Boats are an integral part of Chicago's history. The Chicago River and Lake Michigan are icons of the city’s geography, and boats have been coming in and out of Chicago’s harbors ever since the days when the river was the fastest way to travel.

But while Chicago has a harbor capacity of 8,000 boat slips today, 3,000 of those are currently unoccupied. And while there is a vibrant community of boating enthusiasts living in and around Chicago, there are currently no boat sellers in the city to serve their boat purchasing needs.

At Chicago Yacht Yard, we want to fill this void—and those unoccupied boat slips—by expanding our already thriving boat repair and storage business to include new and used boat sales.

Chicago Yacht Yard is already committed to providing top-of-the-line service in boat repair and winter storage. Our unmatched reputation as the closest, cleanest, and most efficient storage and service facility in the Chicago area makes expanding into boat sales a natural next step, both to expand our business and to better serve our clientele.

Adding new and used boat sales to our services will make us a “one-stop shop” for boat owners: customers who buy boats from us will be able to bring their boats back for repair and storage, building lasting relationships with us, our facility and our personnel.

Much of the infrastructure we need to complete this exciting step is already in place: the space, the expertise, the customer and manufacturer relationships. All we need to become Chicago’s go-to boat seller is the capital to start acquiring boats to sell.

Our confidence that we can successfully make the leap into boat sales comes from the fact that we already have the most important elements in place.

Our General Manager and Service Director alone total more than 65 years of experience in the boating business.

Since Rob Hannah became President 2.5 years ago, Chicago Yacht Yard has enjoyed sold-out winter storage, and service department revenues have increased from $250,000 per year to over $1 million per year.

Our existing service and storage services give us a built-in customer base of more than 450 wealthy boat owners, and there are roughly 5,000 boaters in Chicago without a local boat seller to buy from.

We recently became a registered dealer for Fairline Boats, Ltd. from Great Britain ($500K-$4.5 million pricepoint), and Comitti Boats from Italy ($150K-$500K pricepoint). We have also already signed numerous listing agreements for used boats with our existing storage customers, and we have several exciting opportunities to acquire additional boats at very attractive pricing.

Chicago Yacht Yard’s stellar reputation in the Chicago-area boating community traces back to three key factors: our history, our facilities, and our location. These same factors will give us an unparalleled edge in boat selling as well.

Thanks to our established storage and repair services, we are already well-known throughout the Chicago area for reliability, efficiency, cleanliness and customer service. That track record will only help us as we expand into this new venture.

With 10 acres of land and 300,000 square feet of heated indoor service and storage space, we already have the space for showrooms, and the resources to repair and renovate used boats for sale.

Our waterfront access is unrivaled by other service and storage providers, and makes transitioning into boat sales that much simpler, as proud new boat owners can slip their purchases right into the water.

Like the city itself, Chicago Yacht Yard has a rich history in the marine business. During World War II our facility produced parts for US Navy submarines, which then traveled from our facility down the Chicago River to Navy Pier. Our facility also served as the world’s largest Chris-Craft dealer for a time, and has remained a service and storage facility throughout its more than eighty-year-long history.

With his successful background in company management, Rob Hannah saw an unpolished gem in Chicago Yacht Yard, with a location, history and personnel that set it miles above its peers. The addition of boat sales to our repertoire of services will help us to continue the upward trajectory we have established under Rob's management, and better meet the needs of our customers, both old and new.

Oversees operations at Chicago Yacht Yard, as well as business and strategic planning. Rob has a diverse and successful business background. Educated as an architect, he spent years as a bond trader on and off the trading floor, and then migrated to real estate where he designed, built and developed both residential and commercial projects. Rob created a unique legal ownership structure for real estate investors in the mid 1990s, and later served on a US Treasury Department task force that established this new ownership structure as an approved solution, escalating Rob’s idea into a multi-billion-dollar nationwide industry. Rob has always had a love for boating and holds certifications for both powerboats and sailboats. He was an active racer of large sailboats for many years and is now an active power boater.

Oversees day-to-day operations, sales and customer support at Chicago Yacht Yard. Earl is renowned in the boat industry, and well-known to all boaters in Chicago, with over 35 years of powerboat business experience. Earl once manufactured his own “go fast” power boats, and later acted as  the first Midwest dealer for brands including Cigarette, Donzi and Magnum. In the 1980s Earl brought Cougar boats to the U.S. and has been actively involved in boat sales throughout his career.

Manages the service and parts departments at Chicago Yacht Yard. Bob has over 30 years in the boat industry. After serving as a Navy pilot in Vietnam, Bob became a commercial airline pilot after the war, bought his first boat… and the rest is history. Bob has held senior management positions with several large Midwest marine dealers including Skipper Bud’s and Jefferson Beach Yacht Sales.