What an adventure this has been!
It’s fair to say that the past 12 months have been quite a journey! We’ve welcomed new team members, new opportunities and spread our ‘boaty’ wings with the expansion of our business taking things to a whole new level.
New Business – New Boats
The acquisition of Boyds Bay Houseboats allowed us to spread out along the marina and add 4 vessels to our fleet which included Island Dream, Marie Claire, Patricia and Jean. Along with a marina office, which has been a much easier way to check in on arrival! An extra shed means the boys could set up a dedicated workshop and fill this space with their much ‘needed’ tools and parts.
Extra room on the jetty means we can now set our team up with a tender cleaning station. On our busy turn around days, tenders are returned to this area and motors removed. We installed a pump out facility so now our cleaning team can wash down and pump out the tenders all in one handy location!
That environmentally important task of emptying black water (sewage) tanks after each hire is easier as well. We don’t need to share the big sewage pump!
Tweed River Boat Hire
For the past 29 years, houseboat holidays have been our thing but when the opportunity to dive into the world of day hire presented itself, we couldn’t say no! Sadly, our friends at Tweed River Boat Hire closed their doors and we moved 5 of their BBQ boats to operate from our marina on River Terrace. Our team were busy with upgrades to make sure they were in ship shape including:
- installation of new panelling
- new engines
- water tanks connected to taps for fresh, running water
- new BBQs
- the installation of ladders, making life much easier when climbing in and out of the water!
- Brand new booking system to book your day trip directly online!
NSW Tourism Awards
To anyone who has ever been down the road of an awards submission, our hats go off to you! What an epic but rewarding process to enter in the NSW Tourism awards.
If nothing else, this was a way to fine tune our procedures and to truly acknowledge how hard working our team are to ensure your holiday is a memorable experience! We learnt many tips and tricks along the way that we have implemented daily into our business.
Making finals was exciting enough but to take out Bronze in the Unique Accommodation category and to be recognised up against some of NSW’s biggest players was the icing on the cake!
Fantaseas Houseboats
Towards the end of the year, our friends at Fantaseas Houseboats on the Gold Coast decided to move on to bigger and better things and tied off their boats for the very last time…
We were fortunate enough to be able to welcome many of their guests onboard to experience a new location in the hope that they would return to the Tweed River for many more hires to come!
Not only have we met a whole bunch of new, happy houseboaters, but we also welcomed Ocean Spirit – a new spa boat and Wavebreak into our fleet. After a 3hr cruise from the Gold Coast seaway to the Tweed -a journey not for the faint hearted. The weather was kind and the conditions could not have been any better!
Both boats safely cruised over the bar and have fit in perfectly among their sisters on the Tweed. It’s as if they’ve been here all along!
New Engines
Brand new Yamaha engines have been fitted to several of our houseboats – thanks to North Coast Yamaha for supplying the goods! Keeping our outboards reliable means a smooth driving experience for you.
Trackers
Trackers have now been installed across our entire fleet, including BBQ boats, to ensure your safety when navigating the river. We’re notified if you’ve made a wrong turn or heading towards a shallow area. So far this has been a positive change with less incidences with sandbanks!
New Slipway
June 2023 should be exciting with the proposing commissioning of the new travel lift facility replacing the old, outdated slipway.
A much more environmentally friendly way to carry out our out-of-water maintenance. We are very much looking forward to the opening of the new facility – though this will mean lots and lots of work for our team!
It’s been a busy year for our crew but we’re not slowing down just yet…we have some major upgrades in the works that we are excited to share with you in the coming months so watch this space!
Above all else…would you believe that our most popular item among our boating guest this year has been captain’s hats! Be sure to grab one before your next adventure!