With July 4^th less than a week away, plans and schedules start to take shape. Maybe it’s the traditional family gathering at a park or the waterfront, or perhaps a last minute decision based on which cookout will have the better dogs and beer. Either way, we’d like to know what’s going on out there and maybe we’ll see you around at the festivities!

Feel free to comment below.

-Guy

If you look at numbers alone, the 27th Annual LCI Father’s Day Fishing Derby was very successful this year, up in revenue with no fee increases and reeling in 5, 261 anglers from 26 states.

But step away from the official statistics, numbers and business dealings, and you will realize that this derby’s success comes in many different shapes and sizes.

It comes in the form of cheers and high fives between buddies when weighing in the leading smallie for the day. You see it when a group of tired and waterlogged anglers huddle into the supplies shop at Hero’s Welcome, raffle tickets in hand and sharing laughs and “ooh’s and ah’s” at the raffle drawing. It is found in the excitement of every dad who, no matter a half pound perch or a sixteen pound catfish, knows he is already a winner because he spent the day with his son or daughter fishing and getting away from everything else that keeps him busy before and after the derby.

While volunteering at the LCI Derby this year, I realized exactly what fishing does outside of winning you a prize or dubbing you with the title of largest fish or the winning team. When you cut through all the hard work and planning done by James Ehlers, Chris Baker and the LCI staff…all the scurrying around from check point to check point by volunteers and sponsors…the countless measurements and registrations performed by the weigh station captains and workers…when all that is over, you see that the true accomplishment of this derby is its ability to take the activity we all do season after season, and use it to promote the sense of community and “celebrate family, friends and fishing”.

Regards,

Guy

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts and experiences with this year’s derby.

To read more about Burlington Boatyard’s experience as volunteers, read Jimmy’s write up in BBY News.

Guy here, saying howdy on behalf of the crew at Burlington Boatyard. We have recently returned after undergoing a long overhaul process that allows us to operate on a whole new level, increasing our ability to serve the Vermont marine community both in the scope and quality of our services.
 
BurlingtonBoatyard.com was originally founded in 2004, resulting from an idea had by our own Jason Meyersburg while he was attending UVM as an undergrad business student. In 2005, when Jimmy and I came on board, the concept was spread a bit further throughout the Champlain Valley area, and we saw continued support and interest from those we came in contact with during the season, as well as year round. After graduating from UVM in ‘06, the time came where we had to ask ourselves about the site’s “next steps”, and what would need to be done for us to accomplish our goal of being the most affordable, personal and reliable small business in this line of service.
 
The answer we arrived at charted a course for us that posed many achievable, yet significant, challenges along the way.
 
The upgrading of the website and creation of new services and features required over 10 months of hard work, as well as an expansion of the management team. We brought aboard Nick Cifuentes, an accomplished web designer and technology expert, to completely remake the site to impressive lengths and at industry leading standards. James MacKay, a life long friend and boater, was offered to lead all marketing and sales related aspects of the business to ensure high quality customer service and exceptional business to business relations so that we could give back to the community through our positive presence within it.
 
So now, with all of these new developments underway, it became evident that we were forming a true business from the ground up. In response to this, we knew the best practice would be to form an LLC to officially operate as a Vermont small business and ensure that all of our actions and intentions were “by the book” to not only protect us, but our customers as well. We all took part in understanding everything from the fundamentals of starting up straight through to the unique and fun aspects found within BBY’s structure, mission and objective.
 
While choosing to do the majority of this process on our own, we were extremely fortunate to have the guidance of knowledgeable people who went above and beyond to help us whenever we needed it. Jennifer Aines, from the Vermont Secretary of State office, would always be available for any questions we had regarding LLC law and filing specific state forms for operation. Terry Edwards, from the Vermont Tax Department, spent many hours on the phone reviewing and teaching us the specifics of the tax implications that come along with starting a business in the state. Ed Sherman, a long time family friend and accountant, is always providing insight and explanations of necessary business accounting methods which has been invaluable to us being in check with all rules and regulations regarding that area. Jay D’Avolio, an attorney and James’ brother-in-law, never says no to sitting down for who knows how long to help in the researching and drafting of contracts and the different legal issues that we were presented with.
 
To those mentioned above-thank you for all your valuable contributions to BBY.  
 
So, that is a little expansion on the “About Us” aspect of Burlington Boatyard but at the same time, just a brief snapshot of all that’s been going on with us up to this point. We hope you enjoy using BBY as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it-and believe me, it’s been a boatload of fun with much more to come.  
 
Check back frequently with BBY News and sign up for our newsletter to read the latest boating and fishing news, and to get your opinion out there to let us know what you think.  
 
We’re excited to be back and we look forward to working together with you all to keep Vermont boaters and anglers in touch online and on the water.
 
Here’s to a great summer and happy boating!
 
Regards,
 
Guy
 

Podcast Link

It has been a long process the past few months — and if this is your first visit to Burlington Boatyard, or possibly the first visit to our NEW site — we are very excited about some of the new features and plans we have for you!

Take a look around, share with us your thoughts….

Simply put, we are here to provide you with an outstanding service that can’t be beat!  Our website allows you to take part in the boating community in Vermont, and list and seek out new and used boats throughout the area.  We are growing very quickly, and will be bringing you all the exciting news as things develop!

Thanks again for being part of our vision.