ABBRA Names Front Street 'Boatyard of the Year'

The American Boat Builders & Repairers Association (ABBRA) presents its 2013 Boatyard of the Year Award to Front Street Shipyard, Belfast, Maine.

The award was presented at Boatyard Business Conference Awards Dinner & 70th Anniversary Celebration held recently in Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida. It is one of ABBRA’s most prestigious Awards of Excellence, given to the service or repair facility that demonstrates excellence in all facets of their company.

“You would be hard pressed to find four more distinctive or distinctly different individuals than the four men who have pooled their particular skills, knowledge and passion to create Maine’s newest, most rapidly growing and impressive yachting facility – Front Street Shipyard,” said ABBRA President Pam Lendzion, in her award presentation remarks.

She added, “Ken Priest, Steve White, Taylor Allen and JB Turner shared a vision, saw an opportunity and turned that vision into a reality. They took a ramshackle collection of buildings, located on a tired waterfront that was begging for a new lease on life and turned it – seemingly overnight – into a modern, state of the art facility that has captured the hearts of those who work there, those who do business there and those who call the small Maine town of Belfast home.

JB Turner in accepting the Boatyard of the Year Award acknowledged not only his partners, but the Front Street Shipyard employees and the entire town for sharing the vision and helping make it a reality. Front Street Shipyard joins a distinguished group of boatyards such as Jarrett Bay Boatyard in North Carolina, Newport Shipyard in Rhode Island and KKMI in California that have received the ABBRA Boatyard of the Year honor.