by Blake Albury in 1969.

The business expanded in 1976 when Edwin purchased William Albury's boatyard, which is now known as Edwin's Boat Yard #2. Edwin's Boat Yard stores small boats up to 26 feet; runabouts and a few shallow draft sailboats. Their specialty is maintenance, paint work and mechanical repairs. They can haul boats up to 65 feet long or 50 tons. They are official dealers for Yanmar diesel engines. Edwin's has a lot of repeat customers and is the oldest yard on Abaco.

Lighthouse Marina has been operating their boat yard since 1979 and offers dry storage and hauling for boats up to 10 tons. The yard does bottom painting and pressure cleaning, compound waxing of hulls and they sell and service Yamaha outboard motors. They have a forklift capable of lifting boats up to about 32 feet long and their dry-storage yard can hold as many as 150 small boats.

Abaco Outboards hauls boats up to 34 feet using a hydraulic trailer and has been in business since 1984. They also offer a bottom-painting service and give written estimates for each job. Boats can be stored on blocks or on the boat-owner's own trailer in the Abaco Outboards yard. The yard does not require booking in advance for hurricane season.

"Most people will ask us to haul a boat if there is a hurricane in June, July or August," says Angelique Cash, "and we haul them as they bring them." Abaco Outboards sells Yamaha outboard engines and offers service on these engines only. They also sell Waverunners, generators and water pumps. Marsh Harbour Boat Yard is the most recently founded of all the Abaco yards. It came into being three years ago in 1999 but at first they were only able to haul small boats using a hydraulic trailer.

After Hurricane Floyd the business purchased a large straddle lift capable of hauling boats up to 85 tons or about 110 feet long. The yard, like Edwin's Boat Yard, is more geared towards working rather than storage, although they do store small boats for residents who live here only half the year. They offer full bottom-paint service and have a complete welding and machine shop on the premises for parts fabrication.