Familiar faces at Ocean Pines Marina help boost customer service, profitability

The Ocean Pines Marina was among the first amenities built in Ocean Pines, opened in 1975 along with the original Yacht Club. 

Today, the marina is a dependable moneymaker for the Association, helping to boost the bottom line by more than $180,000 in each of the last six years.  

Dockmaster and Pennsylvania native Ron Fisher is the mastermind of the operation. The former executive director of the Peninsula Regional Medical Group in Salisbury, Fisher is known for developing benchmarks with other marinas to help set competitive fuel prices.  

But credit must also go to several long-time marina employees, who have been a model for consistency and great customer service over the years.  
 

Shift Manager Shirley Figgs 

Shirley Figgs grew up in Laurel, Delaware and still lives in the farmhouse she was born in. She remembers boating to Assateague with her dad at a young age, which helped foster a lifetime love of boating and being on the water.  

Figgs previously worked for DuPont and later managed restaurants and bartended in Florida. Her daughter, Teresa Travatello, was the public relations director in Ocean Pines for almost nine years and Figgs has now been a mainstay at the marina for 13 years.  

Each day, Figgs runs the register, ties up boats, handles scheduling, and keeps the office in good order. However, that office has undergone plenty of changes during her tenure.  

Before the new Yacht Club opened in 2014, marina staff worked out of a “shack” by the docks, Figgs said.  

“We had our own little business there – we weren’t associated with the Yacht Club at all,” she said. “But, now we’ve all become friends.”  

Figgs said marina business dropped off slightly in 2013, when the old Yacht Club was torn down and the new one was being built. Staff, at the time, often worked out of a temporary quarters.  

“We were having to take our money and walk all the way over to the [Mumford’s Landing] pool house,” she said. “There was no air conditioning, it was 100 degrees, and it was just exhausting.” 

She said former General Manager Bob Thompson brought in a construction trailer as a temporary workspace. When that went away, Figgs used the trunk of her old Ford Mercury as a makeshift office.   

It wasn’t until Fisher came on in 2016 that the marina staff finally got a permanent space.   

“When Ron came on board he asked, ‘Where’s all your stuff?’ And I said, ‘Some of it’s in the administration building and the rest is in my trunk,’” Figgs said with a laugh.   

Thanks to Fisher, the Association converted the extra bar area on the back corner of the new Yacht Club into the new marina office.   

“Ron said, ‘This isn’t going to work – we've got to work something out,’” Figgs said. “He fought for us, and finally we got to use this space.” 

Today, the marina is busy and bustling again, with an annual boat slip waitlist of around 70 names, and many new and returning customers visiting the fuel docks each day. But even during the leaner times, Figgs said she never thought about leaving.  

“I just like the people,” she said. “There’s not a mean person out there. They’re all happy boaters.” 

Among Figgs’ many customer service contributions, perhaps her most well-known are the dog biscuits she keeps at the marina for hungry pups to snack on. She stocks extras in that same Ford Mercury trunk, and it’s become a signature of the business. 

“I’ve got a 15-pound box of dog biscuits and they’re all lined up,” she said. She keeps certain treats in stock for regular customers, from the “teeny, teeny” ones to the larger dogs like labs and golden retrievers. 

“There’s a couple of dogs that jump right off the boats and come down the dock before the boat’s even tied up,” she said. “By the time I get in there with my paperwork, they’re just sitting in there and waiting. You can’t turn that down!” 

In return for her friendliness, Figgs said many boaters bring her already fileted fresh fish – a definite benefit of the job. 

“I’m in fish all year,” she said. “They filet it and bring it to me in a Ziploc bag. I don’t even have to leave the dock!” 

Figgs said business wasn’t much different last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The marina was profitable, and the only changes were some of the safety protocols. 

“We sold a lot of gas, and the numbers were great,” she said. “We just do really good business here.” 

She expects another strong season in 2021, with a lot of new boats already coming in. 

“Fifty percent of the boats I’ve seen [this year] are brand new,” she said, something she attributes to federal stimulus spending. “They weren’t cheap, but what are you going to do? You can’t go out to dinner, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, so let’s go out on a boat.” 

With all the new drivers, Figgs said the first week or so that the marina was open this year was interesting.  

“The wind was so bad, and they were still learning how to drive, so I went home a couple of nights and couldn’t walk the next day,” she said with a laugh. “But the people were happy.” 
 

Fuel Dock Attendant Mike Toth 

Originally from the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, Toth first moved to the area in 1999 when he bought a condo in Ocean City. He also lived in Marina Village and Wood Duck, in Ocean Pines. Two and a half years ago, he moved to Selbyville.  

Toth said the job in Ocean Pines came not long after he retired about 14 years ago.  

“I sat around the house for a couple of days and my wife said, ‘You need something to do!’” he said. 

Not long after, he went to the Ocean Pines administration building, filled out an application, and received a call the next day.  

Toth said the old Yacht Club “had a character of its own.” He said the marina had a shack with a weigh station and various items for sale, and the Yacht Club had a bigger swimming pool and an outdoor bar.  

“I liked it a lot, but I understand that it was in a state of disrepair and needed to be replaced,” he said.  

Now, with the new Yacht Club running a successful restaurant business, he said the marina can be “chaotic and entertaining at the same time,” averaging more than 100 boats at the fuel docks. On a hectic holiday weekend, he said the marina can see close to 500 boats over four days.  

“You’re hustling through the whole weekend. There will be a boat at either end [of the fuel dock], two out front, and six or eight just circling and waiting to come in,” he said, comparing it to a McDonald’s drive-through. 

“For a small operation, you’d be amazed at how much gas comes out of here,” he continued. “People are just coming in and out, all day. We’re running down here, but it makes the time go by.” 

During the summer, Toth said it’s not unusual to see boaters put almost $1,000 into their gas tanks.   

“It’s all relative – if you can afford the boat, you can afford the gas,” he said. “Once the season starts, you’ll see people come in and put in that kind of money, and they don’t blink an eye.” 

Like Figgs, he said the marina was virtually “pandemic proof,” with plenty of customers coming in last year despite all the restrictions.  

“We probably had a record-breaking year, plus we had good weather,” he said. “The price of our gas is right, it’s non-ethanol gas, and it’s easy to get in and out of here. People come down from Delaware, because that state doesn’t allow the sale of non-ethanol.” 

Toth said a noticeable effect of the pandemic was the increase of new boats and new boaters. However, he said because of that boom there’s now a shortage of new supply.  

“These boat dealers, they have no new boats to sell,” he said. “One dealer told me that they won’t be getting new boats in for a month – that's how far behind they are. But, at the marina, that just means we’re going to be busy and we’re going to sell a lot of gas.” 

Weather allowing, Toth expects another huge year at the Ocean Pines Marina.  

“We make a lot of money for the Association, and we’ll probably contribute about $200,000 [profit] year in and year out,” he said.  

As a retirement job, Toth said the fuel dock attendant position “is all I ever want to be.”  

“I just like meeting all the new people. That’s the nice thing about it – it’s new every day,” he said. “And it’s a killer view.”