Marinalife announced the winners of its 10^th Anniversary Best Marina contest: Nantucket Boat Basin, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, for Best Transient Marina; and Haven Harbour Marina, in Rock Hall, Maryland, for Best Customer Service. Joy McPeters, president of Marinalife shares, “Our goal at Marinalife is to help the boating community connect and stay strong, and honoring these leaders in the marine industry is part of that effort.”

Marinalife’s inaugural poll of boaters reached out to a database of more than 8,600 marinas and customers, and allowed them to vote online this spring. Nantucket Boat Basin, a 240-slip, full-service marina located two blocks from the seaport Town of Nantucket, was voted Best Transient Marina.

“It’s all about hospitality – when I can make our guests happy and feel as if they can truly relax, I know they will return,” says George Bassett, Nantucket Boat Basin’s Director of Marina Operations for the last 25-years. His personalized touch, which includes a hand-written confirmation note and a “welcome bag” delivered to arriving boaters, has gained Nantucket Boat Basin (NBB) a loyal following. The marina boasts an impressive 85-percent return rate, and the staff keeps close track of customers’ names and slip preferences. “At NBB, you feel like you’re part of the family,” notes Stanley and Elizabeth Star, regular visitors to the marina. The facilities at NBB include 18 bathrooms and showers.  A full-time concierge service is also on-call to make restaurant reservations, tee times, and special arrangements such as clambakes on the beach.

Haven Harbour Marina, located in Rock Hall in the heart of Chesapeake Bay’s prime cruising ground, has just added Best Customer Service to its growing list of awards and accolades. “Our attention to detail and customer focus – from the grounds and slips to our expert service department – have helped us win this great honor from Marinalife’s members,” says General Manager Jonathon Jones. Haven Harbour’s full-time Customer Service Manager, Mark Bryden, focuses entirely on client satisfaction and happiness. The staff is well-versed on a 60-item customer service checklist that includes greeting their guests and maintaining the marina

“The facilities are excellent, well-maintained, and always clean,” says Rita Shade, a loyal Haven Harbour customer from Woodstown, New Jersey. “The staff is exceptional and always friendly. The marina goes out of its way to help.” Haven Harbour’s immaculate grounds, with gardens, waterfront gazebos, pools and more are just part of the draw. It’s the warm, professional attitude and first-class repair and maintenance that have attracted boat owners to Rock Hall. Haven Harbour will deliver boats and transport customers back to their home ports after service. “We go the extra mile to make our customers’ experience the best,” says Jones.

Our friends at fellow boating site, FirstBoat.com, today announced the list of the most popular boat names of the past year.  The list clearly includes some puns and fun.  A few oldies on the list, but our favorite is definitely number 5.

The top ten most popular boat names for 2008:

1. Happy Ours
2. Carpe Diem
3. Aqua – Holic
4. State of Mind
5. Anchor Management
6. The Office
7. Feelin’ Nauti
8. Yes Dear
9. Sundance
10. Serenity Now

Do you use Alltop?  It is a great site to get lots of info in one spot on your favorite topics.  The new Boating topic is a great resource and entertainment tool for all you boaters out there.  Alltop is a product of Guy Kawasaki and friends.  The clean, uncluttered site collects the stories of the top news websites and blogs for many topics and displays headlines of the five most recent stories.   If you scroll over a headline, you can see part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it.  There are many topics and they are adding topics daily.  We are usually aware of the new topics through Guy and Neenz on Twitter, but also have their RSS feed on our Google home page, so we don’t miss anything. Ask the Boater is proud to be on Alltop for Boating.