Marina of the Year Award - Finalists Announced

Finalists in the MIAA Marina of the Year Awards have recently been judged. Club Marine is MIAA’s partner in the Awards.

The Awards recognise excellence in the provision of marina services, facilities and operations. Applicants are judged against a 10 point written submission and site visit. The judging criteria covered the marinas goals and objectives, marketing, customer service including evidence from customer feedback; environment and risk management, staff training, industry and community involvement and other accomplishments.

This year, a specific club marina awards category has been created in recognition of the specific charter and functions of club marinas. It was also decided by MIAA that should a marina win the award on two consecutive occasions it would not be eligible to enter the following awards contest.

The judging panel of seven commented on the closeness of the scoring, particularly in the Club Marina category. Greg Fisher, CEO of Club Marine, was on the judging panel for the first time. According to Greg, he found the process very thorough and was generally impressed by the marinas demonstrated management practices. “It was impossible not to be impressed by the finalists’ first-class presentations,” he said. “I’d like to encourage more marinas to participate in the future. More than anything else, these awards highlight the degree of professionalism required to successfully manage a first-rate marina.”

All the finalists were visited by long-standing marina businessman and developer Tom Chapman from South Australia. Tom also conducted the site visits for the last awards in 2009 and he found that the standard of the finalists was higher this time around. Tom was a strong advocate of having a specific club marina category and his site visits reinforced his belief that the club category will become increasingly competitive over time.

The Awards finalists are:

Club Marinas Category:
- Royal Motor Yacht Club Broken Bay (NSW)
- Royal Perth Yacht Club (WA)
- Sandringham Yacht Club (Victoria)

Commercial Marinas - 140 Boats & Over:
- Bundaberg Port Marina (Q’land)
- Cairns Marlin Marina (Q’land)
- Empire Marina Bobbin Head (NSW).

Commercial Marinas Under 140 Boats:
- Soldiers Point Marina Port Stephens (NSW)

The winners in each category will be announced at the Awards Presentation Dinner to be held on 21 June 2011 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in conjunction with Marinas 2011, MIAA’s international conference and trade exhibition for the marina industries.