At an exclusive breakfast at the Derecktor shipyard, James Brewer,
Derecktor's director of sales and marketing, reported on the yard’s performance.

"The summer is a slow time that can traditionally make or break an
otherwise successful year. This year we experienced our busiest summer
in over a decade," began Brewer. "People ask me why that was, I always
explain that if I knew the answer to that question I would be much
richer than I am," he added. Brewer did however attribute the success
to a combination of long term and short term business, the life blood
of a shipyard.

"We are cautiously optimistic that this indicates a rebound
from the recession and a return to the refit market" continued Brewer.
The recession struck the US market particularly
hard and any optimism, cautious or not, is as refreshing as it is good to hear.

"The Florida yard has seen over 40 significant yacht projects over
the last 12 months," Brewer explained. The complexity of the projects
has ranged from "simple five and 10 year survey work to complete
refits. We have just started a major renovation that will likely turn
out to be one of the largest projects this city has ever seen."

Confidence at the yard is clearly high and the hope is that the worst of the
economic downturn has been weathered. Derecktor has
began hiring new employees, with Brewer anticipating more new jobs to be created over the coming
season.

Over the coming weeks Derecktor will be adding a new 200 tonne travel
lift that will augment the existing 900 tonne machine. Its addition is designed to free up capacity for the
existing 900 tonne lift to be used exclusively for large projects. "It provides
a more cost effective solution for vessels under 100 feet. It's not a
huge part of our market, but its certainly significant," Brewer
clarified.

In what was a humbling moment for all present, Brewer announced that
the new lift will be named after Gary Hays, an employee who sadly lost his life in 2015. "It will stand
as a lasting memorial to a man who contributed significantly to our
recent success," Brewer finished.

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