Meet the dockmaster
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while, new customers at the Nantucket Boat Basin will approach Christina Martin ’93 and ask to speak to the dockmaster. In a calm tone perfected over three decades in the industry, she informs them that, actually, they already are.
“People are sometimes shocked,” she said. “They really want to talk to the ‘man in charge’ so they’re taken aback, but it’s appreciated by a lot of guests as well. It’s sad that we’re even discussing it, but it is the reality.”
Nationwide, only 10 percent of certified dockmasters are women, according to the Association of Marina Industries, which issues the certification. Martin has been one of them since 2015, when she took over the leadership role at the Boat Basin, a luxury marina in the heart of historic Nantucket Harbor. In the high season, she oversees the comings and goings of all types of boats, from high speed ferries to 250-foot luxury yachts, ensuring guest safety and satisfaction in one of the most sought-after vacation destinations in New England.
Martin’s first job at the Boat Basin was as a front desk supervisor the summer after her graduation from Boston College. She didn’t expect it to become a career, but she enjoyed the responsibilities and being on the water, and when she was offered a promotion to assistant dockmaster in the fall, she accepted.
“And then I literally never left,” she laughed. “I’ve never worked anywhere else.”
During the summer months, when the island’s population surges from 15,000 to more than 70,000, Martin starts her workday at 6:30 a.m. and often doesn’t make it home until dinner. The Boat Basin is Nantucket’s only transient marina, which means boaters come and go frequently. Each morning, Martin and her staff go over the list of arrivals and departures, making sure each vessel is assigned a slip that accommodates both its size and owner’s demands. Each of the marina’s 240 slips is slightly different, which can make for interesting math.
Christina Martin in her office at the Nanucket Boat Basin. In the winter months, she oversees a slew of construction projects to ready the marina for summer visitors.
“Every day is a game of tetris,” said Martin. “You want to fit the biggest boat that you can in the smallest slip and still be comfortable and safe, so that’s a fun challenge.”
At a full-service marina like the Boat Basin, docking a boat is the maritime equivalent of checking into a five-star hotel. Dock attendants greet each yacht with a welcome bag, help the captain or crew hook up to power and pump out waste, and ferry away trash and recycling that has accumulated on board. There’s high-speed wifi and slip-side cable television, mail delivery, and a concierge service to assist with restaurant reservations, fishing charters, or booking an on-board massage. At night, security guards patrol the docks.
Once her morning check-ins are complete, Martin spends a majority of her day “putting out fires,” whether it’s a guest who wants to stay an extra day or a boat that needs a mechanic. Sometimes, it’s arranging transportation assistance for the King of Spain, a guest one summer, or shooing paparazzi away from former Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s car. Although most A-listers gravitate to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket’s westerly neighbor, the Boat Basin has had its share of celebrity guests, including Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, former Secretary of State John Kerry, and actors Drew Berrymore and Neil Patrick Harris. Before his death last fall, musician Jimmy Buffett was an annual visitor. “He loved it here,” said Martin.
Running an operation like the Boat Basin requires high-level organizational, management, and planning skills, in addition to customer service chops. Dockage fees at the marina run as high as $15 per foot, and guests—many of them high-powered executives or CEOs—expect premium service. During especially challenging moments, Martin is grateful for her BC psychology degree, which helps her get at the root of a customer’s frustrations.
“If you can put yourself in their shoes, a lot of times you can get a quicker resolution and find out what they really need,” she said. “They had an idea in their head of what this was going to be, and it’s not for some reason, so how can we help them get to that?”
For the most part though, Martin finds boaters to be an enjoyable clientele, and has known the marina’s regular visitors for decades, even attending some of their children’s weddings. When she runs into guests at the annual Palm Beach Boat Show, it’s like catching up with old friends.
“Boaters enjoy life. They pay a lot of money for a boat. They pay a lot of money for the fuel. They pay a lot of money for the dockage, but they do it because they know that it's a great vacation for them, a great release, a great time to spend time with their family,” Martin said. “That's a fun person to be around.”