Advertisement

Bras d'Or Boatworks to offer vessel shipping service

A Baddeck company wants to help more recreational boaters enjoy the Bras d'Or Lakes, so it's offering a service to help get boats there.

Bras d'Or Boatworks plans on targeting boat owners in central Canada and on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. to assist them in getting their boats to Cape Breton for sailing vacations.

The company will target the owners of nine to 10-metre boats, says Peter Patterson, the principal of the company. He says owners of boats around that size are less likely to want to sail all the way to Cape Breton from their home marinas because of factors such as distance and the logistics involved.

He says his company is offering a complete package to bring a boater's vessel to Cape Breton.

"We could arrive at their home marina or yacht club, pick their boat up, prep it for travel, bring it to our facility here in Baddeck where we would commission it, get the boat in the water," said Patterson.

Service will cost between $6 and $10K

Patterson said the company would also supply local sailing charts, provisions and updated electronic navigation so that clients could hit the ground running and enjoy their vacation.

Patterson said this service would not compete with any other marine businesses on the Bras d'Or, but would instead complement them. He uses the example of his company not being located on the waterfront and says that would mean that once a boat was prepped, it would have to go somewhere in the water.

"It's not going to be in at my marina, so it's going to be in a slip in Ben Eoin or St. Peter's or [the] Cape Breton Boat Yard or at Baddeck Marine," said Patterson.

Patterson says the service will cost about the same as chartering a boat on the Mediterranean or the Caribbean for two weeks, between $6,000 and $10,000.

The idea for the service stems from Patterson's desire to offer a niche service.