SAUSALITO – Bay and Delta Yacht Charters recently is expanding its existing charter fleet with 250- and 600-passenger yachts.
The $7 million expansion plans come with an increasing demand for luxury dinner cruises on the San Francisco Bay, owner and founder Gerry Robertson said.
“When people approach us with larger groups I’m forced to hand them off to my competition,” said Mr. Robertson, whose largest vessel, the Empress, is limited to 149 passengers. “Ultimately we don’t want to have to do that anymore.”
While technically Mr. Robertson competes with other charter yacht companies like San Francisco’s Hornblower Cruises & Events, Signature Hospitality Group and Alameda’s Commodore Cruises & Events, Bay and Delta seeks out the higher-end market with $150-a-head dinner cruises for weddings, private parties and corporate events.
With a current fleet of two ships – the 49-passenger Avalon and the 149-passenger Empress – Bay and Delta launches 400 cruises and 2,800 passengers every year. And since he founded the company with a rubber-sided Zodiac raft in 1991, Mr. Robertson has grown Bay and Delta’s gross annual revenue to $1 million.
Mr. Robertson plans to purchase the new 250-passenger yacht, to be named Empress of San Francisco, by early March of next year. He is in the process of designing his 600-passenger entertainment yacht to be ready within two years. The vessel will be built around a large rotating stage for floating blues concerts and VIP parties. His company has allotted $1 million and $6 million for the purchases.
Meanwhile, Mr. Robertson is outfitting his Sausalito fuel dock, equipped with a 1,000-gallon tank, to handle biodiesel fuel. He plans to introduce a mix called B20 with his existing fleet that contains 20 parts biodiesel fuel to 80 parts regular diesel. He will up that ratio to 50/50 within two years, he said. Both new ships will run entirely on biodiesel, he said.
Mr. Robertson has calculated that the addition of the 250-passenger Empress of San Francisco in March will enable his company to see an additional $1 million in annual revenue, while he has yet to calculate the amount potentially generated by the 600-passenger yacht.
“The sky is the limit,” he said.
Source: by Dorsey Kindler, North Bay Business Journal, Link to original article
